hardware, purchasing question

[iancapable]

It's getting closer to the time that I shall be buying a new Mac (patient waiting for money, then MWSF announcements) and I am torn between a choice I have.

Do I buy a Mac 24" with a 250GB HD and buy a LaCIe 320GB USB drive? Or do I just get the upgrade to a 500GB drive on the mac?

What would you do and why?

 

[ascender]

Get as much HDD space as you can afford because sooner or later you will fill it. But if the budget could be spent on a larger screen instead, go for that. External and network storage is so cheap now that there's lots of options available for you when you need more space.

 

[jsw]

I agree that the larger the HD, the better, but, given your budget, an external drive would be my recommendation, as it would provide you with backup capability and might come in handy when Leopard (OS X 10.5) comes out.

For what it's worth, 400GB costs very little more than 320GB, and 500GB isn't much more than that (when it comes to external drives). I personally recommend buying an internal drive (off someplace like newegg.com) and an external case with Firewire (FW800, if you get the 24"); it's often much cheaper than a pre-made external. I like these - and note that you can buy just the case if you have a drive already.

 

[iancapable]

I agree that the larger the HD, the better, but, given your budget, an external drive would be my recommendation, as it would provide you with backup capability and might come in handy when Leopard (OS X 10.5) comes out.

For what it's worth, 400GB costs very little more than 320GB, and 500GB isn't much more than that (when it comes to external drives). I personally recommend buying an internal drive (off someplace like newegg.com) and an external case with Firewire (FW800, if you get the 24"); it's often much cheaper than a pre-made external. I like these - and note that you can buy just the case if you have a drive already.

.... God America has such cheap kit... Why the hell do we have to pay so much in the UK? It pisses me off... Everything is so god damned expensive here!

I don't have a budget, I'm just trying to see sense, for the price of the 500GB HD upgrade through Apple for the 24" iMac (which is £140) I can get two external LaCIe 320GB USB HD's... That's a grand total of 620GB as they are about £70 each (roundabout).

Crazy eh? But the question is how would a bigger internal drive benifit me? If I just used the 250GB for installation of software, games etc and one of the 320GB drives for music, photos, data and the like... Then the other to mirror that drive it seems like a good solution. Apart from one thing: It will mean two drives hanging out of my nice clean iMac, unless someone can suggest a means of hiding them? HAHA (noting that I can't get a shelf to put them on under the iMac, I might be 6 foot 3, but my g/f is 5 foot 4 and wouldn't be able to see anything!)

Is there some sort of external housing that I could stick more than one [internal] drive in?

 

[jsw]

Well, I highly recommend a Firewire 800 external case (USB 2.0 is very slow by comparison) , and they do make a few that support multiple drives (look around on the site I provided above for examples).

However, since you can daisy-chain Firewire drives, you could always buy a couple of cases, chain them together, put them somewhat far away, and run a single FW800 cable to your iMac. Get one of those metal-mesh type boxes, put the drives inside of that, and you'll barely see them.

 

[iancapable]

Well, I highly recommend a Firewire 800 external case (USB 2.0 is very slow by comparison) , and they do make a few that support multiple drives (look around on the site I provided above for examples).

However, since you can daisy-chain Firewire drives, you could always buy a couple of cases, chain them together, put them somewhat far away, and run a single FW800 cable to your iMac. Get one of those metal-mesh type boxes, put the drives inside of that, and you'll barely see them.

That sounds like a plan! I really liked some of the drives from the link you gave me... It's just a pity that I live in the UK! As I can't seem to find anything that compares...

I don't want to import as we have different power requirements and I will get charge duty like mad haha.

Hmmm firewire! Lemme looksee I think

 

[simontarr]

.... God America has such cheap kit... Why the hell do we have to pay so much in the UK? It pisses me off... Everything is so god damned expensive here!

I think it's mainly because our wages are higher in comparison. Percentage wise, Americans probably spend the same amount of money on their macs as we do. I haven't worked this out, so feel free to correct me.

 

[emptyCup]

.... God America has such cheap kit... Why the hell do we have to pay so much in the UK? It pisses me off... Everything is so god damned expensive here!

There are fewer Brits than Americans so your rulers must squeeze you harder to achieve the same standard of living. Don't worry though, our rulers are doing everything possible to drive the dollar into the toilet so the exchange rate should be improving for you soon.

 

[Tarkovsky]

Not at all. We have a much higher standard of living over here. What with free hospitals, unlimited unemployment insurance and state funded University Education for those who can't afford it themselves. And wierdly enough the welfare state is starting to pay for itself.

 

[iancapable]

There are fewer Brits than Americans so your rulers must squeeze you harder to achieve the same standard of living. Don't worry though, our rulers are doing everything possible to drive the dollar into the toilet so the exchange rate should be improving for you soon.

hehehehe! Same standard of living? A house in London on average costs £300 000+ (About US$600 000) and that's a bloody terraced house! It's crazy! From what I know about America it is a lot easier to live there, in terms of buying a house. I'm actually moving outside of London just so I can buy a place... Which means if I was to carry on commuting to work in London (before they put the fast rail links in (I wouldn't dare drive)) it would take me 3 hours to get to work (noting that I would only be living 60 or so miles away from the centre)!

I might be wrong though!

 

[iancapable]

Not at all. We have a much higher standard of living over here. What with free hospitals, unlimited unemployment insurance and state funded University Education for those who can't afford it themselves. And wierdly enough the welfare state is starting to pay for itself.

You can't be serious? We live in boxes, have hugely expensive public transport. The NHS is bleeding money everywhere. We have a government that needs a good kicking in the arse, and not to mention that university is not free! Unless you can afford tuition and top up fees, you leave university at least £20 000 in debt.

Don't get me wrong, I love the UK! But the cost of living is frightening... One good point though is when we go on holiday everything all of a sudden becomes dirt cheap!

 

[Macky-Mac]

You can't be serious? We live in boxes, have hugely expensive public transport. The NHS is bleeding money everywhere. We have a government that needs a good kicking in the arse, and not to mention that university is not free! Unless you can afford tuition and top up fees, you leave university at least £20 000 in debt.

Don't get me wrong, I love the UK! But the cost of living is frightening... One good point though is when we go on holiday everything all of a sudden becomes dirt cheap!

at least you get to go on holiday more often than people in the USA

 

[iancapable]

at least you get to go on holiday more often than people in the USA

Yes... That's true! From what I know Americans only get 2 weeks holiday a year, where as we get a min of 20 days.