I am buying a home computer from a local PC shop that I have had many good experiences with.
Basics: 2.4 processor, 512 RAM, an OK graphics card and a 7200 HDD. They quoted me a 240gig HDD, but they have a 160gig HDD for $40 less. I was thinking of going for the larger just because, but: I have an old HDD of 40gigs that will be put in as a backup/storage and, well, I have a DVD burner now…I’m not going to trust spinning disks. I’m going to backup EVERYTHING I own onto DVD’s (and then I’ll probably back those up onto something else as time progresses). I have a PS2 for games so my computer is only for photos and copying DVD’s. Will I need that extra 80gigs? That $40 saved could go for a faster processor or maybe more RAM.
You realize DVDs are spinning disks too, right? And easier to damage than a hard drive.
Only you know how much data you have and how much more you’re likely to get in the next few years. But some thoughts:
[ul]
[li]DVD isn’t practical for primary storage (e.g. working copies of documents). And the capacity is pretty small compared to a hard drive. I’d plan on keeping a copy of everything on the hard drive for easy access, and only use the DVD for backup and archival storage. [/li][li]If you have a large MP3 player and an extensive music collection, it doesn’t take long to fill up tens of gigabytes.[/li][li]Digital camera images aren’t small. If each image is 2.5MB, and you only take 20 pictures every weekend, that’s still 2.5 GB per year.[/li][li]If you have movie files lying around, that can add up to hundreds of gigabytes pretty quickly.[/li][/ul]
I don’t know if $40 is going to make that much difference regards RAM or a better processer but 512Mb is’t a whole lot (IMHO) but as ever it depends on what you plan to use the PC for.
How annoyed would you be if you realised that in 6 months you needed the extra space and had to cough up $160 for a new HDD because you began to use the PC in a way you couldn’t foretell?
I now have 660 gigs on my PC and that’s still a little cramped… but then I archive all my self-created videos there.
Add working storage for video creation, storage for other files (especially pictures and sounds), plus the boot drive with its spooling and swap space, and all my programs… it’s good, but I think I want to get another 300-gig drive for external backup.
The best way to back up hard drives is with another hard drive (external can be taken off-site and is very convienent). DVD’s are a lot more fragile than hard drives and tend to get damaged more beecause they are exposed.
160 GB is still a lot of space. I work in IT and I have known very few people that have actually used that much. You have to have some serious multimedia files to really use that much. Still, hard drive space is cheap. Get more if you think you might need it. It is easier than moving stuff around later.
I would really like to recomend that you backup to an external hard drive. It will be much much faster. But most importantly it will be much much easier which means you have a much greater chance of actually backing things up often.
160 gigs is quite a lot. Unless you have movies or a lot of CD saved in a lossless or very high bit rate it will be tough to fill it up. There is no point in buying more that you will need.
I’m not doing video manipulation, and movies I have will get burned. I’ll backup the important files on the old HDD’s and DVD’s, and someday will buy an external HDD as suggested. My music files are about 10 gigs now, so I will be fine with a few redundant DVD backups. I’m going to go with the 160gig and apply the money to up my RAM to 768.
It would probably help if you elaborated a bit on what kinds of things you intend to use the machine for; OK, so no video editing; that’s probably the biggest and scariest space-eating activity eliminated, but what will you be doing with it?
Photos, copying DVD movies (that I own! My kid LOVES to scratch the originals…grumble grumble…Simpsons Season 1 skips sometimes…grumble grumble…damn kids…no respect…grumble grumble), MP3’s…The basics. I just would like this computer to last for 5 years of home use. I can answer this ? myself, but I just wanted to listen to others before making a final decision. Most above are saying to buy an external HDD for safety…Great idea, well worth the price of posting a thread. I’ll buy one the next time I’m in the USA (too damn expensive here).
Media storage is one thing; creating the media is another. That 512 RAM is small for what you do. Spend the extra bucks on RAM, at least double it, if not more.
And easier to damage than a hard drive.