Hi Mat,

If you don't play any graphics intensve games and don't otherwise need a lot of RAM, why not just stick with the exisiting one and buy one or more external USB connectable hard drives and move a lot of content off your exisiting hard drive?

Otherwise storage is a personal issue - if you want to store all your content in one place, then I'd go the 2 Tb.

I'm sure there will be lots more input from other guys in here...

Oh, and I assume you have a desk top?

These days you have LOTS of options from Desktop, Laptop, Tablets etc .

You're very welcome.

As to the external hard drives, yes - you just plug them into a USB port and software on the external hard drive does the rest, you then just use Windows Explorer to navigate to the external hard drive, create folders - drag and copy/move objects etc. The smaller ones draw their power from your computer, larger ones require a 240v source (cable supplied).

If you are going to purchase another computer, make sure it has USB3 ports available, these tend to provide a faster transfer rate between the PC and plugged in device.

As to streaming videos, bare in mind the extent to which you view these in real time (without buffering) is also governed by the speed of your internet connection, that is how many bytes you can download at any given time.

If you google External Hard Drives, there is tons of info and products on offer to give you an idea.

I use these guys al the time for any computer related issues. Staff are helpful and knowledgeable and their prices will beat all. They will build a computer for your specs for a very reasonable price.

cheers OX

Budget? and does that include monitor aswell/

PC prices are so cheap i shudder to think what ive paid in the past

Regardless what id suggest is

Depending on budget

socket 1155 i5 quad core

motherboard with Sata 6 and USB 3.0

Video card not really important any entry level card will be sufficent with flexibilty of HDMI out.

8gb ram as its so cheap youd be crazy not to

120gb SSD for windows and progs (trust me there worth the coin)

1tb for storage

24" LED LCD these are the sweet spot for size and price.

all can be had for well under a grand.

This is all from PLE shopping around could save you another 50$ but thats upto you if its worth the trouble.

PictureDescriptionQuantityUnit PriceExtended Price THERMALTAKE V4 BLACK CASE USB3.0 - 500W PSU

$82.00$82.00RemoveINTEL CORE i5 3470 IVY BRIDGE 3.2GHz 6MB RETAIL BOX

$197.00$197.00RemoveXFX HD6450 SILENT 625M/1300M PCIe/1GB/DVI/HDMI/VGA

$39.00$39.00RemoveCORSAIR FORCE 3 120GB 2.5" SSD SATA3 550/510

$114.00$114.00RemoveWESTERN DIGITAL CAVIAR GREEN 3.5" 1TB 64MB 7200RPM

$85.00$85.00RemoveG.SKILL 8GB KIT DDR3 RIPJAWS X C9 1600MHZ

$59.00$59.00RemoveASUS P8H77-M LE DESKTOP MOTHERBOARD

$89.00$89.00RemoveSAMSUNG S24B300H 24" FHD WS 5MS LED MONITOR

$184.00$184.00RemoveMICROSOFT WIRELESS DESKTOP 800

$29.00$29.00Remove   Cart Total$878.00 

 yes, definately agree on the solid state hard drive and 8gb of ddr3 ram.

SSD way to go for notebooks. I've just bought an ASUS SSD i5 beautiful unit. Only drawback is that it uses most of the RAM for memeory so if you want to store large amounts of data it's best to get an external. But they are great for portability.

At current prices it's affordable and reduces the risk associated with a shared system with that much data. Either way you will need a large external HDD to act as backup. Disks fail and the loss of so much can cause PAIN! You could even use your existing system as a source of file sharing. Maybe just upgrade it a bit. I purchased a few USB wireless dongles to get rid of the spaggetti wiring around the house. Also bought a wireless printer.

It's a bit like buying a boat for me. If I do it requires 2 motors so at least I have something to fall back on if one fails.

Wow, thanks for the advice Dreamweaver, OX, StevieP and sea-kem, it's exactly what I need; suggestions from people who know heaps more about it than me. In particular StevieP, thanks for going to all that trouble to demonstrate what I could go for from Ox's suggested supplier.

It sounds like a 120gb SDD is important, so I'll make sure I get one. I'll also be sure to get 8gb of ddr3 ram. I imagine these have something to do with the speed with which your computer processes information. Would it be worth getting more gbs with these if I have the budget?

Budget-wise I was thinking for my needs I shouldn't have to spend much more than $1500 and I was thinking I already had an okay monitor, keyboard, speakers, etc so your suggestions are all still well under what I was expecting. I'm sure my current computer would now be worth about 50c, so I don't want to pay mountains for something that will be obsolete in a few years time.

Again, greatly appreciated.

Mat.

Cheers Vince and thanks for your comments.

Now the more I'm hearing, the more options I'm thinking about. I understand your comments in relation to two motors and I do have a couple of external HDDs that I try to back things up on on a pretty regular basis. As Dreamweaver alluded to, the issue I'm struggling with is trying to store it all in one place. I do have a spare USB port in the back of my computer and a couple in the front, so it would be easy to purchase a 1TB HDD (or maybe two, the second one for backing up every so often and leaving disconnected most of the time as insurance against losing precious photos and videos of babies being born and first steps, etc) and move all my photos, home videos and music on to.

