System for 80 yr old mother

[Skysails]

I'm trying to build a bargain basement system for my 80 year old mother. She's going to be using Win98 SE (don't want to change). Any suggestions on a very low cost MB that would use the 17 AMD chip? Looking for primarily for MB and CPU.

Argh, should have ordered last week. Doggoned holidays have upped the prices. Grrr.

Thanks for reading this.

Skysails

 

[EKAtBzboyz]

17amd chip?
you mean 1700+?

ifyou are looking for something cheap, ecs k7s5a is a good board
either that or look at nforce 1 boards

maybe have a look at the shuttle pc's, they are really small and have pretty much everything onboard

 

[Skysails]

thanks. Think I saw that mentioned in another post, (not sure which board), earlier today. I went to the site and found the price had trebbled. Grrr.

1700 MHZ. Would not mind a refurb or MB/CPU combo. Will check pricewatch to see what they have on the MB you suggested.

 

[Adul]

Originally posted by: Skysails
thanks. Think I saw that mentioned in another post, (not sure which board), earlier today. I went to the site and found the price had trebbled. Grrr.

1700 MHZ. Would not mind a refurb or MB/CPU combo. Will check pricewatch to see what they have on the MB you suggested.

gow ith something well built and reliable.

the asus nforce 220 MB goes for 70 bucks on newegg. has everything you need onbaord, just pop in 256 MB of ddr and you are set to go.

or look at ASUS ASROCK MB. definitely something better then ecs...

 

[Skysails]

Thanks, checking on this as well. Do you think more than 128 pc133 is needed? She rarely has more than one, two programs as most open at once. She's primarily into email, shopping and sending electronic cards but gets a big 'bang' out of 'staying' young!

I'm checkin out the asus on priceline and egghead now. I do want something with sound and video. Recommendations sure help.

Thanks for your time.
Skysails

 

[EKAtBzboyz]

128mb pc133 should be enough

 

[Daovonnaex]

A Duron 1.3GHz is only $32. An AMD 750 chipset mainboard can cost you about $20 these days. SDRAM is very cheap. You do the math.

 

[OulOat]

I doubt your 80 yr old mom is going to be playing the latest games, so a duron should work fine for her. Otherwise, I would definately recommend the ECS K7S5A, best value for its price. Screw asus, they charge too much for a marginally better board.

 

[PointlesS]

imo I'd get a cheap nforce board with intergrated everything...I personally have the ecs board and I don't like it too much...

 

[Jhhnn]

Grandma won't be suffering a bit with a 1200 Duron, 128megs pc100 or pc133, integrated everything on a Nforce 220 or Via KM133 board.

I built a box for my mother just that way ( msi microboard) a few months back- she thinks she's riding the space shuttle. I went for the KM board because of the price, and the fact that I already had the memory. It's more than adequate for her purposes, even with the added overhead of WinXP.

Gamers and power users can easily overbuild for the average user, it's just a waste of money to get carried away.....

 

[clumsum]

Last year I upgraded my (87-year's young) Aunt's pc to a 1.2G Athlon DDR 256MB system ....... and changed her from Win98SE to Win2Kpro ........ to give her pc system more stability and provide her yet another os challenge ....... so far she loves it.
I loaded the Win2kpro Interactive program along with the os ......... to help her get started.

 

[everman]

I think win xp or 2k would be better for stability. Have it as the "classic" style and I doubt she'd even really notice it is different from 98 besides not crashing.

 

[azkiwi]

Have you considered a lappy? Don't know how into computing your mum is, but my dad was very grumpy about the whole new fangled thing! Got her a used lappy that tucks neatly away and doesn't bother him when not in use - no furniture rearrangement required! Very easy for her to tote over to another family member or service center when she has the inevitable 98SE BSOD or other calamity.

Since she has no use for big computing power it was just a matter of finding her a nice screen and pointing device.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: everman
I think win xp or 2k would be better for stability. Have it as the "classic" style and I doubt she'd even really notice it is different from 98 besides not crashing.

XP Home upgrade(have your WinMe or 98 CD handy..) and

Via KM133

..nice ..Biostar M7VIG ..is nicer..
mwave

 

[skriefal]

Have you considered a complete "budget" system such as the following: 800MHz PC w/Windows XP for $299. The same system is available with Linux instead of Windows for $100 less. Then you can use the money saved to buy a nice, big 19" monitor which might be able to run 800x600 large enough to be useable to your mother.

