Great Computer Hardware Prices

[CharlieK]

I just received this flier about an hour ago. As always, lots of good stuff from NewEgg. If you get the chance, you really should subscribe to their daily E-Mail Sale reminder.

But note the top item. At 3TBs, and only $119.99 Free S/H, this is a Steal. But let me point out that you should read the particulars right here. By that I mean read the customer rating section. Just click on "feedback" and you will have all the ratings there. This is very interesting in that you will always find geeks, who are willing to 'crack the case' and discover all the wonders within.

And this one is no exception within the Hitachi realm. As usual, this hard drive is a....drumroll please,....a 7200rpm drive. Not a 5400 like all the other makers pack in their exteriour drives. This is significant because 7200rpm drives are the drive of choice for principle OS drives. 5400 drives are usually too slow for power players. So, the upshot is that for a song you can obtain a HUGE drive, that is 7200rpm, and can be used as the primary drive. WOW!!

Of course cracking the case will automatically void the warranty. But who is going to take the time to send it back, at that price, anyway?




One other thing: this item is a great example for me to point out how idiots are able to Muck up rating systems, by showing everyone that they are indeed idiots, cry babies, and just plain malcontents. If you read the ratings, you will see one bad rating. I always pay close attention to ratings, because they can always help me obtain a good idea as to the product,..................and the calibre of the ones doing the rating.

In this case one of the "usual suspects" has been allowed to display his total incompetence to one and all. And fortunately the Hitachi people are quick to jump on the issue. This also tells me that Hitachi is well aware of just how much idiots can influence 'normal' buyers. Here is what I mean, and see if you don't agree with me. Where do these Jackasses come out of the woodwork? He should be running for office.

Originally Posted by TR

TR(1 Egg Review)


Pros: The unit is sleek and looks great on your desk

Cons: The product does not come with the caveat that it will not work with the 32 bit version of Windows XP yet the paperwork and spec's says that it is compatible with XP. The work around is far too time consuming.
Manufacturer Response:

Manufacturer Response: Thanks for your post. The drive does work with Windows XP 32 bit, it just needs to be formatted to work with it because it cannot address volumes over 2.2TB without formatting with the Conversion Utility. It is not really a workaround. You can find the instructions on this page: General Faqs - Index | Index files, under the question "How to format the XL3000 for use on Windows XP 32bit". If you need more help, please call HitachiGST Tech Support M-F 8AM to 6PM PST at 1.888.426.5214 and a technician will be happy to help you through the formatting process.

Regards,

Gene Gilbert

[WickedLou9]

I love NewEgg. I buy all my stuff through them. Laptops,hard drives, XBox, memory, headphones, etc.
I even got a TV from them. I have been using them for years.

[CharlieK]

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

I love NewEgg. I buy all my stuff through them. Laptops,hard drives, XBox, memory, headphones, etc.
I even got a TV from them. I have been using them for years.

Same here Lou. However, I also shop at other places, such as Geeks.com, Buy.com, and some others. I check them all out. But I like NewEgg, because they have easy access to what the customers think.

Of course, one must take the Kooks with a grain of salt. Obviously the same kooks, who post at NewEgg also post at Amazon.com.

[JaJae]

I shop Newegg quite a bit as well as many other online retailers. Newegg tends to be my favorite, but I have to pay sales tax from Newegg so I sometimes find comparable prices from other sites. But I do have 5 pages of orders in my order history..

[CharlieK]

Anyway, better grab up that 3TB drive. It's a real steal at this time.

[The Great Catpiss]

I've come to realize that for an OS drive, 7200 RPM is too slow. SSD is the only way to go for me anymore.

Now for data storage, i'll use a standard 7200 or 5400 hd. They can outperform SSD's on large continuous transfers.

My SSD's are about 250MB/s (bought the fastest at the time). Now it looks like the fastest are 1400MB/s (OCZ Z-Drive R2). Holy crap, I can't even begin to imagine how fast those would feel.

[CharlieK]

Originally Posted by The Great Catpiss

I've come to realize that for an OS drive, 7200 RPM is too slow. SSD is the only way to go for me anymore.

Now for data storage, i'll use a standard 7200 or 5400 hd. They can outperform SSD's on large continuous transfers.

My SSD's are about 250MB/s (bought the fastest at the time). Now it looks like the fastest are 1400MB/s (OCZ Z-Drive R2). Holy crap, I can't even begin to imagine how fast those would feel.

I totally agree here. My next computer will use it. At the present time, speed is not all that imperative to me, so I will watch prices continue downward.