My next question is; If I purchased a 1TB external hard drive, moved all my photos, etc to it and left it permanently plugged in to my computer, is there a way to get my computer to accept it as part of its normal storage? So is there a way of making an external hard drive equal to adding internal hard drive to your computer? What I'd like to ensure is that my computer automatically goes to it and uses the photos, etc to scroll through as a screensaver, without having to always go to "my computer", click on the external device, go to photos stored and then set up a slide-show.

The above may seem like a stupid question (hey, I did admit to being a dinosaur in my original post) and it may seem like a minor function to be able to have your computer scroll through past photos, etc but this has been probably the most used aspect of our computer and has led to some wonderful moments and great learning opportunities with our daughter (now three). The random photos remind her of who her family members are and leads to conversations about her earlier years, other countries (through photos of my wife and I in Egypt, France, etc), fishing (through the limited pictures I have of past captures), etc. So mostly my main desire for a new computer is so that I can keep and add to our collection of stored stuff without having the computer seize up through lack of HDD.

Thank you all for your help so far.

Mat.

Mat,

A stupid question gets a stupid answer!!!!

The answer to your question is a simple one..... Yes it is just like adding an internal one. Once plugged in and turned on Windows will automatically allocate a new drive letter.

If I can plug one in, turn it on and work with it then anyone else should be able to

Thanks for your assistance Vince, David and others. I think I'll have a bit of a muck around for the moment with a decent external HDD and see if storing all our photos, etc on it is user friendly enough for the wife and daughter. When I'm down in Perth at Xmas I'll head in to PLE, take in a copy of your suggestions and have a bit of a chat with them about the best specifications for a computer to suit our family. Hopefully with the background you've all so kindly provided I won't sound like too big a wally!

Your help has been much appreciated and I look forward to an opportunity where I can provide some assistance in return.

Mat.

Hey there's Dreamweaver, how goes it General Dreamy old fella?

Cheers

Dale

If you dont play up to date games then your old computer with an external Seagate etc type EHD will be the go. I have two that back up data, and the one backs up the other one. Piggy back backup. The stuff is precious.

But with the price of technology nowadays I have an upgraded laptop, that basically is a duplicate system. I have a Son in law that likes to spill things through stupidity, so he now has his own Apple shit which I also cant get used to. For what I needed I think the laptop was $800. Nothing flash but loves working with the GoPro.

In otherwords dont throw away the old one, use it as a backup.

Otherwise the "tecno" advise above is spot on. Get the most memory, RAM etc you can.

But then I am a dinosaur aswell.

Cheers

Neels

By the way Pilbara $$$$. The same unit I got in Perth would have set me back $1200. Hows that for a rip.

 Dale - good tx mate :b)

Oh Vince lol that was a joke :b)

Matt yes, one plugged in the Ehd will be seen as just another hard drive you could always ad a desktop short cut to any folder yoi created. As long as you plug the ehd into the same usb port each time.

Mat, i'd Spend the extra cash and buy the i7 processor, they are not that much more but the enhanced performance is noticable.

Operating system, windows 7 64 bit, as uncuttrigger stated, 32bit has a memory (ram) limitation of 4gb.

Memory - (ram) 8 GB, its cheap, and if your going to use a gopro in the future and want to do a bit of video editing, this will be helpful.

Dedicated video - not required straight away, if you find your video editing, photo editing displaying as clear and crisp as you would like, can always add one later!

Storage - Solid state disks (SSD) is the way to go for you main operating system drive, this will help when loading and utilising applications.

External storage. - There are devices out there (Western digital make one) that have 2 built in hard drives, and connect to your pc via a USB cable. The idea behind the 2 hard drives is they are mirrored (Data is written to one disk, then mirrored to the other) that way if one disk fails you still have another disk with your data on it. Very good from a redundancy point of view, and what i use at home, as well as some small offices we have around the place.

Neel, Bodie and Dreamweaver, thanks for your additional input.

All advice seems to be pointing in the same direction. Firstly have a play around with external hard drives and use them as an added insurance for data. Back up the external hard drive with another one or use the old computer to do this when another one is purchased.

When going for a new computer get at least an i5 processor, 64 bit operating system, 8GB memory, 120gb SDD, 1TB storage and dedicated video. These should cope with my humble needs and with anything I might want to do with GoPro. If the budget allows, uprade everything to the next level (e.g. i7, 2TB, etc).

Now that I know what I need to get, I'll also also get my act together, stop being an ignorant dinosaur and learn a bit more about what each of these components does so I don't have to bug others for advice. Thanks for being polite and generous enough not tell me this in any of your posts. 

Mat.

 you are very welcome, had a client recently when aske who her isp was, told me google lol, we all have our areas of interests