 

[Jeff7]

I personally don't use less than 256MB anymore. If she's going to have background utilities running (antivirus software especially), the system will eat up the 128MB real fast. My sister's Win98SE system has Motherboard monitor, SETI@Home, and NAV running; it uses up about 110MB when freshly booted; it's got a total of 192MB of RAM in it now. Memory's pretty cheap these days anyway; you might be able to get a stick of 256MB PC133 for $20 in the FS/T forum.

Grandma won't be suffering a bit with a 1200 Duron, 128megs pc100 or pc133, integrated everything on a Nforce 220 or Via KM133 board.

Yeah, that should be fine. Heck, even a slower speed Duron or T-bird should do fine. I do still think that more memory would be good; it'll ensure that she'll never have to endure constant swapfile usage.

Do make sure though that she has antivirus software running; Norton Systemworks can be had for less than $10 these days on eBay or the FS/T forum. Make sure she keeps it up to date. I had to clean 3 viruses off of someone's system because they had never updated their antivirus software. Those things had free reign over the entire system, busily sending themselves out.

 

[StattlichPassat]

Originally posted by: Daovonnaex
A Duron 1.3GHz is only $32. An AMD 750 chipset mainboard can cost you about $20 these days. SDRAM is very cheap. You do the math.

<thumbs up>

 

[Deskstar]

Dude, are you getting her a Dell?

 

[Skysails]

Thanks so much for all your suggestions. I'm sure they will help me get more for less...... within limits of course.

And as for a Dell? Ahhh, no. Thanks anyhow

Skysails

 

[Slogun]

I got a good laugh outta this thread.

If I am going to keep some semblance of sanity, I cannot even begin to fathom getting a computer for my 74 year old mother.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: Slogun
I got a good laugh outta this thread.

If I am going to keep some semblance of sanity, I cannot even begin to fathom getting a computer for my 74 year old mother.

My 69-year-old dad has played through Doom 1 & 2, Wolf, and Blake Stone. My 65-year-old mom has played through those and also Hexen, Heretic 1 & 2, Duke 3D, Quake 1 & 2, Unreal, and some solo Unreal Tournament. So don't assume the geezer crowd can't learn to use a PC

 

[Skysails]

Just so you know, I am ordering a Biostar MB with sound and audio on board, a 1700 AMD cpu with fan, tested,... with new case the total comes to $157...... which I don't think is too bad. She's is getting a 17" monitor gratis and the other needed parts have been canibalized. I'm going to give it to her before Christmas with a Blue Mountain subscription so she can send electronic cards out for the holidays!

My mother had a serious stroke 8 months ago and although she has made a remarkable comeback she is more isolated. Having a computer helps take up some of the slack. Wish all older adults were online.

Hugs to y'all,
Skysails

 

[smp]

Nforce
Duron
128

 

[kgraeme]

Originally posted by: Skysails
Just so you know, I am ordering a Biostar MB with sound and audio on board, a 1700 AMD cpu with fan, tested,... with new case the total comes to $157...... which I don't think is too bad. She's is getting a 17" monitor gratis and the other needed parts have been canibalized. I'm going to give it to her before Christmas with a Blue Mountain subscription so she can send electronic cards out for the holidays!

My mother had a serious stroke 8 months ago and although she has made a remarkable comeback she is more isolated. Having a computer helps take up some of the slack. Wish all older adults were online.

Hugs to y'all,
Skysails

Congrats. Hope it work out well.

By the way, for those suggesting a nForce solution, they obviously haven't had to support them with Win98. I love nForce, but not with Win98.

 

[Jhhnn]

Seems perfectly reasonable to me, and I hope that it helps her stay connected with friends, family, politics, commerce- whatever she wants.

Some seniors are surprising in their technophilia. My mother is 72, it's a trip seeing just how proficient she really is with stuff she uses, like Word, punching out that church newsletter or whatever. She started out doing keypunch at the local college when I was in my 20's, made supervisor, then moved to the lottery where she ran the customer service dept., smoothing out that operator/ lotto ticket machine interface. She's actually been involved with computers longer than most Anandtechers have been alive.....

Nice nick, Skysails, I like it.....