Need just enough computer to display a web page

[Mr Downtown]

As some of you may remember, I want to put a dedicated computer in my apartment building lobby to display the next bus arrival times. We might find an old PC that someone is discarding, but if we don't, is this PC sufficient to do the job?

I don't know what kind of magic is needed in the browser to display a constantly updated web page, but presumably any browser from 2005 or later would work, right? The website in question is http://www.ctabustracker.com

[M A V I C]

Lots of javascript. That can bring a computer to its needs. If you only have that single window open... that one might work. You'll want more RAM.

A G5 isn't even enough to display some web pages.

[decay]

there's another Dell on that site with 2x the RAM for $10 more.

it should be fast enough... you can set energy saver to sleep the screen, though i'm not sure about by time.

i'd think you could find a used 15 or 17 inch LCD cheap from someone who upgraded.

[OWC Jamie]

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/bring+to+its+knees

[Filliam H. Muffman]

That CTA bus page currently seems to be pretty nominal in CPU and memory use in WinXP.

If you take into account the electricity usage, something like the Intel Atom based MSI Wind (kind of a Dell mini 9 in a case) would use a fraction of the power, saving 80-100 Watts. It is a little more likely to not be powerful enough at some point in the future, but right now it is much easier to get enough RAM for.

[Seacrest]

You are aware that that machine comes without an OS license?
(I did not read your other post, so you might have answered that question there. If so, just ignore me.)

[Mr Downtown]

Seacrest wrote:
You are aware that that machine comes without an OS license?

No. The specs seem a little vague on that. I guess this would be a better choice, with twice the RAM and Windows 2000 preinstalled.

[M A V I C]

If it's just a web page - Linux + Firefox.

[cbelt3]

How about a cheap little used laptop ? Heck, an iBook (Clamshell) would probably do the trick. However, once the site starts putting flash video and the like, well, you're toast.

[Sam3]

A cheap little laptop may walk, it may find a new home. That Dell is a decent machine, we still have many in use at my workplace. Definitely get the $59 machine. You can get AVG or another free A/V program for it and you'd be set. Disable DNS, add the CTS web page to the 'hosts' file and you'd be pretty secure from people surfing on it.

We do something similar at work. We have a Dell that scrolls 4 web pages continually and that is displayed on a wall-mounted 42" Plasma monitor.