Topic: Computer Questions

[DJ Doena]

If it's within the price range, I'd recommend two hard drives.

One larger data harddrive (in the 500-1000 gigabyte range)

One SSD (Solid State Drive) (in the 64-128 gigabyte range)

If you put your OS and your major applications on the SSD you've never seen Windows boot up or run so quickly.
You should just avoid having files on it that are constantly changing (TEMP folders, page files). These should be put on the data harddrive.

[RossRoy]

Regarding "Dell"-products: I am warning for 3 years now to purchase their products, due to a significant decrease in quality and service for the consumer-line products. For further info contact Thorsten (kahless) and ask him about his last year purchases.

I could give the exact opposite experience. 5 "Dell" systems bought (4 laptops, 1 desktop) by various "customers" of mine in the last 2 years. Nothing but positive so far.

Graphics: NVidia Geforce 450 GT, for BluRay with PowerDVD 10 currently avoid ATI / AMD graphics (I'm still waiting for Cyberlink to help me through some problems, found out afterwards that the forums are stuffed with help-requests for such systems)

Again, I have to muddy the waters here ... I've had nothing but troubles with nVidia cards over the years, be it in my own computer or family's or friend's. ATI has always been rock solid, except a single instance, where the card was dead on arrival.

I do run PowerDVD Ultra-Super-ThingAMaBob-That-Plays-And-Decodes-All-BluRays-And-Cost-Too-Damn-Much and it's rock solid on my ATI HD 4850 series card.

[Dragonfire]

I'm still thinking here.

Considering that there is a new widescreen monitor with it, the one I've been thinking of is in the price range mentioned...It would be $787 I think it is.  

I have an ATI card now.  It has done well..it is just a bit out dated for the newest stuff now.  I've had nVidia before too.  I think it worked fine for me at the time. 

I've had a few Dells and had no problems with them.  I've used a Dell at work and had no problem with it.  I've been happy with them and am more comfortable going with them.  I had an HP that was an absolute piece of crap from the day it was new.  It was just normal for me to have to reformat the thing once a month.  If I didn't, everything stopped working.  After that, I will not buy another HP.  The computer I use at work now is an HP again...the office became a franchise and someone from the district switched out the new Dells for old HPs even though he wasn't supposed to.  The programs I have to use at work don't run as well on it, though it is a bit better than the previous HP I had to use there. 

2 hard drives?  I've never tried anything like that.  I've never tried to partition a hard drive outside of a class either...and that many years ago.  In that same class, I once had to take a computer completely apart and then put it back together.  Yes it worked once put back together.  The last thing we had to do in that class was install Windows...this was on like a 286 or 386 machine..they were already outdated by then.  This particular class got the old computers once new ones were bought.  Windows was on something like 20 discs.  Lucky me ended up with the slowest of the crappy computers and I was the last one done.  But it worked once it was done.  
I did add more RAM to an older computer and I changed out the modem more than once...in one computer, the stupid modem got fried like 3 times.  I changed a video card once too.  That's the extent of my experience fixing or adding stuff to a computer.

I'm thinking more about getting an external hard drive to back stuff up on.  Just have to figure out how big of one.

[Achim]

I will my recommendation for two hard drives; it is added safety as well. At least you should always partition your drive to keep OS and data separate. I always say I must be able to begin reformatting the OS within 5min; if it is all on the same drive you'd need to backup first...

I currently use two physical drives (actually three, but that is besides the point). The OS is on a small 80GB disc (you cannot even buy such a small drive anymore ). If I need to reinstall, easy, if the drive breaks down, no problem either. And backing up data is also easier this way.

If you put your OS and your major applications on the SSD you've never seen Windows boot up or run so quickly.
You should just avoid having files on it that are constantly changing (TEMP folders, page files). These should be put on the data harddrive.

That is a great idea and I would imagine it works with OS X just the same. But, why the added recommendation about changing files, why is that?

[RossRoy]

If you put your OS and your major applications on the SSD you've never seen Windows boot up or run so quickly.
You should just avoid having files on it that are constantly changing (TEMP folders, page files). These should be put on the data harddrive.

That is a great idea and I would imagine it works with OS X just the same. But, why the added recommendation about changing files, why is that?

