A PC made for WORD & E-MAIL only

[Snowy Commando]

What would be the very cheapest way to have a Complete PC & Monitor that is just built good enough to run Win2k with Microsoft Word?

I already have 2 computers, 1 new and 1 old, I need a third system built or bought as a simple stable machine good for anyone to use Word on for some word processing and e-mail.

 

[Phantasm66]

If you are looking for specs, and ONLY want to run Windows 2K and Office, e-mail, etc, then we are doing it at my work on:

P266MHz
3.2 GB HDD
Any old PCI graphics card.
128 MB RAM

Machines only being equiped with 64MB are usually still Windows 98 and NT4, but still do these tasks (i.e. office work, e-mail, word, etc) with no problems.

You should be able to pick these components up VERY cheaply, hopefully from friends who have upgraded their systems and have these sorts of things still left behind.

Alternatively, some kind of sale where some company has gone into liquidation and is selling off all its old kid might also suit you well.

 

[ToRN]

I concur.

 

[uncleel]

Ditto:
If you can find a PII 450MHz Slot1 on a trustworty BX board, it will make for a perfect office machine.

 

[young&wild]

Isn't this similiar to office PC?

Perhaps a Celeron 500Mhz equipped PC should be sufficient enough?

 

[Ai Hate]

buying a cheap rig (but usable) for someone soon...
shouldn't cost more than $500.
it's a duron 900 (very cheap right now) w/ 256mb RAM, i think. still considering what mobo to get...

 

[Rick]

In addition to the above, I would actually consider buying a bargain store-bought PC.


If performance of word and the Internet is an issue. I recommend not skimping on the modem and getting a hardware one (If 56k is being used). Also, a fast hard disk + plenty of RAM would make the most performance impact I think.

The CPU is pretty much irrelevant. Anything from the P-II days and up will be more than enough.

 

[svtcobra]

you may be best off picking up the cheapest E-Machine or visit Wal Mart for a No OS system. This way you can get a cheap system that has a warranty. You'll be surprised how quick all the parts add up if you decide to build one.

 

[young&wild]

My second suggestion

Duron 1GHZ $99
20GB EIDE HDD $52
SiS 735 Chipset Motheboard $52 Internal sound + video
IDE CDROM $19

Or check out this page:

www.pricewatch.com