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Recent content by choucove

  1. Bought a recond 9020 Dell and have a ? on the drive please

    Both of the hard drives are probably identical drives. The 16 MB of cache is just listing the amount of onboard cache that is on the hard drive. Most all hard drives have some small bit of onboard cache, and 16 MB is actually pretty measly compared to most modern SATA 6 Gbps hard drives (many...
  2. Would I benefit by puttting in a SSD drive in my five year old computer?

    MTBF is a terrible measure of lifespan for hard drives. It became industry standard because it makes hard drives appear much more reliable than they actually are. With MTBF, a manufacturer may take 1,000 identical hard drives and run them doing a basic test. When the first hard drive fails...
  3. Would I benefit by puttting in a SSD drive in my five year old computer?

    The Dell Precision line (as well as the similar HP Z-Series Workstations) are great computers, no doubt. I'm die-hard custom built when it comes to performance computer systems for myself and may others, and for my dad's sign business we have custom-built every computer. They all are Core i7...
  4. Would I benefit by puttting in a SSD drive in my five year old computer?

    Techman, that's actually a pretty unfair comparison. You are showing a benchmark and review comparing a top-end Core i7 with hyperthreading to an entry-level Xeon without hyperthreading. If you put two similar-class processors, both with hyperthreading, together in a benchmarking they are...
  5. Would I benefit by puttting in a SSD drive in my five year old computer?

    As others above have already stated, there would be some advantages to going with a solid state drive on your computer system. Pretty much any computer is going to have a somewhat noticeable performance increase just from the technology and throughput advancement capable with SSDs. However...
  6. Windows XP going away-Browser question.

    We had been using Avast anti-virus pretty devotedly for years, but unfortunately they have made their software quite bothersome and bloated. Like others out there (AVG, McAfee, Norton, the list goes on and on) Avast now advertises constantly on the free version for you to pay for extra...
  7. Mimaki sales and service in Kansas

    Hello everyone! I'm hoping to find out if there are any recommendations or contact information for businesses that sell and services Mimaki printers and cover the Hays, Kansas, area. The previous company we used for servicing our Mimaki JV3 printer (which we are now looking to replace) is no...
  8. Looking to update 3 design computers

    I can definitely agree that the first initial step of getting Windows 8 was a big change even for me. I'm a computer guy, and even with the release of the Win 8 Beta running on my primary desktop it took me a week or so to get acclimated to how things were set up. For instance, having to shut...
  9. Looking to update 3 design computers

    There's a lot of resistance with people moving to Windows 8 for one reason and only one: there is no start menu. Yes, Windows 8 has done away with the ol' Start in favor of a new UI interface (which a lot of neat things can be done with, by the way.) But if you don't like the fact of not...
  10. NAS For Small Business

    I haven't worked with the QNAP brand NAS units, but I've heard good things. I've only utilized Synology/ioSafe personally, but yeah I know when you start looking at some of their larger units you can actually get a standard server for cheaper! Both have their strong points of course, so it...
  11. NAS For Small Business

    Windows does have a built-in Backup and Recovery System that can be very handy, but it doesn't create ISO images. ISO is just a file type for creating images of CDs and DVDs but is not really made for complete computer system images. Putting in a NAS device is incredibly handy for any...
  12. Great monitor for graphic design on sale (24 hrs only)

    That is a great deal! Even the 21.5" model sometimes doesn't get lower than that price, so if you can, this would be a great bargain.
  13. Not sign related, but... Issue with external card reader.

    I'm a little confused here. Do you mean there was an option between 32-bit and 64-bit? That makes more sense for a software version to select for download. In which case yes, for Windows XP you most likely need the 32-bit version. But, I could be very wrong as well, just thought I might...
  14. Not sign related, but... Issue with external card reader.

    Windows XP will respond to a card reader differently than a new OS. Basically what is happening is Windows is recognizing that you are plugging in your card reader, which is a device capable of reading multiple different card types. In this case, I'm imagining there are four card slots or...
  15. 4th grade level question about hard drive ghosting.

    Acronis True Image is the utility we have used to do this for the majority of instances. There is a bootable disk that will allow you to completely duplicate one drive to another, but this cannot be done while you are currently running your Windows environment, it must be done from the bootable...
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