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Choosing a new PC package for a relative.. Post your recommendations

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epopuI:
This could be an interesting discussion.  I bought my first computer "off the shelf" in 1981 and then went on to build or have built many units after that. However, when looking for a machine three years ago, I bought my first HP - my friend, who still builds all his own thought I was nuts, until trying to come anywhere near the HP price.  Granted I didn't have true specs of each part but why would that bother me at my age. The machine has served well until recently - I am not sure if its MS updates that are making the OS (WinXP MCE 2005) become a little unstable or its time to do a re-install.  Now that's wherein lies the rub - no CD although I burned 3 rescue DVDs on the first day even HP recommends getting new disks from them (OK why waste 3 DVDs) restoring looks like a daunting task. I don't think the power supply is up to handling all the USB devices that could be plugged in. 
I am now looking at upgrading?downgrading to Win 7 so will watch this thread to see what others have to say.

tomos:
I think there's a lot to be said for buying locally from someone who actually builds the computers. Although, that's maybe not so common as it used to be due to internet prices. My experience that way was very good at least.
Pros -

* if there's a problem, bring machine into town (but not as good as a pickup-return guarantee).
* There's one person (or a couple) that you deal with.
* after the guarantee time you still have someone there to fix hardware problemCons

* they could always go out of business
* you'll probably pay more
There's a guy in town here selling refurbished pc's & laptops.
For basic use & maybe not so cheap (in comparision with new) but good quality machines & monitors etc. with one year warranty and the pros listed above.
Of course my relatives are all very very basic computer users :)

superboyac:
Cool story.  I love hearing about the experiences of others in these kinds of things.  So much of this is not talked about enough around the internet, you know what I'm saying?  Nobody talks about the headache of buying a computer for someone who's just a casual computer user.  yet, that's how it always happens with people like us, right?  We're the computer geeks, so our friends and family come to us about advice about what to buy and so forth.  And when we're young and foolish, we get all excited and recommend these cool parts and nice things that we like, but then you quickly learn...you learn that these people have no use for the cool things you're getting them and they will probably be overwhelmed by some of the fancier items.  That leads to follow up sessions for you, and it becomes this big headache.

That's why I now recommend the easiest solution for most people.  A dell, or hp (like mouser).  Heck, I may even recommend Macs to people if I see they want something like that.  Recently, I got my mom a Dell and my Dad an HP, and it's worked out great.  My mom barely uses it to browse the web.  My dad uses his every day, but only for email, web browsing, and some solitaire.  I've had no headaches.  My dad calls me every now an then because kaspersky gives him a message about something, that's about it.

What mouser did was exactly the right way of doing it.  Find out what your friend/family member wants and make sure you get that.  For everything else, keep it as simple as possible.  Nothing fancy, nothing expensive.

xtabber:
Most of the relatives who ask me about PCs have very basic needs - word processing, email, web browsing - and minimal computer literacy. Since they are going to call me to handle anything that goes wrong anyway, I prefer to set up a system for them in a standardized manner, so that I can troubleshoot most problems over the phone and, if all else fails, easily recover from whatever they have managed to screw up.

My PCs of choice are IBM refurbs purchased directly from IBM. They are certified by IBM, have a 7-day no questions asked return policy (including return shipping), and a 3 month warranty.

http://www-304.ibm.com/shop/americas/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/default/HelpDisplay?storeId=1&catalogId=-840&langId=-1&subject=2576394
 
These are usually systems that were leased to large corporations and are better made than most of what you can buy in electronics stores, which means that once I set one up, I don't have to worry about hardware problems. Also, because they were business systems, they come with a legal copy of XP Professional instead of Home, a recovery partition on the HD, and have good downloadable documentation and support from the IBM/Lenovo web site.

The refurbished IBM desktops are so cheap that it's almost like buying a legitimate copy of XP Pro with the hardware thrown in for free. The notebooks are not as much of a bargain.

40hz:
What mouser did was exactly the right way of doing it.  Find out what your friend/family member wants and make sure you get that.  For everything else, keep it as simple as possible.  Nothing fancy, nothing expensive.
-superboyac (November 16, 2009, 02:18 PM)
--- End quote ---

+1 with that. There's a lot to be said for the "just enough computer for the person using it" approach.

I've recently been forced to rethink my whole build/buy decision formula. With the amount of "bang for the buck" you can get from HP or Dell, I've become somewhat disinclined to scratch-build a general purpose machine for an average user* unless I'm building multiples. Especially now since most of the big players can sell you a very decent box of chips (with correct hardware drivers, legal OS and mfg's warranty) for less than it would cost you to duplicate the same configuration on your own. The price of the OS is the tipping point in most cases.

So unless you are planning on running Linux or BSD, a Dell or HP PC will very likely be a less expensive and more practical solution than building your own.

About the only thing I'd do to 'improve' things is max out the physical RAM on whatever I bought. From my experience, the more physical RAM you have, the fewer problems the average user will encounter with the OS.

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*Whatever that is. :mrgreen:

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