Core 2 Duo vs. a Core i7
thats probly whole new topic called something like "best processor for photo editing"

in general i7 is faster but I dont think its time to buy it DDR3 RAM still $$$ thn 2nd gen one
so if you can wait for another half a year... maybe they will bump up the processor as well...

My personal thinking is that you would get more mileage out of buying a new PC than you would out of spending $350 and change on a Drobo or some other NAS setup. Let's review your options:

1. Upgrade your PC hard drive - A 1tb drive will run your $80. You will also need a way to clone your current hard drive. There are free-ware alternatives, but the only program I know of that can clone & adjust your partition to take advantage of the additional space that works with Windows XP would be Norton Ghost which will run you another $70.

2. Drobo\ Windows Media Server - This will set you back a minimum of $400. Its a more secure option than upgrading your computer hard drive, but it will slow you down a little (although it may not be the bottlekneck on a 2001 PC).

3. A new PC - I did a quick spec over at Dell and priced a Studio XPS Desktop Core I7 (2.8Ghz) w/ 4 gigs of RAM. That's going to run you $850. That's pretty top-of-the-line as it relates to photo work (note: I skimped on the graphics card... it won't help you much for stills). A cheaper Core 2 Duo mini tower (I hate mini-towers) can get you a nicely speced machine for $500 - $550.

With either of these options, you'll probably still want a separate hard drive. Dell doesn't offer very compelling deals on these. I like my media on a seperate drive anyway as I don't care about backing up my Apps on a regular basis.

If you go the drobo route, you might try and find a first Gen Drobo, which sells without firewire, but is otherwise the same thing.

As an aside, I'd be interested in anybodies thoughts on a high end Core 2 Duo vs. a Core i7 for photo editing purposes. I've got an ageing windows machine of my own.

SIgh. . .I think I might need to get a DROBO setup. . .

My 500GB HDD just had a cardiac when I was copying over pictures last night - nothing was lost, just got an unusual msg I never thought I'd see: "YOUR HDD IS MAXED OUT!"

I think all the post-processing after the weekends since I've gone in business and making multiple pre/post PS copies has taken it's toll. . .so wouldyou recommend the DROBO S for a Win XP user who only has a USB connection (not firewire. . .)

I'm planning on moving ALL my pictures/client pictures on a DROBO or whatever, so I'll be post-processing/PS'ing directly off the drive. . .

I'm starting to wonder if I have maxed out my 2001 PC. . .?

Update:

Well that's typical... the very same moment I purchase a Drobo, they go and release an update: The Drobo S. For about twice the price, the Drobo S adds a fifth bay which allows for dual drive redundancy. This means that your data will be protected even if 2 of the five drives fail.

The S model also adds an eSata drive, which would make it suitable for use as your primary photo drive. To put it in prospective, USB 2.0 will get you about 400 kb\sec. Firewire 800 will double that. E-Sata runs at about 3000. That's fast enough that you probably won't notice any difference between the Drobo and your internal hard-drive.

The one drawback (besides the price) is that it won't work with the Drobo-share. According to DataRobotics PR guy, the decision was made becasue "After Spending $700 on the Drobo S, you probably won't have any money left for a Drobo share anyway". Ha! Just kidding. The emphasis on this model is clearly speed. If, like me, you prefer Apple equipment, then you won't have any use for this thing until Steve Jobs says you do. Who knows when that will be :)

If you do have eSata, particularly in a lap-top, then the Drobo S makes a pretty compelling case to be your primary data drive. For use as a unified backup in a mixed computer environment, you are probably better off with the good old fashioned Drobo.

This product has made me realize that I need to run one more speed comparison. Currently, I use the drobo set up as an air-disk on my airport extreme's USB port. I need to see if there is any improvement in performance if I set it up as a shared drive on my iMac connected via firewire 800. I think Ethernet is still going to be the weakest link, but we'll see. Previously I would never have done this because I'd have to wake my computer to get to my files. I believe Snow Leopard fixed this, so it will be interesting to try it out.

I think new-age-punk-rock group is coming up
all you guys are missing is accordion

I'm more of a spoon player myself :^)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TS9ugnarQQ

Oh and Willis consider your thread officially hijacked now ;^)

Yeah....ya just cain't find this kinda stuff on dpreview ;^)

Great, now this forum has a dueling Dobros thread, lol

LOL ...Steve is very good , but I prefer Jerry Douglas !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClKSED3yM3w

ROFL Shutterdancer... I've got a little bit of country in me, but I like to think that I escaped most of the east Texas vernacular. West Texans mispronounce and misuse words... but they don't often flat out make them up like they do in East Texas.

