Win8 Touch for Granny

RockerBug17 · October 12, 2013

Hi everyone! I've been trying to get my grandmother to use her notebook more frequently. The problem is she becomes frustrated when it "doesn't work right." I think a lot of her frustration is due to manipulation of peripherals. She's 80 years old. She has never had to manipulate buttons, mice, or touchpads to function in day to day life. It is because of this that I am thinking Windows 8 and a touchscreen would greatly improve her user experience.

So, right now I am in the planning stages of how to do this. I've found a couple of solutions and I'd like some feed back on pros and cons to each.

1. I could build her an All-In-One. There are a lot of great AIO chassis, and thin mITX boards out there today that would be great. Plus, it's a great excuse to build a new system

2. I could buy a used AIO. eBay has a lot of great deals on older AIO PCs. And this is for my grandmother. She doesn't exactly need anything close to the computing power we've seen hit the market over the past few years.

3. I could fashion together a rig using an external usb touchscreen and use her current notebook (HP dv5150us). This looks like the cheapest solution and again, my grandmother doesn't need anything more than a Core2Duo. I upgraded her RAM last year and already know for a fact that HPs specs sheet has some wrong information within it, as I was able to upgrade her RAM to 4GB when the specs sheet said the max supported is 2GB. I'm thinking I can upgrade her CPU from a T1300 to a T7200 as they look like they're compatible. Also, all the external touchscreens I looked at were labeled as optical touchscreens. Not really sure how they differ from an AIO touchscreen though.

That's about all I've got so far. I'd like to do this as cheaply as possible because there's always the possibility that my grandmother won't use her computer anymore regardless of how I try to improve it. But, please weigh in your opinion on my plans thus far and let me know what you think.

Giggitygoebbels · October 13, 2013

Option 1 is the best,period.

Slap an i3 and SSD into it.

RockerBug17 · October 14, 2013

Option 1 is the best,period.

Slap an i3 and SSD into it.

Option one is definitely the most costly and powerful, but why do you think it is the best option?

Giggitygoebbels · October 14, 2013

Option one is definitely the most costly and powerful, but why do you think it is the best option?

Performance,old AIOs are especially slow as they are using a laptop CPU.

Number 3 is too risky to try out,so yeah.

RockerBug17 · October 15, 2013

Performance,old AIOs are especially slow as they are using a laptop CPU.

Number 3 is too risky to try out,so yeah.

Thanks for the clarification Giggity. I've been looking around a lot to see what I could do with all the options. Thus far, I am leaning toward option 3. My grandmother's current laptop uses an Intel GMA950 graphics solution. I was able to find people on YouTube running Win8 on machines of equivalent or less specs. So, option 3 appears to be a viable option at the moment, not to mention the savings this option offers. But I will need to trying Win8 on her system before I commit and purchase a touch monitor. I like this model at the moment. And I want to get my hands on a T7200 CPU to see if her laptop can operate with it installed. Luckily, I can easily grab a T7200 off eBay for $25 - $30.

I was also thinking if option 3 doesn't workout I can always buy a touch screen, like the one listed above, and build a cheap mITX rig to save a little money. I just don't want to sink $500 - $600 on something she will barely use. And I'm not sure if she really needs an expensive multi-touch screen. Actually, I'm a little oblivious to the differences in these two touch screens: PLANAR PXL2230MW, ViewSonic TD2340. I know the PLANAR is an optical touch screen and uses inferred sensors to operate, while the ViewSonic is a capacitive touch screen. Both are called multi-touch, however it is clear from watching ViewSonic's touch screen demo that there are difference between these two types of monitors. Namely, the capacitive touch screens allow for 10 touch points simultaneously, and the optical touch screens allow for 2 touch points simultaneously, I think. I can't see why my grandmother would need anything more than 2 touch points at a time, but maybe someone can enlighten me on the pros and cons to the two monitors listed above.

Giggitygoebbels · October 16, 2013

Thanks for the clarification Giggity. I've been looking around a lot to see what I could do with all the options. Thus far, I am leaning toward option 3. My grandmother's current laptop uses an Intel GMA950 graphics solution. I was able to find people on YouTube running Win8 on machines of equivalent or less specs. So, option 3 appears to be a viable option at the moment, not to mention the savings this option offers. But I will need to trying Win8 on her system before I commit and purchase a touch monitor. I like this model at the moment. And I want to get my hands on a T7200 CPU to see if her laptop can operate with it installed. Luckily, I can easily grab a T7200 off eBay for $25 - $30.

I was also thinking if option 3 doesn't workout I can always buy a touch screen, like the one listed above, and build a cheap mITX rig to save a little money. I just don't want to sink $500 - $600 on something she will barely use. And I'm not sure if she really needs an expensive multi-touch screen. Actually, I'm a little oblivious to the differences in these two touch screens: PLANAR PXL2230MW, ViewSonic TD2340. I know the PLANAR is an optical touch screen and uses inferred sensors to operate, while the ViewSonic is a capacitive touch screen. Both are called multi-touch, however it is clear from watching ViewSonic's touch screen demo that there are difference between these two types of monitors. Namely, the capacitive touch screens allow for 10 touch points simultaneously, and the optical touch screens allow for 2 touch points simultaneously, I think. I can't see why my grandmother would need anything more than 2 touch points at a time, but maybe someone can enlighten me on the pros and cons to the two monitors listed above.

The viewsonic also is IPS which have a wide viewing angle and better color reproduction,while the planar is TN(which is the cheap type of panel,and it is not faster in Hz in this case.)

2 touch points is horrible for Windows 8,get a TN panel with 5-10 touch points.The viewsonic one however is overkill.