DIY Page - GrandMo Build

Intro

Welcome on the page about the Mini PC build i did for my grandma
because the guilt about killing her laptop on Christmas day when i wanted to show her some neat linux action was too hard


Early stages

The old model was a super dusty laptop that she was kind of forced to buy, that had many 'maintainers'. She used to do some skype, searches, looking some videos, read news and listen internet radios.

The latest maintainer of the laptop forced Windows 10 update (i'm pretty sure this pc wasnt on the deploy list of W10 updates) and did some patching on BIOS. Not sure exactly what were.

While i was going for showing her MX Linux with USB booting i saw that there was not option for USB booting which is really weird for a laptop of this age. And in Bios there was no option to do so and there was some blank options selected first. I assumed this was a patched bios for something because after tweaking it the laptop didn't recognized it's own main disk. Maybe it was an SSD and by default this laptop didnt recognized those, maybe something else.

Specs


Details
CPU

Intel Core 2 Duo
OS

Windows Vista Home
Memory

4 GB
Graphics

ATI Radeon HD4330
Storage

possibly a SSD drive

The plan

Replacing a laptop is quite easy, just get a ThinkPad X or T something and everything is done. The thing here is this laptop was used like a basic computer always at the same place, on the same stuff.

So, i needed some slick and descreet computer. I thought about Raspberry Pi 400, a keyboard-pc hybrid that just need a screen and a mouse to get it running. BUT THEN... i caught it
Nothing is too expensive for my grandma. and i choose the Odroid H3+ which is entierely overkill for her needs. It's the whole point of the build

I wanted it to be on linux, snappy, easy and yet weird enough to be the only maintainer
not gonna lie i didn't like how her laptop and her whole experience was with the old maintainer (my aunt's husband) mostly bc he loves everything new and he's on Windows and kind praise it to death. my grandma dont have second thoughts on this, if it works; it works.

Here's her mighty Odroid H3+


Details
CPU

Intel Quad Core Japser Lake N6005
OS

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 'Jammy Jellyfish'
Memory

16Go DDR4 SO-DIMM
Storage

250 Go M.2 NVME SSD

On the picture, the fan was too big and not PWM compatible so i replaced it with a Noctua NF-A9x14 PWM. I also bought a case, a power button and a RTC battery.

Her experience regarding to linux, ubuntu and free software is beautiful. i never witness a new user before and she found stuff really easily. I taught her to go around menus, find her way across her files.

For me it's a win-win

a mini desktop pc on a little desk for one. with a big screen with a flower on it, with a black mouse and keyboard, everything with a yellow backgroud

Her setup is the coolest battlestation i ever did. She got a nice prestine screen, didn't pay for it. We reused her old loudspekers, mouse and her magnificent 3M mouse pad. We got a nice keyboard from the nearest charity shop, few cables and voila.

Everything works, i tweaked a few things like, finding the good tuning for her printer and except the integreated webcam in her screen everything works fine.
The screen extra functions aren't working well because it's a screen bought by my aunt's husband and he maybe believed i'll use Windows? and the screen is super new dont have linux support yet i guess

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