I want to build a machine for my parents (late 50s). The majority of their activities will be browsing, spreadsheet, burning DVDs,CDs, solitaire, etc.; nothing fancy. So my goals are as follows.

* Inexpensive.
* Upgradeable in the future.
* Stable.

With those goals in mind, please review my components list at your convenience. I would like to hear your advice if you have a better recommendation for any, or all, component(s). My thanks in advance.

Athlon 64 3000+ $92.00
*Stock AMD fan $0.00
ASUS A8N5X nForce4 $76.00
2 x Corsair 512MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz $81.00
Antec Solution SLK-1650B $82.00
*pwr supply included with case 350W $0.00
eVGA GeForce 6200TC 256MB PCIe $59.00
*on board sound $0.00
Seagate Barracuda 200GB SATA $90.00
Sony DW-Q120AB2 DVD/CD Burner $35.00
Acer AL1714-CB-8 17" LCD $166.00
OpenSuSE linux 10.1 $0.00
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TOTAL $681.00

Looks good to me.

The following listing provides better components that gives your parents reliability and stability with out being too skimpy. The power supply and memory that I provided are actually the components that provides most of the reliability and stability because the memory is ECC and the power supply can handle a wide voltage range, it is low noise, and saves on electricity bills. The power supply that I provided is a lot better than Antec. The hard drive is a PATA drive that adds reliability, low noise, and ease of installing. The motherboard contains the neccessary componets like sound, video, NIC. The CD/DVD burner that I listed is better than the Sony drive that you listed. Black drives tends to blend in the computer case, so people that have poor vision is going to have trouble finding the drive. I selected a white drive, so they can see it a lot better. The computer case that I listed is expensive, but light weight, sturdy, and spacious for the size of the case. The monitor that you listed is ok for young users, but the screen that I list is better for old users and it a lot better. The skimpy component of the whole entire system is the processor. The reason for this is programs that your parents will be using are not processor intensive and they will not see any benefit of a faster processor. The listed system is a little more expensive than your listed setup, but my list contains components that provides reliability, stability, noiseless, easy on the eyes, light weight, small and slim, and upgradable.

GIGABYTE GA-M51GM-S2G $69.99
2 Kingston 512MB DDR2-533 ECC (KVR533D2E4/512) $53.99/module
AMD Sempron 64 2800+ (SDA2800CNBOX) $45.00
ASUS CD/DVD Burner (DRW1608P3SSLV) $36.99
SeaSonic S12-380 $72.99
Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600SB 160 GB $69.99
SILVERSTONE SST-SG01-B $147.99
SAMSUNG 740N-Black 17" LCD $175.99

Total $726.92

The component that I would of change if you want it cheaper is the chassis. I suggest any aluminum case which can be bought around for $75 which will be about $100 less than the total price.

Electro,

Thanks for all the advice. I'm especially intrigued with the power supply. My parents live in the Bahamas were the power is frequently disrupted, so a sturdy power supply would be a plus. One question I do have is, does linux provide good support for GIGABYTE on-board video? Thanks!

The on-board video is not from GIGABYTE. It is from nVidia. The nVidia modules (drivers) suports it.

The power supply will handle some brownouts but not all. Also it will handle some surges, but not all. If the power goes out, the power supply will not work. A UPS will be needed if you want the computer on just a little while after a black out occurs. There are many different kinds of UPS. I recommend in-line types because it will always provide continuous power. Stand-by UPS are majority devices that you see in every store. Stand-by UPS are cheap, but they are false UPS units. In-line UPS are expensive per wattage and they are much better for computers.