Any suggestions for a desktop for me nonagenarian Paw?

[struggle4progress]

He's still running Windows 95 on an old IBM box from about that era; actually, I think the box might be somewhat older than that

Personally, I think he might have a better machine if he just wired a lamb cord to an abacus: no usb ports, no RJ45 jack -- he still backs up and gets his stuff on/off via floppies

I think something with a process running at 2.5ghz or faster, with at least 2gb RAM and a 7200rpm drive would be a nice step up -- especially if it had some decent connectivity, so he could get back and forth between the new box and his laptop more easily

He also like to be able to get on the internet, but I have no idea what provider or access method he would choose

He needs a CD or DVD reader and probably a floppy drive so he can access stuff he's archived. Personally, I think he ought to have two hard drives, one backing up the other, but maybe that's just me

The other consideration is size. Even a mini tower or an old SFF-sized desktop could be awkward for him to wrestle around. I might recommend a nettop, but they're not terribly fast and I worry graphics resolution might be an issue if he moved to a bigger screen

I can imagine a build in a cubic foot gaming box, with (say) 3ghz cpu, 3 gb RAM, two HD, and decent connectivity for under $650, exclusive of the OS which probably needs to be Windows 7, since he's familiar with Windows, Vista sucks, and XP support ends next year. I think open source programs are available do everything he needs: the opendisc collection seems adequate, for example

The question is whether I can get a somewhat comparable retail machine in a small box for a significantly better price or at around that price with good warranty and support

[lpbk2713]

1. Just a thought ...

... have you tried the AARP website? They might have some tried and true guidelines that might be of value.

Say hello to him for me. :thumbsup: :hi: :thumbsup:

[Warpy]

2. Before you transition him to a new box

it might be a good idea to install a CDRW on his old box so he can transfer all his data on floppy disc to CDs. Most puters don't come with floppy slots now.

A second idea would be to search Overstock.com and Ubid for refurbished XP boxes. He'd have a much smoother transition to XP than he would to Win 7, something I still find annoying as hell because it's long on glitz and they left out a lot of XP features I found very useful, like easy screen reformatting to compensate for poor vision.

Congratulations to him for being able to cope with computers, at all. I got a laptop for my own dad, hoping he'd learn to use it for email, saving me long distance phone bills. He never got past playing solitaire on it.

[struggle4progress]

3. That might be a good idea. I guess I should find out how many floppies he has stashed somewhere

in a drawer that he might want to be able to access: he was complaining the other day that he had trouble converting a file from a wordprocessing program that was discontinued 25 years ago, and for all I know, he has an archive of 500 floppies from the Dark Ages that he hardly ever looks at but still might want access to some day

IIRC his old laptop has a floppy drive: I can't remember whether it's internal or USB

It might be just as easy (when he gets a new box) to have him copy all his floppies to his old box HD, pull the drive and slap it in a usb enclosure, copy the files to his new box, and make a DVD backup from there

[TrogL]

6. Most motherboards still have a floppy port on them

They're just not hooked up to anything. Manufacturers often put a card reader in the slot where the floppy used to go. He's unlikely to use it, so it could be removed.

[pokerfan]

4. I would get him off of floppies and CD's

Your instinct regarding dual hard drives is correct. Or just get him an external hard drive to back up his stuff. Copy all his floppies/CDs to a hard drive and back them up to a second hard drive.

System76 makes a cute little system that is not much larger than a nettop. (8" x 11" x 8") but is Pentium or i5 powered.

http://www.system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=104&osCsid=4s0ar009b43qu8eqmqg055db15

[struggle4progress]

5. Kinda depends on how many floppies he has: they aren't fast media, and copying hundreds

to a hard drive would likely be a very long project for him, if he has hundreds -- I mean, it's not like sitting down and organizing all his stuff on computer is an activity that would really excite him -- he's got other things he wants to do with his time -- but he saved all this stuff for a reason, so if he copies a floppy to a harddrive, he'll poke around in the files and think about why he saved it and what he should do with it now -- so at least 20 or 30 minutes per floppy isn't an unreasonable estimate, which means that (say) 500 floppies could be 250 hours of poking around in floppyville -- and if he spends 5 or 10 hours a week on it, it's six months or a year to completion. My conclusion: maybe it ain't gonna happen readily, so his new machine really needs a floppydrive, either built-in or usb. Add-on floppydrives are, what, $20? and they're not hard to install

Thanks for the System76 link, which I've bookmarked. I don't think I could beat the nettop prices, but by going AMD instead of Intel, I do think I could match or beat the Ratel Ultra price by building myself, with something carefully tailored to his needs, in only a slightly bigger box: of course, then he unfortunately gets no tech support but me

Linux? Meh -- not really so sure. He's been using DOS and Windows for decades now: I'd suspect he probably wouldn't be thrilled about spending much time trying to figure out how to do in linux what he already knows how to do in DOS

[CabalPowered]

7. Check out Lenovo's C Series

I installed one a couple of months ago for a parent and they like it.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/desktops/value_line/c-series

I would suggest finding an archive service for the floppies. Years ago, I turned a bunch of floppies over to a local shop and had them all archived onto a CD for about $100. Might check around and see if this is available somewhere nearby.

[struggle4progress]

8. Thanks! I'll scope them out!

[matt819]

9. When you say floppies. . .

I've been trying to clear out some storage units and came across my first desktop - IBM PC AT from 1984. I haven't tried to power it up or anything as I can't imagine what would be on there that would be useful, other than for nostalgic purposes. But having come across that so recently, I can't help but ask if you're talking about the real 5.25" floppies or its smaller, inflexible, successor.

[struggle4progress]

10. I'm sure it's 3.5 diskettes. IIRC, I haven't seen a machine that used 5.25s since

I taught Intro Programming in the very late 80s