Buying a new Computer - Q&A

[spellman]

Been running a SSD boot drive for almost a year now. It's snappy.

You just have to do a few hacks to setup the OS to not put all your personal info on the C: drive.

[Ruff_Hi]

You just have to do a few hacks to setup the OS to not put all your personal info on the C: drive.

That is what I am talking about ... hacks such as ...?

[Ruff_Hi]

I think I have my data back up routine as good as I can get it ... this is what it is:

• my file structure:
  • system and progs on C drive
    
  • data on D drive
    
• automatic events each night
  • incremental backup of C and D to X drive (internal) each night
    
  • contact of all backups (0th and preceding 5 generations) on X drive are archived to external drive each night
    
• automatic event each Tuesday
  • a new incremental cycle (generation) is started and the preceding 5 generations are moved down a slot (0 to 1, 1 to 2, ... 4 to 5, 5 removed) on X drive
    
• about every 5 or 6 weeks (not automatic), I swap the external drive with another that I keep at work
  

[sunrise089]

That is what I am talking about ... hacks such as ...?

I just use Dropbox for document storage. I figure that's about 100x more reliable than anything I can do local on my own system.

Ruff, the jury is in on SSD's bro That said, your PC will be great and I expect you will be very happy with it. But an Intel, Samsung, or Corsair SSD should be if anything more reliable than a conventional hard drive. One day though you'll use a quality SSD as your OS/application drive and I suspect you'll never buy a PC without one again.

[Ruff_Hi]

Ruff, the jury is in on SSD's bro

I'm tossing around a few objects for my birthday (September) and the current front runners are:

• new wide screen pc monitor
  
• wireless keyboard / mouse combo
  
• SSD (added today )
  

Re SSDs - I'm assuming you have a complete install of the O/S on a HDD as well as on the SSD as a backup? Then if the SSD fails, you just tweak the boot order.

[T-hawk]

Ruff, what software do you use to drive those backups?

Dropbox is good, but it's vulnerable to damage of a logical kind rather than disk failure. A virus or accidental deletion propagates immediately into the server-side storage and to all other machines sharing the dropbox. Dropbox does have previous-versioning capabilities but that can't be fully relied on given space constraints for a large volume of files. I feel safe only with disconnected offline backups with at least one offsite (like Ruff, two external drives that I swap back and forth to work.)

[sunrise089]

I'm tossing around a few objects for my birthday (September) and the current front runners are:

• new wide screen pc monitor
  
• wireless keyboard / mouse combo
  
• SSD (added today )
  

Honestly those are all really good choices. All of those strongly impact your computing experience and/or last a really long time. Depending in what you want in a monitor you may consider an IPS or even eIPS panel over the ubiquitous TNs. Honestly it isn't the night-and-day difference a SSD gives you, but you do stare at a monitor for...thousands?...of hours before replacing it.

Re SSDs - I'm assuming you have a complete install of the O/S on a HDD as well as on the SSD as a backup? Then if the SSD fails, you just tweak the boot order.

That sounds like a decent plan but no, I do nothing of the sort. I do us my main PC for work, but if I suffered a catastrophic failure I have other computers I have access to. As I said my files are backed up online. I just don't think my SSD is nearly as likely to fail as my power supply, or even my GPU. However looking at your backup scheme downtime must be much more costly to you.

EDIT: Crosspost with T-Hawk. @ T-Hawk - point taken about dropbox vulnerabilities. However I've never had a virus corrupt my data. I've never known anyone personally who had a virus corrupt their data. Any data I have that's sensitive enough where I'm worried about this tiny risk I'd just backup manually. Of course I don't do like professional video creation where I'm generating gigs of vital data per day. I just hope people keep in mind extreme backup schemes, with 2012 PC reliability, are only needed for extremely important data.

[Ruff_Hi]

Ruff, what software do you use to drive those backups?

It is a combination of 3 pieces of software ...

1. http://www.acronis.com/ for the incremental backup / images. I have 2009 and it does that I need. They seem to tweak their interface every year, (re)introduce bugs and generally piss people off with their new versions.
   
2. A batch file(s) set up that someone wrote to interact with acronis (has tons of options and works like a dream) for the generational backups. You have to get your acronis scheduled tasks set up right if you are Type-A about backup file names ... but that isn't too hard.
   
3. http://www.scootersoftware.com/ (beyond compare) for the syncronization of my internal backup drive with my external drive. Beyond compare can be scripted and kicked off with a batch file.
   

Acronis has 'batch file' options that can run pre-backup and post backup. The generation batch file runs pre and the sync beyond compare batch file runs post.

My backups kick off at 1am so it never bothers me - Tuesday is the longest run (full backup) and finishes by 3am or so.

My data isn't critical, not work related or anything like that ... but I want it backed up. I have lost data before so I know what not having it backed up feels like.

[Kyan]

Maybe you guys can help me. I'm looking to purchase a new desktop PC. I'm purchasing rather than building due to my I.T. ineptitude.

My maximum budget is about £1550 including delivery to the UK.

I was looking at something like this but have literally no idea which bits are worth that extra investment. One key thing to note is that I have serious overheating problems, so that must be taken into account. I also play wirelessly for now (will change once the move is done).

http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/system...rcules_GT/

If anyone has ideas of a better website, or a top notch spec using the above, please assist. Oh... and don't tell the missus

[nabaxo]

Look...1550 GBP is a pretty damn decent budget. You will get a monster-PC for that much. Have fun. :D