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When I need a lower-end computer, I try to find one that the store assembles.
My wife's died, and since she mainly used it for e-mail and word processing, I bought one with an Intel 2.0 Ghz Celeron, 256 meg memory, 450 watt power supply, and an 80 gig 7200 SATA hard drive. The motherboard has two IDE sockets. It had a Sony CD drive, which I immediately replaced with an old DVD writer I had around. Onboard sound and graphics. No OS.
$179 plus tax, and I didn't have to worry about compatibility.
If that helps.
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Where there exists a desire for advantages not possessed, the mind which does not potentially possess them by means of its own energies is apt to look with hatred and malice on those who do. The person bestirring himself with hopeful prospects to improve his circumstances is the one who feels good-will towards others engaged in, or who have succeeded in, the same pursuit. And where the majority are so engaged, those who do not attain the object have had the tone given to their feelings by the general habit of the country, and ascribe their failure to want of effort or opportunity, or to their personal ill luck. But those who, while desiring what others possess, put no energy into striving for it, are either incessantly grumbling that fortune does not do for them what they do not attempt to do for themselves, or overflowing with envy and ill-will towards those who possess what they would like to have.
– Considerations on Representative Government, John Stuart Mill
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