posted on June 19, 2002 07:28:53 AM
the time has come for me to upgrade my PC and I am undecided as to the size of Hard Drive i should get. I load approximately 200-300 listings per month (hopefully will increase). I don't do a lot of serious downloading but with all the new up and coming stuff that's available I really want to have enough disk space.
As for my .jpg files, I figure I could back them up on CDs. I don't know if i'll have time for downloading music and movies but if I do, those can be deleted or transferred to CD as well.
I originally thought about an 80gig Hard drive, but the techs in my office say that is way too much, that 40gigs is plenty.
So, what do you all have? how many listings and .jpgs do you store on your hard drive and do you back up to CD?
posted on June 19, 2002 07:41:13 AM
I don't know what size your jpeg's are but most of mine are only 7-30K. Even if your jpegs are 200K each you could hold 5000 jpegs in 1 gigabite. I have a 20 gig HD and even with all the stuff on it I have about 15 gig's free. I would rather spend my money on a smaller FASTER HD then on one with more storage. I would think a 20 gig, 7200 RPM HD would be the way I would go.
posted on June 19, 2002 07:49:55 AM
Honestly, online selling and eBay doesn't take much in the way of PC Hardware.
Unless you have HUNDREDS of thousands of images, 40GB should be plenty.
For example, I have around 80,000 images, and it takes up less than 300 Megabytes. I'll admit, I use low-res thumbnails, but bigger images still won't need anywhere near the kind of space you're talking about.
Processor-wise, it depends. If you launch your auctions through eBay directly or an online service like AW, a low-end 300 Mhz system is probably an adequate minimum- just enough to run your scanner software and a web browser. If you use an offline loader like AMPRO, more power is needed, but still not a bunch.
It's just not a processor-intensive situation.
Now if you play a lot of games or do serious video-editing work, then get the biggest, best you can afford. Pretty much ANY PC that you buy new today will be 10 times more than adequate for auctions.
You web connection is usually much more critical. Get Cable or DSL if you can and stay away from dial-up.
posted on June 19, 2002 08:13:37 AM
Get the fast connection if you're online a lot. With cable you can hook up all the computers in the house with no loss of speed and your phone line is freed up.
posted on June 19, 2002 08:41:09 AM
I agree with the others on computer size. In fact, getting a dsl or cable modem might prevent the necessity of upgrading at all.
I am still using a 1998 sony 200mz, 64MB, 4Gig computer for online use with a cable modem and it is definitely faster and more productive than the few times I have to hook in to AOL for backup on my new one.
I bought a Maxtor 40gig external drive to hold pics and files for $200 and it works great as well. That took care of everything I needed without having to get a new one until I needed it for more than just online auctions. I was running 100+ a week until we became too busy with out other business for me to devote the time to Ebay. I am typing this on the old one and I now like the performance I get from it as much as the new one.
I did want a new computer so I went with the Sony 80 gig--because someday soon you will need it for something -- and they were not that much more expensive than the others. I made the mistake of saving a couple of hundred dollars when I bought my first Sony and buying the pentium 1 with 4 gig instead of the pentium 2 with more memory -- I immediately regretted the decision so from now on I will buy top of the line when I do decide to buy. It is usually very little increase in total price to go with more memory and larger drive.
One thing I can say for sure is don't get into the 128 mg ram deals they are offering. It will take more than that to run Windows XP efficiently.
I purchased mine from ubid (new not used or refurbished) for only $600. You might want to check them out but do be careful and read whether it is a new one or not before you bid.
I do not use my new one online except when the cable modem is down because this way I am protecting our important files from viruses. We have a home business so I do a lot of computer work and have thousands of files saved.
posted on June 19, 2002 11:14:34 AM
like everbody else is saying get a broadband connection.
processor speed is not real important i use a couple of p1 133 machines with broadband connection and it works just fine.
I would get the 80 meg HD if you do upgrade the diff in pice should be negligable and while 40 is more than adequate the other 40 cant hurt
spock here......
Live long and Prosper
posted on June 20, 2002 04:21:33 PM
A few weeks ago Best Buy had Maxtor 40GB hard
drives for $74.99 after a mail-in rebate.
Two weeks earlier I bought an 80GB Maxtor
there for $129.99 (no rebate involved;
CompUSA has the same drive for the same
price, but it involved a mail-in rebate...)
Stay away from Western Digital. Late last
year I bought my first WD (an 80GB, because
of price) and it makes LOTS of loud clicking
noises. That is why I bought the Maxtor
80GB, and it runs like a dream!!! I've
never had any problem with Maxtor hard drives.
Z
P.S. A search on Google will confirm that I
am not the only person who has a noisy WD!
---
"Cannot say. Saying, I would know. Do not
know, so cannot say". -- Zathras (Babylon 5)
[ edited by zathras11 on Jun 20, 2002 04:22 PM ]
posted on June 20, 2002 05:25:22 PM
Not sure What type of ebay selling you plan on doing but my Computer is only a 233MHZ with 32 megs of ram win 98 I use many programs and up grade regularly I am running my own webserver with a whole online catalog a mail server FTP server Cgi perl PHP and ASP software all on a 2 gig hard drive with loads of speed and room to spare. http://www.Dman-N-Company.com
Email [email protected]
posted on June 20, 2002 06:44:07 PM
From my experience as a computer guy, accessing the net (including ebay and AW and anything else) doesn't requite that fast of a computer. It is the connection that counts. First try cable, then DSL from the phone company, finally and with great pain your last option is dial up.
As for computers, Systems running Windows 98 run great on a 300Mhz computer with 64 meg of ram.
I am running Windows XP on a Pentium III 667Mhz with 256K Ram. It is plenty fast. The minimum for good performance for RAM in XP is 256. 128 just slows it too much.
As for a hard drive. The "price point" is about 40 gig right now. If you are running Win 98 a 40gig ATA66 5400 RPM drive will be fine. With XP get a 40 gig ATA100 7200 RPM Drive.
posted on June 20, 2002 07:38:18 PM
Before you go out & buy anything, check Gateway's remanufactured PCs. I am on my second one. I have a Athalon 600Mhz wirh 256 Sdram & a 14 gig HD, Completely loaded with Windows 98SE, Microsoft Works, 56 K Modem & 1 yr of AOL Free. My cost was $999.00 2 yrs. ago. I know that prices have come down a lot since then, but a new one would have been $1499.00. I had a 5 yr.old with 166MHz & a 8 Gig Hd that I sold for $400.00 so with a yr.of AOL free, I figured I got a PC for about $400.00. It works like a dream & comes with same warrantee that a new one has. I never store more than a couple hunndred pics. & I down size them to about 70KB. If it is something I want to keep, I download on to a CDRom. I put in a burner & down load all kinds of things on it. After 2 yrs. I still have atleast 1/4 of my hard drive left.
[ edited by sanmar on Jun 20, 2002 07:42 PM ]
posted on June 20, 2002 07:50:05 PM
Note to lindajean: Don't you have antivirus on your machines? I Have Norton AntiVirus 2002, & it updates regularly. I checked the day & it protecting against over 61,000 viruses. I have been hit 3 times in the past yr. & Norton has saved me each time.
[ edited by sanmar on Jun 20, 2002 07:52 PM ]
posted on June 20, 2002 08:41:05 PM
Antivirus (I happen to like Norton too) is an absoulte must. If you have a computer and it connects to anywhere (other then just sitting on your desk) you MUST have an antivirus program. With a cable/DLS modem, I would say that some sort of firewall is a must, ZOneAlarm is free!
