Previously, a year ago.
My mom and younger sister have very light computing needs. They've used a computer (1 GB ram, 1.8 GHZ Athlon XP) running Windows XP I built five years ago with very few issues and only mild upgrades. This year, I've done a reinstall of XP and reflashed the BIOS (the mobo was acting quirky, by sometimes not booting and sometimes spontaniously turning on the machine), but the machine still has some odd issues (the mouse cursor freezes up, the hard drive is starting to die (it's backed up)). Considering that it's been five years, I think I'd rather they get a newer, smaller machine rather than buy it a new hard drive and continue to cope with a dying mobo.
Since all they need could be done by a Pentium 3, I've been considering an Atom-based computer for size and power usage. My mom is planning on moving in a few years, and she would appreciate if the computer was small and easy to pack. She also wants it to be dockable with the USB mouse and keyboard, and the DVI LCD monitor. I know those are pretty common, but I just wanted to make it clear in case somebody recommended something esoteric. I'd also like it to be able to communicate with a DVD drive, but I found a $30 enclosure that looks good for the job.
My mom is convinced that a netbook would be fragile and hard to fix (she trusts my repair skills over a computer company's tech support, which I find sweet), so this year I'm also considering nettops. If there is a good user-servicable netbook/nettop for cheap (ie replace ram, hard drive with just a screwdriver), I'd like to know about it.
I'm considering building a nettop myself using a board like this
one, as it seems like there aren't many nettops/books that come with Nvidia's Ion chipset. Is this a good idea? I've charted out a build that would total out at $400 with tax and shipping, complete with a 500 GB hard drive and 2 GB of ram.
I'm also open to smaller desktops and laptops that are cheap and will dock nicely with the stuff in my office(again, USB and DVI ports).
In summary, I'd like a cheap, small, and energy efficient machine that will connect to my existing equipment and run Windows XP or newer. My budget is around $200-400 (not including OS, which I can get through MSDNAA). I'm open to building/upgrading the computer myself. I'd also like to know if Windows 7 is a good idea for nettops/books or not, since I've heard it will run well, but I haven't seen how well it runs first hand.
My mom is semi-computer litterate (does office work, email, installs her own software, but doesn't fix the machine), and my younger sister is in high school and needs the computer to type and do her homework. She has high functioning autism, so it'd probably be easiest for her to get a full-sized keyboard if we do get a netbook and they take to using it outside the office, so consider the keyboard size a factor.
Subscribe
Cheap Toshiba laptops have done us pretty well; they are priced around $500 - $600. That's price competitive with the nettop, when you factor in the need for a display and the amount of labor you'll be adding in.
posted by jenkinsEar at 12:15 PM on September 6