Where to Buy

[Sparko]

Blogging, writing, maybe podcasting and at least some video. I was already planning on an external drive but what kind of SSD should I be looking at?

I would go with 512GB, especially if you have a lot of programs/apps. You can always store your data and documents on another drive, but your programs and apps all get installed on your C: drive.

If you are editing video, then yeah I would go with 16GB, but just blogging and documents, you could get by with 8GB.

[Sparko]

Ah - I've been using DropBox for a long time -- LOVE that I can access my data from anywhere in the world, from any computer or device...

you can actually buy like 2T of cloud storage for $50 or so for LIFE!!!! (one time payment)
Not only do you have access to the data from anywhere (as you know), but it doesn't die when your hard drive crashes.

I've tried GoogleDrive -- and OneDrive, and some others --- always keep coming back to DropBox.

Doesn't dropbox store the files on your hard drive and just sync to the cloud?

[QuantaFille]

Blogging, writing, maybe podcasting and at least some video. I was already planning on an external drive but what kind of SSD should I be looking at?

If you're going to be doing any video editing, then integrated graphics just isn't going to cut it. You're going to need a graphics card.

[QuantaFille]

Doesn't dropbox store the files on your hard drive and just sync to the cloud?

My dad uses Dropbox a lot, and I'm not sure how it works on his end but I'm able to access it and get whatever files I need without having to store everything on my computer. It's super handy if you need to be able to share files with others without using USB sticks or email.

[Cow Poke]

Doesn't dropbox store the files on your hard drive and just sync to the cloud?

You can choose what to do --- you can designate folders as "local" or cloud --- if they're "cloud", they don't take up any space on your hard drive, but they show up in the file structure, and when you click on them, they download to your hard drive.

SO.... data intensive stuff wouldn't be happy in the cloud --- it needs the speed of the SSD.

[Teallaura]

Based on pricing I'm guessing SSD beats HDD but 512gb is pushing the $400 mark. I did find a 1T HDD in the mid $300s.

I'd been planning to get another machine for the video side if I found that I was using it but I do want a machine now that can handle the blogging / writing and let me try out podcasting and video.

So, should I even consider the 1T HDD? https://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...o=1145914&Sku=

Or just suck it up and look at the more expensive machines? https://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...o=1145909&Sku=

I'll price shop once I am clear on what I need - tiger direct has a nice specification chart which is why I didn't have to ask what DDR is.

Thanks so much for the help!

[Cow Poke]

My dad uses Dropbox a lot, and I'm not sure how it works on his end but I'm able to access it and get whatever files I need without having to store everything on my computer. It's super handy if you need to be able to share files with others without using USB sticks or email.

Yeah, and you can even generate a hyperlink of one the files (or folders) on your dropbox to share with somebody without them having dropbox. WAY better than emailing a huge file.

OR, as we do so much here at church - I can share folders with other dropbox users, and they see instantly what's in their shared folder --- the music guy can upload mp4s, or whatever, to "his" folder, and it immediately shows up in mine.

So, I have the 2T dropbox, and we store all the big files on mine, but those other guys have the FREE version (2G (or maybe 5), i think) and they have access to far more data than would fit on their plan, because the data actually lives in my 2T folder.

[QuantaFille]

Yeah, and you can even generate a hyperlink of one the files (or folders) on your dropbox to share with somebody without them having dropbox. WAY better than emailing a huge file.

OR, as we do so much here at church - I can share folders with other dropbox users, and they see instantly what's in their shared folder --- the music guy can upload mp4s, or whatever, to "his" folder, and it immediately shows up in mine.

So, I have the 2T dropbox, and we store all the big files on mine, but those other guys have the FREE version (2G (or maybe 5), i think) and they have access to far more data than would fit on their plan, because the data actually lives in my 2T folder.

Yeah, my dad pays for his plan, and I have the free one.

[QuantaFille]

Based on pricing I'm guessing SSD beats HDD but 512gb is pushing the $400 mark. I did find a 1T HDD in the mid $300s.

I'd been planning to get another machine for the video side if I found that I was using it but I do want a machine now that can handle the blogging / writing and let me try out podcasting and video.

So, should I even consider the 1T HDD? https://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...45914&Sku=

Or just suck it up and look at the more expensive machines? https://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...45909&Sku=

I'll price shop once I am clear on what I need - tiger direct has a nice specification chart which is why I didn't have to ask what DDR is.