That said, you don't have to be from Texas to enjoy some good old Dobro music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBvGi289OOE&feature=related

Willis.....seeing as how you are from Texas...I think....when I saw this post....being a country boy..who can't spell...I thought that you were talking about a musical instrument that took five fingers and a slide to sound good...I play a Dobro...but I never heard tell of one of em ar Drobos. ;)

I'd always read that FireWire 400 was still slightly better for large files... Something about bursting. It's always frustrated me that apple has ignored esata, but I'll forgive them if lightpeek fullfills it's promise.

mb - AFAIR USB is 480 and Firewire 400Mbit/s, while FW800 is 800Mbit/s, while e-sata gives You 3000Mbit/s - that's a big difference, can't wait when apple decides to implement it in macbooks

Willis said:
Mb - I actually looked at that product. Its priced really nicely, but I really wish it had Firewire (Liscencing firewire must be a huge pain, because everybody seems to charge a $80 premium for it). Moving a TB of data across USB is painful. I wound up settleing on the Drobo because I liked the idea of being able to expand the capacity on the fly. With RAID, you have to use two drives of the same size which means upgrading it is a no-go.

I also like all the extras that the drobo can do via the apps... but that part of the review isn't ready yet.

USB is actually a bit faster then older implementations of FireWire and is much cheaper to implement:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/resources/DriveCompatibilityguide.asp#external
Anyway I am currently looking for an affordable and big enough eSATA solution, should be very fast and I could put all my drives in it.

Thanks Willis that's exactly what I wanted to know. My wife bought an LCD projector and some Bose speakers. So now we're watching movies just like at the movie theaters. I'm even wearing those stupid 3D glasses. Seriously.

I know the apple tv plays back at 720 p. The movies I rip are at standard def DVD quality. About 2.5 gigs per 2 hours.

I've rented movies in HD from iTunes that play back just fine. I think 80211.n would probably choke on full 1080 without a few min of buffering

if you think about wifi, you are going to do a gig every min or two... Childs play against a 2 gig 1 .5 hour DVD. A 20 gig blue Ray film is a little tougher.

oh yeah your right adamz. I was just wondering how Willis views his.

niko, I sometimes stream my videos from my main itunes library over to apple tv via wi-fi and it works w/o any problems - HD quality movies from itunes store

Willis at what resolution are you watching your movies wirelessly at? Are you getting any lag or stuttering?

It wouldn't be any good for Hooking it up directly to a tv. It does stream to my laptop flawlessly over wifi. I haven't tested it with my apple tv yet, but I expect it to be similarly excellent. I'll add a section on streaming when I get more time with it.

On a side note, I'm bummed because I don't think it's going to work as I intended it to. My plan was to use it as a centralized lightroom repository. It works beautifully on my mac, but my xp desktop runs slow. I think it's because I formatted it with HFS whichdoesnt play very nice with windows. If I go with the windows file system then I can't use time machine. I'll have to set up a seperate partition or something.

nau said:
I swapped my perfectly fine CRT for LSD just so I can watch my photos in a good rez : )

You traded your CRT for drugs? Wow, I wouldn't share that around here with everyone nau they might get the wrong impression of you :^)

ok question: doesnt look like it got HDMI out put... this days that makes it kinda useless for media purpose

I swapped my perfectly fine CRT for LSD just so I can watch my photos in a good rez : )

re: My Book Mirror Edition
I think its a great product BUT 2 of my mates who had it both had issues ... 1 end up taking it back for swap...

Mb - I actually looked at that product. Its priced really nicely, but I really wish it had Firewire (Liscencing firewire must be a huge pain, because everybody seems to charge a $80 premium for it). Moving a TB of data across USB is painful. I wound up settleing on the Drobo because I liked the idea of being able to expand the capacity on the fly. With RAID, you have to use two drives of the same size which means upgrading it is a no-go.

I also like all the extras that the drobo can do via the apps... but that part of the review isn't ready yet.

although it's another price league, but did some of You used WD ShareSpace?

What I use and recommend is WD My Book Mirror Edition ...
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=466
Not too expensive, has two drives in mirror setup so it is redundant enough.