The Grandma Project

[CNUco2007]

ya know... right now im at work and im sitting here on a 300Mhz proc and im cruzing the net just fine. honestly, i would buy her a slow computer and save some bucks. unless they redesign the internet in the next 10-15yrs, i think the computerwill last just fine.

[Vasto]

ya know... right now im at work and im sitting here on a 300Mhz proc and im cruzing the net just fine. honestly, i would buy her a slow computer and save some bucks. unless they redesign the internet in the next 10-15yrs, i think the computerwill last just fine.

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They are redesigning the internet.....Internet2 or whatever it is called. College Campuses are hooked up to it.

[Guest Flashstar]

If I were you, I would get a skt. 754 motherboard and a newer sempron. Then, if you need to upgrade, just buy her an athlon 64 later. It's a better idea than a socket A. Man, did you see the picture of one of their distributing centers? They have officially stopped producing socket A...

[LoArmistead]

well since its a grandma, and you want it to be kickin for a few years (for grandma usage), I'd say drop down to a skt 754 sempron, nf3 mobo, and 64mb vid card. Unless of course you were planning on building one to have fun on when you're visiting

[romeo55]

Everyone seems to miss the most important point. If your grandparents are like mine they don't like anything complicated, hard to see, and troublesome. I bought my grandparents a new high tech cd player for there car and they never use it because its too complex, hard to see, and theres just too many buttons lol. Invest in a good size moniter a cheap cpu and ram. And an AMD 64 for a g-ma? my grandparents are using a pentuim 2 lol and they love it!

Edited July 14, 2005 by Crazy_Dude

[Kash]

They are redesigning the internet.....Internet2 or whatever it is called. College Campuses are hooked up to it.

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Internet Protocol version 6

 

We are currently using IPv4 (dunno what they did with IPv5). Here is what the site says about the "new" internet:

 

Pv6 fixes a number of problems in IPv4, such as the limited number of available IPv4 addresses. It also adds many improvements to IPv4 in areas such as routing and network autoconfiguration. IPv6 is expected to gradually replace IPv4, with the two coexisting for a number of years during a transition period.

 

So it seems as though the argument you're making is pretty baseless. There won't be a change in Ethernet ports or phone jacks. It's a change in server and application infrastructure. So granny won't even notice the change from IPv4 to IPv6 when surfing the net and using her financial apps.

[Verran]

Sweet lord! IPv6? Longhorn? Internet2? USB/Firewire? PCI-E? A64 Venice Cores? Jebus!

 

wtf are you guys talking about? I haven't even thought about a lot of this stuff for MY rig.... Build her a duron machine for under 300 and if any of this actually even affects her at all (which it won't), you'll have money left over to build a brand new one.

 

I can't think of a single thing that a grandma would ever do on a computer that couldn't be done by a duron 1.8 (like $40) and integrated video. Spring the extra $40 for another 512 stick if you're worried about speed.

 

All of this upgrade talk is absolutely unbelievable. You're talking about all this stuff that's so far beyond the scope of this build, and so far beyond anything grammy will ever need.

 

Like I said, if you want to get a killer machine to use at grandma's house, go for it, you don't need anyone's approval. But if you are really trying to build the PC she needs with HER money in mind, drop the whole 64bit grammy mean-machine pipe dream and just get her what she will actually use.

[Kash]

Sweet lord!  IPv6?  Longhorn?  Internet2?  USB/Firewire?  PCI-E?  A64 Venice Cores?  Jebus!

 

Like I said, if you want to get a killer machine to use at grandma's house, go for it, you don't need anyone's approval.  But if you are really trying to build the PC she needs with HER money in mind, drop the whole 64bit grammy mean-machine pipe dream and just get her what she will actually use.

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A bit more bluntly put than my posts, but yes, LISTEN TO THE MAN!!!!!

[Mister_Webmaster]

I would suggest just getting somthing cheap for grandma... I'm helping my Grandma get a computer, and it'll be a cheap dell, or a frys "deal". I will be able to make necessary changes later down the road, but for cards, and internet, it'll be just fine.

[cybergrunt69]

I think I'm actually agreeing with both sides of this argument... For my family and friends, I've stopped doing almost all customer builds - it leads to waaaaay to many phone calls at 1am for "why isn't internet working?" or "how do I run Maya on this?" When I'm asked, I say it costs about the same for a nasty Dell with a ton of legit software or a beefy system with software they have to provide.

With either the Dell or a home-brew, I still get called on it - the gramma or sister would rather call me than some guy who can barely speak english.

 

OTOH, to build instead of buy, get the oldest good new hardware available. It will not only cut your cost by about 1/2, but as long as you pick known-good parts, you know it will run fine for years. Don't plan your hardware around any future software, plan it for running good now - she won't like the change if you put on MS' latest BS-ware just as soon as she's used to XP.