Thanks so much for the help!

What I would do, is get something that can be upgraded to handle video later on, which will be cheaper than buying a whole new machine for that.
If you want the ability to upgrade for video, you will need something that you can add a graphics card to. That usually means full-size tower and not a mini or whatever. You will also most likely need to be able to swap out the power supply so you'd need one that isn't a proprietary configuration (looking at you, Dell).

You can probably get away with a 0.5T or 1T or so SSD, and render video to that for speed, and then move the video file to a much bigger HDD for storage. I have a 2T Seagate Barracuda (internal drive) that cost me something like $65 a year and a half ago. Those aren't hard to add on, as long as you have a spare SATA plug on the motherboard and a slot in the case for the drive itself.

[Sparko]

If you're going to be doing any video editing, then integrated graphics just isn't going to cut it. You're going to need a graphics card.

it should be OK for simple video editing. the built in graphics are not too shabby nowadays.

[Cow Poke]

What I would do, is get something that can be upgraded to handle video later on, which will be cheaper than buying a whole new machine for that.
If you want the ability to upgrade for video, you will need something that you can add a graphics card to. That usually means full-size tower and not a mini or whatever. You will also most likely need to be able to swap out the power supply so you'd need one that isn't a proprietary configuration (looking at you, Dell).

You can probably get away with a 0.5T or 1T or so SSD, and render video to that for speed, and then move the video file to a much bigger HDD for storage. I have a 2T Seagate Barracuda (internal drive) that cost me something like $65 a year and a half ago. Those aren't hard to add on, as long as you have a spare SATA plug on the motherboard and a slot in the case for the drive itself.

Yeah, scalability is key. If you start with too small a box, they often don't have the extra slots or SATA ports.
Also - graphics cards eat up amps (or fractions thereof / watts) so you want to make sure your power supply has the power for the future add-ons.
That's something a lot of people overlook.

[Sparko]

Yeah, and you can even generate a hyperlink of one the files (or folders) on your dropbox to share with somebody without them having dropbox. WAY better than emailing a huge file.

OR, as we do so much here at church - I can share folders with other dropbox users, and they see instantly what's in their shared folder --- the music guy can upload mp4s, or whatever, to "his" folder, and it immediately shows up in mine.

So, I have the 2T dropbox, and we store all the big files on mine, but those other guys have the FREE version (2G (or maybe 5), i think) and they have access to far more data than would fit on their plan, because the data actually lives in my 2T folder.

I have a free dropbox plan with I think 13GB. I was looking into going to the 2TB plan but it was too expensive ($9.95/month) for what I do with it. I am happy with my 13GB, the only problem was they recently limited you to only having it on 3 devices for the free version. So instead I have just started using google drive. You get 15GB of space there, file versioning, and no limit on devices. Works great.

[Cow Poke]

I have a free dropbox plan with I think 13GB. I was looking into going to the 2TB plan but it was too expensive ($9.95/month) for what I do with it. I am happy with my 13GB, the only problem was they recently limited you to only having it on 3 devices for the free version. So instead I have just started using google drive. You get 15GB of space there, file versioning, and no limit on devices. Works great.

Yeah, I remember when DropBox was new, and you started out with 2G, but you got additional space as you recommended other people, and they joined.... I think I "grew" my free account (which I still have) to 25G --- and the way I look at the expense -- not only do I get offline storage, but I also get data backup, meaning I don't need Carbonite or some other backup program.

(yeah, I realize DropBox doesn't back up my system files - but every once in a while, I like to wipe a drive and start clean anyway, so I have all my install programs on a separate external drive)

[Cow Poke]

Oh, by the way....

A) Bacon!
2) Trump!

[QuantaFille]

Yeah, scalability is key. If you start with too small a box, they often don't have the extra slots or SATA ports.
Also - graphics cards eat up amps (or fractions thereof / watts) so you want to make sure your power supply has the power for the future add-ons.
That's something a lot of people overlook.

Yeah, frequently pre-made computers don't have a power supply that can handle hardware upgrades. That's why I mentioned getting one that has a power supply that can be replaced. I had a Dell once that was one of their few that doesn't use a proprietary sized power supply (physical dimensions, not capacity) and I was able to swap it out and add a graphics card so I could play Minecraft with Rational Gaze while we were still living on separate continents.

If you get a small form factor tower, you are pretty much locked into the default hardware configuration.