LaxTV Forums | A Forum About The MCLA

I just got my hands on a new(ish) computer and was looking to get another hard drive to throw in there cause a 60 gig isnt gonna cut it. Probably something with some decent size (around 320 gig or so) so that I can keep the primary drive for system files and such. I was looking for anybody that might be able to shed light on certain brands or features to look for and possibly a good way to organize my stuff. Like is it actually best to keep a separate drive for the system. Also any tips on a cheap video card (most lower end ones will be better than this one i believe) and wireless keyboard and mouse would be appreciated.

www.tigerdirect.com has good prices on everything once you figure out what you want.

I think everyone on the board would tell you that Rob Horn is the man when it comes to computer problems. I used to really trust Adam Gamradt, but then he sent an email asking how to open an Excel spreadsheet.

Note: Adam was joking, and he does work with computers. He is also a good resource with computer problems.

Yeah, I knew that Rob works with data retrieval and stuff all day, so I was gonna throw in a reference to him helping in my message, but figured he would jump all over it anyways. So any time now Rob, its not like I'm sitting here hating my current computer more and more every minute waiting to hear about hard drives... and my new one isn't sitting at my feet with a power cord and network cable plugged in the back waiting to transfer all my other cables to it...

http://bensbargains.net has a list of all the best deals if you can wait until a really good one comes up.

http://www.newegg.com is about the best online computer parts dealer. There are 1TB drives out now (1,000 Gigabytes), so there isn't going to be much of a price difference in 320 GB drives between a regularly priced one or one on sale. If you aren't worried about noise or don't play too many hardware-intensive games, you'll rarely go wrong with a cheap model among the top brand names.

My suggestion is to keep the 60GB in there for your Windows partition, then just add in the 320GB for your work, documents, songs, videos, and whatever else kids these days download off the internet. That way, if you ever need to re-install Windows, you won't have to worry about making backups or saving your data. You'll just re-install on the 60GB drive and your stuff won't be touched on the 320.

honestly, I would save my money. Wait for about 6 months to a year then get your hands on a solid state drive. They are lighter, faster, and more reliable than a hard disk drive. All laptops and alot of desktops will be shifting to these new drives in the next three years or so. Actually, dell has already started assembling a few of their lines with these new drives. Would not put my money on any old technology right now.

Ummm..... What's a "Solid State Drive" ?

Solid state is (spinning) diskless. Think of a flashdrive.

They're gonna be expensive...something like 20-30 times the cost per gig of disk drives. It'll be a couple years before they're worth the price.

just get any size of drive....Oaks has the proper thought....

Solid state drives are nice, but the thing about new technology is this....the first 3 years are hell because the manu. are constantly updating firmware and changing information processing hardware on the drives....also....nothing is solid about these drives, we've seen a lot of them lately...flash is nice, but they corrupt much easier than normal HD that just crash....imagine everytime windows needs a hard/soft reboot, and then your next message is..."please format your drive"......nothing solid about that state....

norway wrote:honestly, I would save my money. Wait for about 6 months to a year then get your hands on a solid state drive. They are lighter, faster, and more reliable than a hard disk drive. All laptops and alot of desktops will be shifting to these new drives in the next three years or so. Actually, dell has already started assembling a few of their lines with these new drives. Would not put my money on any old technology right now.

dont believe everything read in PC Mag......

Cool. Thanks for the tips guys.

You could also pick up a big external drive - I bought my daughter a 500GB drive at Costco for $179, and they have 1TB for about $330 - more storage than you'll need in a lifetime.

laxfan25 wrote: more storage than you'll need in a lifetime.

Right. That is what they used to say about 1GB, then 100GB, etc.

I remember when I bought my first 80GB, I thought I was set. Since I was in college and there was Napster, it was full in a matter of days

in regards to the solid state drives, there is a new distributor of the Mtron solid state drives (higher quality) that will have them priced more competitively. Yes, they are more expensive, but that is why i recommended waiting 6months to a year. Prices are steadily dropping as more competitors enter the market. But, they are only available in, I believe, 32 gb and 64 gb right now. It really depends how into computers you are. I, personally, would buy the solid state drive, but I'm a dork.