For one thing, SSD have a limited number of write operations possible within their lifetime, but more than that, an SSD gets "dirty" much faster than a standard hard drive, and will lose performance over time. There are tools to remedy that (TRIM), but having to run it too often gets cumbersome, hence moving heavily modified files off the SSD (temp files, pagefile, etc.)

At least, that's my understanding of it. But I won't get to test it for a while yet, as SSD are still way too expensive for my taste.

[Dragonfire]

I've never partitioned the hard drive.  I'd be afraid I'd screw it all up and ruin the computer.

[DJ Doena]

I've never partitioned the hard drive.  I'd be afraid I'd screw it all up and ruin the computer.

Even with one hard drive you should partition it. This way, if you ever (for whatever reasons) need to reinstall the OS and format that drive you won't lose your data in the process.

Moving the "My Documents" folder to a new location is quite easy with Windows.

Moving the temp folders and pagefile is a more hidden "feature" but we can show you that when the time has come.

[Halo2]

Also, if you get a machine with more than 4GB of RAM, you need to make sure you have a 64-bit OS. 32-bit Windows will only recognize 3-3.5GB of RAM. If you get a system with 8GB, you will not be utilizing anything above 4GB.

[Najemikon]

Manufacturer opinions change from model to model. I worked for a HP dealer for years. One pc model and one type of laptop were horrendous. Nothing but trouble. But most others were excellent. Their workstation ranges were stunning.

I never met a Dell I liked! But I bear the same thing in mind. Always listen to those who know the value of the current range of any brand because bearing a grudge is pointless, they change so much anyway.

Same with graphics cards and anything else.

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

rock solid on my ATI HD 4850 series card.

Strangely this is exactly my graphics card too.
It refuses to work properly with PowerDVD10 Mk2 Ultra if DirectX is controlling the settings. The same goes for MediaCenter in combination with HDTV (720p).
Funnily the manufacturer of my TV-card had a registry patch that fixed this.

[Dragonfire]

I did look at some external hard drives after work today.  I didn't get one yet.  Still trying to figure out what to get.

I did see one that will hold 500 GB..I thought that would be big enough for a while.

I just find the same size at Amazon for about $20 cheaper.  When I was reading about it, it said something about how the drive is always watching the computer, and anytime a new file is saved or a file is updated, it it backed up then.  I was thinking the external drives were ones that just hooked up every so often and backed up stuff.  So still trying to research a bit.

Here's the link of the one I just found.

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Passport-Essential-Portable/dp/B002KG2LOA/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1301970273&sr=8-5

[Achim]

Apple has a program like that called Time Machine.

But like it was said already, a true backup does not stay connected to the computer. Just like you said: connect, backup, disconnect.

[Codey]

When I was reading about it, it said something about how the drive is always watching the computer, and anytime a new file is saved or a file is updated, it it backed up then.  I was thinking the external drives were ones that just hooked up every so often and backed up stuff.

Some manufacturers include software with their drives, which will automatically do incremental backups for you when the drive is connected, but it is optional to install and use it. You can basically choose any backup software you want, if the included one doesn't suit your need.
Personally, I have never used the included software of the external drives I've purchased, but then again I have not been doing much actual backup rather than just doing a copy of my important data.
An external drive is just a hard drive outside your computer, that you can connect any time you want to use, copy from or copy to it. It acts just as any other storage device / hard drive.
If you prefer, you can have a solution that will do (incremental) backups to a partition or directory on your computer's hard drive, which you can then manually or semi-automatically copy to an external drive for extra safety.

[Dragonfire]

Ok...now I have more to think about.  I'll get it figured out eventually. 

[goodguy]

I did see one that will hold 500 GB..I thought that would be big enough for a while.

...

Here's the link of the one I just found.

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Passport-Essential-Portable/dp/B002KG2LOA/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1301970273&sr=8-5

If you go for USB 2.0 as in the one you linked to, there is a 1.5 TB drive from Western Digital that is only marginally more expensive. It's probably the best price/size ratio that is currently around.

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Elements-Desktop-External/dp/B002QEBMBY/ref=sr_1_50?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1301974530&sr=1-50