Hey guys, just want to check in here and see if there is anything that I missed or didn't fully think through, etc. on this build for my grandma.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/vf4Ryf
She doesn't need a ton of horsepower, but more than anything I really want this thing to be bomb proof, hence the nicer PSU, and the RAID setup. Which leads me to the first actual question:
Am I asking for trouble using a cheap RAID card like that?
If this was mission critical for safe data, I obviously wouldn't use that card, I'd use something more robust. But trying to keep the price around 400ish that gets kinda difficult. I'm definitely open to used hardware off of ebay, etc. and I've done that before with great success. Realistically, I'm just looking for at least some kind of safety net in case of the main drive failing, will that be ok?
The reason for all this is in the past she has had 3 computers die because of bad PSU, as well as 2 HDD fail causing her to lose a lot of pictures, which really upsets her. I'm also planning on setting this up to back itself up once a week, and I'm going to show her how to use google drive to store pictures and all that, so again the RAID setup doesnt have to be bomb proof.
Suggestions? Comments? Any advice is appreciated
Looks good but i wouldn't bother with raid at all, ditch the spinning rust and get a 500gb ssd.
Is she really going to save things to those drives?
A better back up solution would be a protable drive w/ some auto utility.
I was thinking about that. Honestly I was already on the fence about the RAID situation, So a 500gb SSD seems like a good option, especially with an external. I had talked about doing that but I hadn't recently considered it.
It's the route i went with my mother's pc but i showed her how to do the backups manually.
iPad.
This is the single best thing I've done for my parents. They both have iPad Air 2 right now. No more screwed up infected crap.
They also use them a ton and are way more competent on them in a shorter amount of time.
Your grandmother isn't going to want all that stuff.
Just get her a laptop with a SSD. Get an external USB drive for backup (more than 2x the size of the laptop SSD), and setup Windows to backup to the drive
Laptops are pretty cheap these days. Skip the big bulky system.
BOMB PROOF? RAID? HAHAHAHA what the fuck is wrong with you.
Get a magical 500 gig ssd and call it good.
I actually like the idea of spinning rust raid......
Please don't shoot me.
It may not be the PSU, it may be her electric utility.
I had several good quality PSUs fail on my parents machine, until I got them a UPS. Problem solved!
@willrun4fun She's had a tablet before and hated the whole experience. She said she'd never go back
@NetBandit she already has a laptop, but again she's more comfortable with a desktop and even if I were to get her a laptop that could doc or connect it up like a desktop this would likely cause more problems than it would solve. Beyond that It's nice to be able to replace components if anything should fail.
@FaunCB The bomb proof was more in reference to that I would like it to run well and stable, not have a motherboard or psu failure, etc. I know RAID has a whole slew of issues, I know better options exist like ZFS, again I was just trying to add another safety net, not prevent data from ever being lost.
@BarkingMad You may not be wrong. This is something that my dad and I have thought about, she lives in an older house and we think that it may have been lightning that fried the last 2 PCs. I'll talk it through with my dad and see what he thinks.
What I did for my Grandma is I bought an Intel Nuc i3 with a 6300U CPU, a 250Gb SSD and 8Gb of RAM. Then I hooked it all up to a UPS because power here is never reliable. Overall It's near silent, uses next to no power and she can occasionally plug in some USB sticks too or her external which then runs an autobackup script. She takes a good bit of photos, but is VERY rigorous in sorting and removing all the redundant ones so not using much disk space.
Pretty much Job done at that point and I expect this thing to last way longer than a mATX case with tons of holes & fans to ingest dust particularly since it's got no heavy power requirements and no moving parts, And If she ever has an issue with it's as simple as picking up the box and taking it along for any fancy fixes.
Just get her a nice tablet or a net book, what would your grandma need a bomb proof RAID setup for? :D
I would check her usage. I wouldn't go with 1TB of storage if its going to be 85% wasted. I just set up a desktop at my grandparents today. It was mostly a hand me down but I went with the APU route from AMD. I gave a 7800K but it was overkill, like a 7600 I think would do nice. Just my thoughts.
@The_Drugs
Other than the nuc, you can try the beebox @wendell reviewed just make sure to look for a newer one as the one wendell reviewed is now $250
mac mini. Everyone forgets the freakin mac mini.
Full desktop. You can find a nice one on ebay or craigslist for peanuts, and its basically plug and play.
No diy, no mess of cables, no nothing. You can literally duct tape it behind the monitor and never think about it ever again.
shots fired...
But seriously though hard drive raid is icce... ice baby
Lol