PC for parents ?

iMax

I need to get a new PC for my parents...

Suggestions on the best place to go ?

All they need is basic office & internet/email functions, but they're tired of having what they percieve as "slow" systems.

Dinner

iMax wrote:

I need to get a new PC for my parents...

Suggestions on the best place to go ?

All they need is basic office & internet/email functions, but they're tired of having what they percieve as "slow" systems.

Unless your up to building it yourself, then probably a fairly basic Dell would see them grand.

Einstein

i agree with Arabel.
Unless they need specific funtions, an online dell weekly special will do all they need for about €650!

Syth

A Mac Mini.

I'm no mac fanboy (Never owned a mac), but it has many advatages over a Windows machine. It'd be about the same price as a low spec Dell, and you have the advantages of no viruses and a damn slick user interface.

iMax

Thanks guys, Wa thinking dell would be the way to go.

I would have gone mac (if only to stop my dad installing stuff), but they've been using PCs for so long I think it would be hard for them to change to "new" technology at this stage

Rollo Tamasi

i have the same problem with my pops! He keeps installing ever piece of crap software thats out there on his computer and then wonders why his machine runs slow!!

TerrorFirmer

Get them a cheap second hand system.

If you parents are like mine, which they probably are, in that they use it for the odd scan, rare net browsing and occassional writing and printing, a second hand 1.8ghz would cost about 150 and would do them more then adequate.

In fact, I suspect a 600mhz machine would be more then enough, but that might offend them.

I really dont think its worth paying for a new dell pc, no matter how low spec it is. Go second hand, give it a look over yourself and bang it out to them.

SouperComputer

ive been running from an athlon 800Mhz here for a while and it runs sweet.

In terms of "slow" machines:

Get a machine around 800Mhz/256MB
Use windows 2000, and disable the menu animation and use the menushowdelay regisrty hack.

This with a decent HD will provide ample performance.


If you want cheap and cheerfull, but new, and you want to provide support then Dell might be worth a look, espcially at the outlet.

Mac mini is a good idea, everybody I have met who has made the switch has been very happy. This is from a pretty big molting pot of people too. OS X is very intuitive and has lots of built in help for windows users.

DemonOfTheFall

Get them a cheap dell from some special offer, and then enjoy months of removing spyware, viruses, adware, diallers and pop ups.

Or get them some cheap mac. Havent used a mac much but they seem to be miles ahead of windows machines for usability with less technical people

pickarooney

Or get a half-decent machine with a clean install, ghost it and show your dad how to 'fix' the PC when it goes slow. I doubt he'd be happy having what he'd probably see as a crippled system. If he enjoys messing about, it's best to just show him how to fix the mess he makes - it's one of the best ways to learn about computers.

Hobbes

Tesco do a reasonably good machine with printer and computer desk for about 700 euros.

Or if you want to go with something else I recommend a mac.

Sparky

get them a mac mini, but dont build a pc for them, like myself (just parts lying around) or else you will be offering them support for life.

Like posted above ive heard good comments about the new mac mini, and since its new to your parents they will love it too and its a simple GUI aswell

gamer

get pc with win xp ,at least 512meg ddr memory,u need firewall .antivirus and spybot search and destroy ,anti spyware,win xp really needs 512 even if u just use it for browsing in my experience,get pc with dvd writer installed .at least 1.5 gigahertz processor.

Dinner

A good deal can be had on the Dell outlet store if your lucky enough too.

chump

don't get a pc with XP on it with 256ram... It's painful, minimum 512mb's ...

Dinner

chump wrote:

don't get a pc with XP on it with 256ram... It's painful, minimum 512mb's ...

Ah its not that bad. I had XP running on 256 for 2 years and it wasn't too bad.

TerrorFirmer

chump wrote:

don't get a pc with XP on it with 256ram... It's painful, minimum 512mb's ...

Wierd PCs you guys have.

The minimum rec is 64mb, 256 is totally fine.

I was running xp on 256mb and playing games like allied assault and quake 3 no bother at all....and I doubt his parents will be out fragging each other

The Real B-man

The Dell Dimensions 2400's are going for under €400

win xp home
Celeron 2.6ghz
80gb hdd
512mb ram
ingrated sound & graphics
15" tft or crt
56k modem

not bad for word processing & emails

chump

Well 256 might be fine for you, but it aint for me...

My experience is using 2 near enough equally specced machines:
1 with 1gig ram
1 with 256

It was a joke the slowdown with the 256 machine...
Popped another 512 into the 256 machine last weekend, unreal the difference it makes... try it would be my advice!

zuma

Read the threads title "chump"....PC for parents....not gamer or PC enthuaists.

256MB will more than cope with the internet/word processing expected of it for a couple of hours a week.

Those Dell Dimension 2400's are a great purchase and will more than cope.
Got one of them last year for a friend with a small family....he would have barely used the hard drive if it wasnt for me and required only moderate computer power until I got him interested in image editing...so I just got 512MB from komplett for less than €50...but only when it was needed!!!

iMax

Thanks guys. Anyone got a link to the dell outlet store ?

RE*AC*TOR

you need a very low spec system for email / internet

are they perceiveing the system slow because they are using dialup by any chance?

Ciaran500

iMax wrote:

Thanks guys. Anyone got a link to the dell outlet store ?

its on the dell website, bottom left.

unkel

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

you need a very low spec system for email / internet

are they perceiveing the system slow because they are using dialup by any chance?

Yep even a €100 PIII would be fine

pickarooney wrote:

get a half-decent machine with a clean install, ghost it and show your dad how to 'fix' the PC when it goes slow

Great idea. Will save yourself a lot of time providing tech support to your parents

jackd7

hi all, don't know much about the insides of a computer so bear with me.
15 year old bro has a compaq presario, it's around 4 yrs old and very slow. has windows xp professional on it. need to speed things up a bit. local computer guy said to just buy a new one or otherwise said he would clean it up and to go back to windows 98, will cost a couple hundred euro either way (after he charged €200 to put xp on it a year ago...)
Anyway, is there any other way we could speed it up? maybe add extra memory? to it or something. also maybe something for games as well.
any suggestions appreciated.
Cheers. :eek:

zuma

jackd7 wrote:

hi all, don't know much about the insides of a computer so bear with me.
15 year old bro has a compaq presario, it's around 4 yrs old and very slow. has windows xp professional on it. need to speed things up a bit. local computer guy said to just buy a new one or otherwise said he would clean it up and to go back to windows 98, will cost a couple hundred euro either way (after he charged €200 to put xp on it a year ago...)
Anyway, is there any other way we could speed it up? maybe add extra memory? to it or something. also maybe something for games as well.
any suggestions appreciated.
Cheers. :eek:

Well I hope that the €200 paid for the WinXp licence as well as time!!
I suggest you get a motherboards/CPU/RAM combo from komplett and get your local computer whizz to put it together for €50 as it appears a cheaper option than the other person you used.
Have you a proper WinXP CD with that current install as I could(?) easily install a corp WinXP and you wouldnt know any different and save myself €90 in the process....a friend in England paid £170 sterling for a copy of WinXP home onlyu 6months ago!!!

Oh a cheapish AGP card can go for around €50 these days...add the Mobo/RAM/CPU you get about €200 on parts(all bottom of the line!) from komplett.


What exactly are the current specs of the comp???

Kintarō Hattori

Some guy was selling an AthlonXP 1800 system in the sale section for €150 bucks, might be worth a look there.

jackd7

Thanks for the help guys. will go home and have a look at it, no doubt I'll be posting back again with a thousand questions.