Monday, September 28, 2009

Online Back Solutions - Mozy Vs. Carbonite...

I recently had the opportunity to demo two of the major players in the online backup arena. Ill keep my review short and simple. I picked Carbonite. Its interface is very easy to understand and if you want the details, there all there right in front of you. I love that they simply place a green or yellow status light on your folders to indicate if they are backed up for you. Pricing is excellent as well, currently only $54.99 for a single computer to have unlimited storage space is a great value. Sign up today, you'll sleep better at night. Promise!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Test For Echo...

check 1, 2... Texted from my iphone, yo!

Lukewarm Deal at Best Buy

Hello, I was doing some computer work for a friend this weekend and the opportunity arose to update my hard drive. I was on the hunt for a 2.5" SATA drive whose cost per GB could justify replacing the nearly full 250GB HD in my Macbook Pro.

Around these parts if we want computer parts fast, we have two choices; BestBuy and Staples.

I stopped by Staples in Bluffton first because I enjoy that its less noisy and often times there's a great bargain hidden in there if you know where to look for it.

Before to long I found that the going rate for a USB 2.0 500GB SATA drive is about $109.99. Though the product itself is packaged and sold as an external USB drive, all we need to do is grab a screwdriver, (or one of mom's good butter knifes) pry it open and inside we find the same internal drive that typically sells to $40 more!

I shopped around in the store for about 20 minutes looking for a good deal, or at least something better than the going rate. No such luck. Since I didn't feel like I had enough capacity options to make a decent decision, I left the store knowing what they had should I need to come back.

I next found myself at Best Buy reviewing the portable hard drive sections. If nothing else, Best Buy had more drives to choose from. Additional brands, storage capacity and sale prices kept me hunting there for about 10 minutes until I stumbled on the what i feel is currently their best deal... The Western Digital "My Passport, Essential 500GB". With a clearance price tag of $99.99 taunting me just slightly above where the product was hanging, I closed my eyes and slowly reached my hand out for one... SUCCESS! It was mine!

I wasted no time in heading for the door to get checked out and start on my way home. I love a good deal and nothing makes me happier than wasting most of a day watching apple status indicators tell me when i can start enjoying life again...

I slammed the car into park in the garage, dove like Luke Duke out the window, rolled into the Kitchen and reached for Mom's butter knives. I wasted no time in cracking it out of its case so I could identify what model hard drive WD had used inside the unit. Turns out its a 5400 WD Scorpio Blue. Tom's Hardware has a great review of the drive here... It's better than average 2.5" drive and the price I purchased it at is comparable to what the internal drive costs alone from Newegg.

All in all, I got what I wanted, when I wanted it. Not a bad sunday!