OldGuy wrote:
The best!
I dual boot Win XP and Win 7

MSI Mil Grade A75MA-G55

AMD CPU

In a Sentey Slim Series case.

Only warning is that it is a slim case and only takes low profile boards.
Not a problem to find jut make sure they are low profile plug in boards.

It travels with me as my desktop PC.

Got mine a Microcenter.com


The thing is, we don't really have a good picture
of the customer.

1) Are we reusing the video card ?
Older video cards are more likely to have WinXP drivers.
Finding a motherboard for them, not so easy...

2) Does the customer need an optical drive ? Listen
to a CD collection while sitting at the computer ?
Is the customer "dexterous" or arthritic. I wouldn't
build a slim CD/DVD drive for someone who can't load
a disc onto a "hub" design. I'd be giving them
a full sized drive with a tray. A slot load (toaster)
might scratch their media.

The optical drive makes a big difference to the build.

1) Desktop optical drive (tray). MicroATX motherboard
and regular case. Or a Shuttle case and decent supply.
2) Slim optical drive (same kind as used in a laptop).
Now you can move to mini-ITX and make a nice build.
Zotac makes a few motherboards that will take a
Core i7, if you're tired of weak processors.
3) The dude is "modern and hip". Doesn't need an optical
drive any more. Buys all the software off the Internet.
Never listens to music. Has a music collection on a NAS.
For that individual, there is Intel NUC, Via Nano or Pico,
and so on. You can make really tiny computers, if all
you drive for I/O is keyboard/mouse/monitor.

In a listing, I could see some older Intel NUC boxes
that support WinXP. So there are still some possibilities
there.

The perfect motherboards, were some made by Asrock,
with VIA chipset. They had both a PCI Express and
an AGP video slot. Which is good for those people
who want a cheap upgrade, and want to drag forward
their old video card and so on. But those days are
gone now, and VIA no longer makes those chips.
VIA was forced out, via the licensing agreement
they had. And the main chipset suppliers aren't
all that interested in "retro" builds. As soon
as Microsoft buried WinXP, you can bet Intel
and AMD won't be far behind.

One component that tends to have good support,
is NIC chips. Too bad the rest of the industry wasn't
as willing to oblige.

Paul