Need help part pickin'

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1

PCPartPicker:

        http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3FejR

 

Building a rig for my grandma, and wanting most parts (preferably all) from Amazon.

She is currently on an old compaq, about 10 years old and she said its running "slow."

I couldn't find a virus and its not too dirty, both dust wise, and storage/desktop/bloatware.

I want to build her a new system that may last 12 to 15 years (optimistic, i know) for word processing, tax software (TurboTax, Quickbooks, etc.) and web browsing. Those are her current uses.

My parts list shows that I want her to have about a $400 rig, with quality parts. I/She doesn't care about current model year.

Any advice in terms of parts/better deal would be appreciated.

Thanks all

2

If she isn't into downloading and media storage, I'd rather just get a 128 GB SSD instead of 1 TB HDD. It will make the system a lot more snappier and fast.

3

Here are some builds, both will be cheaper if don't get the aftermarket heatsink but the aftermarket should be better than stock one. Also smaller form factor

With SSD:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3FlGc

With HDD:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3FlEn

4

How's this? http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=22271871

5

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3Fo4j

roughly 400 

i5/ 8gb ddr3 / 1tb hdd/

lots of upgradeability down the road for ssd's etc.

6

If your building this for your grandma I think she would like it if you picked a cleaner looking case 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811345031

unless your grandma is into scorpions and amd of course 

7

you're forgetting the os as well which will need to be windows 8.1 because you aren't going to able to use 7 in 15 years

8

I know about needing the os, and didn't include that in the list because I have a few ways of getting that (not alluding to piracy).

9

15 year life span for a PC is beyond optimistic. lol. That being said, CPU improvements have reached somewhat of a plateau in recent years/months. 

Here's my suggestion: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3FAp0

More than adequate quad-core APU, small package, all for less than $300. Everything she would need, nothing more, nothing less. This would last at least 5 years, given it's intended use and the upgrade-ability of the new AM1 platform. 

10

Linux.

11

that won't work out well for a grand ma

12

Of course It can last 10-15 years. All she needs it for word and internet and that tax program that won't be intensivel, get an apu A8 or so, 8GB of ram, bit fenix prodigy case or cooler master 130 elite case and a 128GB SSD and that'll be perfect

13

a prodigy would look a bit too childish and not very sleek. 

14

When he said 15 years was optimistic, I think he was talking about his Grandma........................

15

Go look at PCs from 15 years ago. Sure some are still running but they are now so slow and incompatible with even the most basic programs that it would be terribly impractical to use. 

I agree with you that an APU and 120GB SSD would be the right choice. It's debatable if 8GB ram is needed at this time for basic use, perhaps in a year or two. (That's why I chose 1 stick of ram for my build, easy to upgrade later on). As for the case, small and simple is what I was thinking. the prodigy is a bit flashy and pricey for the intended use. But you never know, the OP's grandma might like the styling. ;)

16

She's running it just fine, looks and acts no different then any other OS and 90% of what she does is in either Firefox or Thunderbird. The other 10 % is her writing things up in LibreOffice to print for her church group.

Even her 10 year old printer works perfectly "out of the box" even in Ubuntu 14.04 and has for the last 7 years on Linux just as it did on her ancient G3 iMac that the Linux box replaced.

Just replaced her whole setup due to her old AthlonXP box finally giving up the ghost. I replaced it with http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=32867148 all of which "Just WorksTM" right out of the box.

She's never seen the command line and never will.