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I'm not sure what to do about my computing life...

Tags:
  • media
  • Computers
  • Storage
  • budget
Last response: in Opinions and Experiences
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March 17, 2014 7:52:06 AM

I'm kind of at a cross-roads in my computer owner life and am looking to you, the computer-geek masses for some advice.

I have a 2009-era micro-atx Phenom II X3 OC'ed system running Win7 that I built. It's been dead-nuts reliable and runs all of my software (Adobe CS3, Phoenix flight sim, etc) very well. My conundrum is that my life-style has changed. My faithful desktop PC is non-mobile and it's in a part of the house that is dedicated to office/craft related tasks.

I tend to spend most of my time elsewhere in the house and primarily using my iPhone, iPad or a 2006-era MSI MS-163K WinXP laptop or occasionally my fiance's MacBook Pro for web browsing.

My desktop PC is the repository for all of my photos, media and important files. I have an external 650gig drive that I use as a back-up destination for this PC via Acronis.

My network is currently running on Comcast with a older Motorola cable model and a Cisco/Linksys wireless router. The PC is connected direct via Cat5 cable to the router - it doesn't have any internal wireless hardware.

We don't stream movies or do any intensive PC gaming - so I don't think I need anything with dual GPUs, or water cooling or anything that's bent towards a hard-core gamer.

What I'm looking to do are the following things, but am unsure what computing solutions would satisfy these wants:

- periodic back-up of our media, docs, images, etc.
- at least 1 level of drive failure protection, so if my main HD craps out, I have a clone/image/back-up somewhere so I can get up again without having to re-install everything on a new drive
- ability to do computing intensive work anywhere in the house - work in Photoshop, etc.
- ability to play my flight simulator on my 51" TV (has HDMI & component inputs) without having to drag my PC down from the office.
- will have some upgrade versatility with CPU, RAM, HD or some combination

Budget: A total solution or solutions for less than $1k would be optimal.

Let me know what you all think... and thank you! It's very confusing to try and find a solution out there will all of the options.

More about : computing life

a b G Storage
March 17, 2014 8:47:00 AM

Your description is somewhat convoluted. What exactly can you NOT do today?
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March 17, 2014 8:54:41 AM

I'm looking to simplify my system. I guess I'm wondering whether or not going to a 2-drive NAS in RAID for storage/back-up and then just use a mid-level laptop for general computing/simulation/photoshop stuff.

The ipad and macbook are my fiance's. The macbook is actually her company computer - so we can't really install anything on it.

I'm looking for hardware solutions to upgrade my existing setup to better serve my needs.
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a b G Storage
March 17, 2014 9:19:36 AM

I have a very negative opinion of portable devices. In my mind they are expensive short lived throw away toys. The only place to do any real work (or play) is on a desktop, IMHO. Portables are useful only for those things that REQUIRE portability. If you wind up with portable devices to backup it might be worth investing in a NAS. Otherwise external HDDs are my solution for backup. If you want a raid find an external enclosure for two HDDs.
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April 15, 2014 5:45:11 AM

I'm going to rebuild my existing system with the addition of a SSD for the boot drive and either one of my existing WD hard drives for storage or something new in a Sugo SG09 that I bought.

I'll probably do cloud based storage with Google for my picture files at $1.99/month - for a nice NAS, it'd take just over 12.5 years to make it pay back and the files would still be local and prone to local disasters (we were hit by Super Storm Sandy - fortunately no damage to my house).
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