[SGVLUG] Shopping for computer for father-in-law...

[DYN: Jim Workman]

I haven't noticed what applications he uses.  We recently replaced my
mother's mini-tower with a $300 15.6" Intel laptop.  She only uses
email, Web, and Skype.  Photoshop or heavy-duty spreadsheet might
require a more powerful setup.  (Office Depot Lenovo for $329 now.)

 

Future-proof:  $14.99 for upgrade to Windows 8.  USB-3? Blu-ray
player/burner? 

 

Then give him a Kindle-clone with SD card for Christmas;-)

 

Jim 

 

________________________________

From: sgvlug-bounces at sgvlug.net [mailto:sgvlug-bounces at sgvlug.net] On
Behalf Of Rami Al-Ghanmi
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 11:34 PM
To: SGVLUG Discussion List.
Subject: Re: [SGVLUG] Shopping for computer for father-in-law...

 

As the resident family support-team, I found that after a sit-down with
most of my elderly relatives, an iPad with an external keyboard is more
that they need. Specially if you couple that with a printer that is
compatible with iPhone/iPad printing.

 

Although it does not seem "future proof", if internet, email, photo
sharing and ebooks is 90% of their use, an iPad is more that when they
need.

 

On the topic of Dell's, I found them to be the least future proof
machines you can get. Custom case, custom mobo and you can hardly fit
anything extra in it. I, personally, think that future proofing a
machine does not necessarily mean getting a better processor, but
definitely means getting a better graphics card. If you are willing to
build a machine, Toms Hardware $500 monthly gaming rig is a good place
to start.

 

Rami

 

On Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 11:22 PM, Dan Buthusiem
<dan.buthusiem at gmail.com> wrote:

Future-proof to me is a frame of mind. I know someone whose mother still
uses a P4. She only uses it for email and web browsing. Could she do
with a new PC? Sure, but she doesn't really need one; the P4 does
everything she needs. Same with my Celeron 430. Does all the small home
server stuff I need it to, and it's power efficient enough. 

If you want something you're not going to have to play with much, I'd go
for an i3 from a major vendor, max the RAM, get a service contract so
that any failed components get replaced without too much drama and
shopping around for something compatible, then setup an automatic backup
solution like Ghost to take care of any, "I don't know why it stopped
working," and, "What do you mean the hard disk crashed? I can still get
my pictures, right?" kind of stuff. 

On Aug 13, 2012 10:30 PM, "Dan Kegel" <dank at kegel.com> wrote:

Goal: reasonably future-proof system for under $500 without monitor.

There are plenty of crappy expensive systems out there
(e.g. Celerons, Pentiums, A8's, ...).  I'm looking for an
i3 or i5 that's a little future-proof.

I'd consider a Chromebox, though they don't have i3 or i5 versions yet
as far as I can tell.

http://www.logicbuy.com/categorydeals/computers/desktops seems like
it points to a few good deals (e.g. at the moment it points
out that you can get a Dell Inspiron 620 MT with an i5-2320,
6GB RAM, and 1TB hard drive for $499... but Dell's own
site kinds of finds that deal for you, too.

http://www.logicbuy.com/categorydeals/computers/desktops points
to an i7 for $600 (a bit over his budget).

Looks like Dell pushes the i3-2120 and the i5-2320;
the former is a 2 core, the latter has twice the cores as well
as twice the L1, L2, and L3 cache, and is about 1.5 times the
throughput on some benchmarks.

Any reason to not just point him at the cheapest i5 dell?

 

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