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Computer for my parents
My parents old computer went out so I left them my old gaming rig. That currently crash and I am not home to look at it and fix it. My parents decided to go to some local repairman. The guy told them my computer crashed because of a virus and that they can trade my old gaming rig and he will sell them a refurbished dell for 250.
I do not want my parents ditching my gaming rig for some sketchy refurbished dell. I told them to refuse the offer and I would look for something better online. My parents seem to like having a desk top and really only need a new box. I was wondering if anyone had any good suggestions. They wont be gaming or anything, just general video streaming, email, and internet browsing.
Their budget is about 250-300.
I am not home to assemble anything for them so building one is not an option.
They don't need monitor or anything else. Just the box.
Comments
99.98%* of viruses are software problems, and don't require hardware to correct. Of that 99.98%*, 99.98%* of those will be completely eliminated by doing a complete format and reinstall of Windows.
If your gaming rig is older, it may not hurt to just ditch the current hard drive, pop in a new drive and do a fresh install on that. Of the 0.02%* of viruses that a format cannot get rid of, 99.98%* of those will be 100% eliminated if you replace the hard drive, and hard drives in general don't have a great track record of reliability past about 3 years in the first place, and especially not past 5 years.
This does not preclude the fact that something other than a virus could actually be wrong with your old gaming rig, and it very likely could require some sort of repair. But if it is a virus, a format and reinstall is free aside from the time it takes to make sure your data is backed up sufficiently and virus free (unless you decide to upgrade Windows at that time) and has a very good chance of eliminating the virus outright.
I would never call that local repairmen again, and I would probably start an active campaign against him in the community just for being ignorant and disreputable. It could very well be that a refurbished Dell would suit your parents nicely - for a lot of people that's all they need. And it could be that your old rig actually has a virus - but the number of viruses that require a total hardware replacement can probably be counted on one hand out of all the thousands (millions?) of various viruses/malware/spyware that are actually out there, so the odds are extremely long that the repairman is right. To come up with the virus pretense in order to sell the unit, rather than actually look at the hardware like he was hired to do, is pretty immoral in my opinion.
*Totally made up numbers, but probably closer to the truth than not.
General use, for the parents, without building one, and need only the box -> have you thought about a compact one? When my old gear which I passed onto the parents will go awry, I also plan to replace it with a Vivo
small, quiet, more than enough for their needs, and almost as cheap as if I build a smaller destop one or a htpc from scratch.
If you don't like Asus (VivoPc is theirs), other companies have compacts as well (MSI WindBox, Lenovo IdeaCentre, I don't remember now the Acer and Zotac one, Shuttle also has a nice one but only barebone, etc.)
Yeah, I work in Japan and could easily do that all myself but trying to tell my parents how to do it over the phone is a nightmare.
Yeah those boxes seem like a good idea,
I agree with Ridelynn that it's highly probable that the local repairman is trying to scam your parents. Tell them to look elsewhere.
What hardware is in the old computer, anyway?
Can you screen share? web ex? from Japan
I found a guy on craigslist selling computers he pulled out of a government place, he sold my parents a p4 for 50 bucks When i went home i put some more ram and a cheapo video card.
sounds like that repair man was trying to rip them off.
do you parents have your windows disk? if so its not really that difficult to have them format the HD and install a new copy of the OS, the hardest part will be getting them into the bios and setting the dvd or cdrom to boot first ( and after the install setting the HD to boot first again).
another option is to have them download malwarebytes and have them run that and then install something like avast antivirus.
this might fix the problem.
Prebuilt for 300$ will probably get you jack.
Best bet is to order the components and build it there. Then ship the box them.
If you are including windows that only gives 200$ for a complete box.
I am sure you have a spare copy of windows around SOMEWHERE.
If you are familiar with Linux you could set up the necessary old people programs so they can use it easily.
EX, Browser, Multimedia, Office suite, Calc, etc.
Setting up Manjaro Openbox with an autostart Cairo dock would be pretty good. Stupid proof even. Just be sure to disable mouse acceleration via config and enable Numlock by default.
From Newegg
Processor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113364
Ram http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148540
Power Supply http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159042
Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128696
Hard drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339
Case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146075
Total $284.94 including shipping.
You make me like charity
I would try to remote in before I spent any money. It is easily done and taking a few minutes to have a look may save them $300.
If that is not a possibility then for $300 I would just have them go with a tablet. Depending on what they do with a PC a tablet may actually be a better option.
Just something to consider.
Trust me, if they find out he can remote in and fix things, the horse will have left the barn.
You make me like charity
Hahaha this is very true.