And the large primary drive is not important. I learned a long time ago to store programs and data on a second drive, just in case the OS crashes.

[Donkey®]

Originally Posted by The Great Catpiss

I've come to realize that for an OS drive, 7200 RPM is too slow. SSD is the only way to go for me anymore.

Now for data storage, i'll use a standard 7200 or 5400 hd. They can outperform SSD's on large continuous transfers.

My SSD's are about 250MB/s (bought the fastest at the time). Now it looks like the fastest are 1400MB/s (OCZ Z-Drive R2). Holy crap, I can't even begin to imagine how fast those would feel.

Yeah, when I built my last computer I put in a Raptor 10000 drive for the OS and a 7200 for a secondary...but I also have two back up external storage drives so it wasn't too big of a deal.

I shop Newegg all the time.

[The Great Catpiss]

Originally Posted by Dumpy Dooby

I shop at Amazon or Newegg. Being California, Newegg can get rather pricey. Add about 10% to everything for CA sales tax. Plus shipping. Amazon is no tax and usually free shipping. So I tend to get from Amazon if I can.

Newegg used to let me do will call and I'd just drive down to Industry and pick up my shit, but now they have distribution centers in a few other States, so they don't have will call anymore (because there's no guarantee that the one near me will have it).


Microcenter and Fry's also have great prices sometimes, but again, there's the tax issue. Microcenter's AMD bundles can't be beat though. They have such awesome deals there.

Because of my income level, California sends me reminders every year to pay use tax or else.

Microcenter is not usually the cheapest, but they make up for it by having stores with everything you want and great customer service. Definitely my store of choice. (I used to make the treks to industry too, like 10 years ago)

[The Great Catpiss]

Originally Posted by Dumpy Dooby

Yeah, the newest ones have been able to max out 6 Gbps SATA controllers. I remember Anandtech complaining that they had to go hunt down controllers that could handle the drives.

BTW, those drives that require a 6Gbps SATA controller only push about 500Mb/s. (which is still blazing fast)

The Z-Drives fit onto the motherboard PCI-E and have their own controller.
http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-z-d...press-ssd.html
They get about 2-3x the speed of the 6Gbps controller drives.

[CharlieK]

Originally Posted by The Great Catpiss

BTW, those drives that require a 6Gbps SATA controller only push about 500Mb/s. (which is still blazing fast)

The Z-Drives fit onto the motherboard PCI-E and have their own controller.
OCZ Z-Drive R3 p84 PCI-Express SSD - OCZ
They get about 2-3x the speed of the 6Gbps controller drives.

They still have a long way to come down before I think seriously about one of them.

[The Great Catpiss]

Originally Posted by CharlieK

They still have a long way to come down before I think seriously about one of them.

True,

That said, it's pretty common for people to put $500-$1000 into their system to speed it up. SSD drives now are about $100-$200. Speeding up the OS/App drive is one of the most noticeable improvements that the average user will see. The difference is night and day.

I have two i7 machines. The more powerful one has no SSD, and is MUCH slower than the machine with SSD. On the SSD machine, I can go from a completely off state to having multiple browser windows open in about 20 seconds. On the machine without SSD, it takes a few minutes to go from off to active browser windows. On the SSD machine, I can open Photoshop in 1 second. On the other machine, it takes a good 10 seconds.

You only should need it for OS and applications which should be < 128GB. Mine is 64Gb, but I find that I need to install apps on another drive already. All large files should be on a platter drive. I recommend running backups of the SSD to the platter drive.

My drive currently sells for about $100, which is the first upgrade anyone should consider once they have at least 4GB of ram.

[CharlieK]

You know, a 64 GB drive, or perhaps an 80GB drive, is all anyone ever needs for a primary drive. You can get your OS, and main programs on it, and still have room for a Desktop/My Documents type storage site. The rest should go on a secondary drive anyway. There is absolutely no reason to have everything permanently stored on a primary drive. If the drive crashes, you lose EVERYTHING. What a total waste.

I am a frequent visitor to Gizmos's Best Freeware site. And he is the first to tell everyone that you have no business keeping your stored files on your primary OS drive. It's intellectual laziness. Hell, even our "Equus africanus asinus" knows better than that,......I hope.

[The Great Catpiss]

Originally Posted by CharlieK

You know, a 64 GB drive, or perhaps an 80GB drive, is all anyone ever needs for a primary drive. You can get your OS, and main programs on it, and still have room for a Desktop/My Documents type storage site. The rest should go on a secondary drive anyway. There is absolutely no reason to have everything permanently stored on a primary drive. If the drive crashes, you lose EVERYTHING. What a total waste.

