Basic OEM/barebones desktop

[freakdiablo]

So I've been tasked with locating a new PC for my grandmother. Since I'm down in Maryland and she's up in New England, I'd rather get her something at least semi pre-built, so if anything goes wrong and I can't figure it out over the phone, I can easily get her the 1-800 number and hopefully they have better luck.

She doesn't need much. All she does is e-mail, youtube, probably a few online card games, nothing too demanding.

I wasn't given a set budget, but I'd say $400-$500 max. Since the Zotac I use as an HTPC isn't bad with nothing but an E-450, 64GB SSD and 6GB ram, I was thinking of something along the lines of one of those little NUC/booksize barebones. Just something small with a celeron or an APU, an i3 at most, that I can toss an SSD and a few GB of ram in.

I guess my main question would be, does anyone have any real experience with these? What brands/product lines are good and all that. She uses windows so I was going to grab a license for that as well, so *nix compatibility isn't an issue. With my Zotac, I wasn't expecting much, so I'm not sure how it ranks.

 

[ASUS ROG]

Yup, the NUC is all your grandma will need, this one come with an Intel core i5 so it should be more than enough for everyday task
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...u-KUBNZKmRSHBPhoC5Fzw_wcB&Q=&is=REG&A=details

Need a little more power, this NUC kit come with an i7
http://www.shopblt.com/item/intel-b...-single/intel_boxnuc5i7ryhr.html#Availability
But if you order from this site, be prepare to wait up to 2 month for delivery

 

[bob4933]

Couple questions...

1) Is a laptop completely out of the question? Sounds like it would be a nice, portable solution that you can get fairly easily and within budget.

2) fwiw, zotac zboxes are fairly regarded. If it suits her purposes, Id get one with a 3 year warranty myself and call it good.

3) barring the mini pc's and laptops, an all in one might be suitable as well. Prices of those have dropped immensely, may be worth checking out.

Yup, the NUC is all your grandma will need

+ ram (50$+), + hard drive (50$+), + OS (100$ ish, ways around it), + wireless networking (20$ ish), + peripherals. Fine if he has extras of that stuff laying around though.

 

[caddi daddi]

these cost nothing, last forever, take up little space, don't fix the thing for her, just order another>>>>>> http://www.microcenter.com/product/445452/Elite_8000_Desktop_Computer_Off_Lease_Refurbished

 

[Mandrake4565]

Couple questions...

1) Is a laptop completely out of the question? Sounds like it would be a nice, portable solution that you can get fairly easily and within budget.

I was thinking the same as Bob, I recently picked up a Hp laptop for $299.00 and it works just fine for anything you mentioned above.

 

[freakdiablo]

Yup, the NUC is all your grandma will need, this one come with an Intel core i5 so it should be more than enough for everyday task
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...u-KUBNZKmRSHBPhoC5Fzw_wcB&Q=&is=REG&A=details

Need a little more power, this NUC kit come with an i7
http://www.shopblt.com/item/intel-b...-single/intel_boxnuc5i7ryhr.html#Availability
But if you order from this site, be prepare to wait up to 2 month for delivery

I was actually looking at those on Newegg. If anything I'd go for the i3 version, as like bob said, I'll have to include an additional $200 on a cheap SSD (she has an external HDD for bulk storage) RAM and an OS (gotta keep it legal) to get it to "useable" which would probably push the i5 version out of range.

Couple questions...

1) Is a laptop completely out of the question? Sounds like it would be a nice, portable solution that you can get fairly easily and within budget.

2) fwiw, zotac zboxes are fairly regarded. If it suits her purposes, Id get one with a 3 year warranty myself and call it good.

3) barring the mini pc's and laptops, an all in one might be suitable as well. Prices of those have dropped immensely, may be worth checking out.



+ ram (50$+), + hard drive (50$+), + OS (100$ ish, ways around it), + wireless networking (20$ ish), + peripherals. Fine if he has extras of that stuff laying around though.

I thought of a laptop, and the thing is, she already has a decent monitor as well as a mouse and keyboard she likes. 95% chance she'd just leave it all hooked up and sitting there anyway. The remaining 5%, well, she's really accident prone. As in every 6 or so months she's in the hospital with a broken wrist, broken ankle, something like that. She's dropped dishes, glasses, if it's fragile, she drops it. Unless the laptop includes a damn good accident coverage warranty, someone will be looking for a new one for her within a month.

Haven't considered an AIO though. But, like I said, she already has a fairly decent (22", 1080P, TN panel but eh...) monitor, so if I can find a better spec'd stand alone unit for the same price, it'll still work.

Also good to know about the ZBoxes.

these cost nothing, last forever, take up little space, don't fix the thing for her, just order another>>>>>> http://www.microcenter.com/product/445452/Elite_8000_Desktop_Computer_Off_Lease_Refurbished

Thanks, but no refurbs or used PCs. I really hate when people say this but "because reasons", reasons I'm not going into.

 

[ASUS ROG]

No need an ssd, hybrid drive is also very fast, i got 185mb read and around 130mb write on my old pc
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Lapto...29069121&sr=1-2&keywords=seagate+hybrid+drive

 

[bob4933]

You are able to hook a laptop up like a desktop, just sayin haha.

Main reason I suggest that, is things going wrong, its MUCH easier to simply pack up a laptop to ship for warranty work than it is for a full desktop. Those mini pc's are neat tricks, but i still place them in the "i know what im doing" category more than a laptop.

Trust me, I know EXACTLY what you're dealing with. Barring all these recommendations, get an entry level hp and be done with it. Better service than dell in my experience.

 

[pcgamer4life]

+1 for an off lease or refurbished desktop from an OEM, Dell and Lenovo clear them out regularly, and would be more than powerful enough for her needs.