Planning a build for my mom

[LordMastodon]

Oh, that makes a lot more sense. You could literally accomplish all of those things with processing power to spare by buying an Intel Compute Stick and using the leftover money to buy her some nice peripherals. As much as you really want to build a computer (I know, what better opportunity to practice on, right?), you really don't need to, and I mean really don't need to. If you really don't want a Compute Stick for whatever reason, buy a tablet. If you really don't want a tablet for whatever reason, buy a Chromebook. If you really don't want either of those things, buy her a cheap Dell or Lenovo SKU (known for their high quality). But for those needs, you do not need to custom build. If she wrote books on this computer, if she did graphic design on this computer, I would say you could probably find a reason to custom build. But she isn't doing any of those things, she's looking at websites and Skyping people. In fact, that's literally what Chromebooks were invented for. Here is a version of Skype you can actually use online. There. Based on what you've told me earlier in this thread, I just completely nullified any need you might have for something other than a Chromebook. 

[LordMastodon]

Discounting ALL that, a custom-built PC is also more of a headache for you. If your mom's iPad Air fails, she can call Apple. If her Dell Chromebook fails, she can call Dell. If her Intel Compute Stick fails, she can call Intel. If your mom's custom-built PC fails, she can call you. And you have to go over there and swap out some RAM or format an SSD, all while kicking yourself for not saving money and buying her something that's not even two times the size of a normal USB stick (Compute Stick).

[dreamhacking]

15 minutes ago, LordMastodon said:

Discounting ALL that, a custom-built PC is also more of a headache for you. If your mom's iPad Air fails, she can call Apple. If her Dell Chromebook fails, she can call Dell. If her Intel Compute Stick fails, she can call Intel. If your mom's custom-built PC fails, she can call you. And you have to go over there and swap out some RAM or format an SSD, all while kicking yourself for not saving money and buying her something that's not even two times the size of a normal USB stick (Compute Stick).

hahaha, true that. i hope that's how it works 

even though she purchased from manufacturer, whenever there are problems, she will still call me first. and if i can't fix it, i will be calling manufacture for her.

[LordMastodon]

She will probably call you first no matter what, but you will at least have peace of mind that if you can't solve it, someone else can (and by that I mean the OEM), and even if it's something rather serious, you can probably listen to her story on the phone and then just call the OEM and you don't even have to go over there. If you custom build, it means you will probably have to go over there for 99% of problems, and if you can't fix it, there's really no guarantee that anyone will be able to besides you literally replacing every single affected component. You could take it to a local repair shop, but I actually work at one of those and we don't even really accept custom-builts, mostly because we know that a lot of people probably don't understand what it entails. They will drive their children to Best Buy, tell them to pick out the components, drive back home and let their children assemble it. If and when something goes wrong, they will most likely blame the OEM of the faulty component first and then blame Best Buy for selling them a faulty component. Then, when they bring the computer to us and we realize that the kid shorted out his GTX 1070 by putting it into the RAM slot (I'm not actually sure if that would short out a graphics card, and we haven't actually gotten anyone who did that, but just an example) and we tell them, "Listen, your kid is a dumbass and you're a dumbass for letting him build a $1200 PC without parental supervision. They put "Some assembly required" on boxes for a reason," they tell us that their kids are actually boy geniuses and they get Bs in Science and that we're actually the incompetent ones and we couldn't even tell them how to fix a simple computer problem like the house burning down every time they turn on the PC (damnit, Harold, that's the third time!), and then they leave negative reviews and lie about every second of their experience.

 

After that long-winded and oddly specific story (which most of the details of which were literally invented while writing this story), hopefully you understand that most repair shops probably won't accept a custom-built. I think in the 5 years of my shop being around, we've accepted two custom-builts, and the second one brought us a server with a GTX 550 running Linux who wanted us to install a USB hub PCIe add-in card.

 

Damn that was a long post.