I am a frequent visitor to Gizmos's Best Freeware site. And he is the first to tell everyone that you have no business keeping your stored files on your primary OS drive. It's intellectual laziness. Hell, even our "Equus africanus asinus" knows better than that,......I hope.

Windows + Office + Adobe CS + Visual Studio + a handful of small apps + 2 games = 60GB

I had to do a bit of manipulation to get the User directories running on the platter drive.

[CharlieK]

Here is a great deal, if you are looking for a respectable LCD monitor. It's just a 22" screen, but more than big enough for almost any desktop. But it's price and free S/H is hard to pass up.

But here is another thing that makes it highly attractive. It doesn't look like it is refurbished. And more importantly, it has the 16:10 aspect ration, not the 16:9. This is subtly important, because it is the exact ratio for Beauty, commonly called the Golden Ratio.

Humans are genetically predisposed to find the ration of 1 to 1.6 the most pleasing ratio to view. The most beautiful people incorporate this ratio, and it is something discovered mathematically by Leonardo Fibonacci in the 13th century. My current monitors are at the 16:10 ratio. The 16:9s just don't look right. Unfortunately, the later are taking over the market, and that is a shame.

So, get yourself a nice 16:10 while you can.

[The Great Catpiss]

Originally Posted by CharlieK

Here is a great deal, if you are looking for a respectable LCD monitor. It's just a 22" screen, but more than big enough for almost any desktop. But it's price and free S/H is hard to pass up.

But here is another thing that makes it highly attractive. It doesn't look like it is refurbished. And more importantly, it has the 16:10 aspect ration, not the 16:9. This is subtly important, because it is the exact ratio for Beauty, commonly called the Golden Ratio.

Humans are genetically predisposed to find the ration of 1 to 1.6 the most pleasing ratio to view. The most beautiful people incorporate this ratio, and it is something discovered mathematically by Leonardo Fibonacci in the 13th century. My current monitors are at the 16:10 ratio. The 16:9s just don't look right. Unfortunately, the later are taking over the market, and that is a shame.

So, get yourself a nice 16:10 while you can.

I am not a fan of the new cheap monitor stands. That said, at least this monitor is VESA compatible.

I've had to disassemble and drill holes into some monitor casings so that I could mount a proper VESA stand. (this is not recommended but meets my needs.) My desk has 5 24" monitors on it. Yikes.

I do prefer 16:10. Doing everything in 16:9 makes it cheaper to manufacture in bulk.

[CharlieK]

Originally Posted by Dumpy Dooby

Larger capacity SSDs perform better than their smaller counterparts. While a 64-80GB SSD is all anyone needs, if speed is what they want, then getting the larger capacity current-generation is the way to go.

Isn't it also possible to defragment them, just as with regular disked hard drives?

[The Great Catpiss]

Originally Posted by CharlieK

Isn't it also possible to defragment them, just as with regular disked hard drives?

Absolutely no need to defrag an SSD drive. In fact defragmentation is frowned upon in the SSD area. You see, each sector has a limited amount of writes. Defragging eats up those writes. Another no no is torrents and that type of file sharing software.

Now the systemdrive needs to know how to spread out writes so that each sector gets a limited amount of writes.. Look up sandforce (sorry i am typing in 3d rightnow as my meds kicked in)

[CharlieK]

Originally Posted by The Great Catpiss

Absolutely no need to defrag an SSD drive. In fact defragmentation is frowned upon in the SSD area. You see, each sector has a limited amount of writes. Defragging eats up those writes. Another no no is torrents and that type of file sharing software.

Now the systemdrive needs to know how to spread out writes so that each sector gets a limited amount of writes.. Look up sandforce (sorry i am typing in 3d rightnow as my meds kicked in)

When your 'meds' run out, could you give me a link, where I can 'bone up' on all that?

[The Great Catpiss]

Originally Posted by CharlieK

When your 'meds' run out, could you give me a link, where I can 'bone up' on all that?

Oh gosh... I don't know of any good resources.

Google:
SSD Defrag
SSD Limit Writes
SSD Sandforce
SSD Intel Gen 2
SSD OCZ Vertex 2

The vertex 2 was the drive to get for speed for a long period.
The Intel Generation 2 was the most reliable of the fast drives.

I went with the Vertex 2.

Raid your SSD's:

YouTube - ‪Samsung SSD...