Elizabeth Baker
asked on
Need advice on what computers to buy
Hello.
We are in the unenviable predicament of having two households now. In addition to our long-time home in Berkeley, CA, we now have remodeled the family home in Petaluma, CA, with an eye to eventually living there full-time as my 84-year-old MIL's needs dictate. So far, she is doing very well indeed, and we hope, of course, she will continue to be healthy and independent for some time. Until she needs us there full-time, we will be going back and forth quite a bit, splitting our time evenly between the two residences in chunks of several days to two weeks at a time.
The Petaluma residence is 7 miles out of town and we only recently have DSL available to us. We use XP desktops on our (fairly extensive) computer network in Berkeley, powerful enough to run Photoshop and AutoCAD. We will need to buy computers of similar capability for Petaluma.
Also, we travel quite a bit offroad and need a computer for navigation, email, and Office applications (bookkeeping on the road, etc); for navigation purposes, it would need to be able to function as a tablet.
We need some means of transferring documents/files/data from Berkeley to Petaluma and vice versa as needed. My boyfriend does not like using the cloud.
We thought about some version of the new Windows Surface and maybe a docking station for a larger monitor and keyboard. We are not exactly looking forward to buying all new software, as most of what we need will no longer run on XP. Adobe applications (if I understand correctly) are not resident on the computer and need internet connections to run. Windows seems to be moving in that direction, as well. The Surface notebook doesn't have many USB ports, etc., but I guess a docking station would take care of that? We will need a fairly extensive network in Petaluma.
Maybe external hard drives that we can take back and forth would work? We don't know how sturdy and reliable those are if you are contstantly moving them around.
Any suggestions would be very welcome. We're really quite confused!
Thanks,
--elizabeth
We are in the unenviable predicament of having two households now. In addition to our long-time home in Berkeley, CA, we now have remodeled the family home in Petaluma, CA, with an eye to eventually living there full-time as my 84-year-old MIL's needs dictate. So far, she is doing very well indeed, and we hope, of course, she will continue to be healthy and independent for some time. Until she needs us there full-time, we will be going back and forth quite a bit, splitting our time evenly between the two residences in chunks of several days to two weeks at a time.
The Petaluma residence is 7 miles out of town and we only recently have DSL available to us. We use XP desktops on our (fairly extensive) computer network in Berkeley, powerful enough to run Photoshop and AutoCAD. We will need to buy computers of similar capability for Petaluma.
Also, we travel quite a bit offroad and need a computer for navigation, email, and Office applications (bookkeeping on the road, etc); for navigation purposes, it would need to be able to function as a tablet.
We need some means of transferring documents/files/data from Berkeley to Petaluma and vice versa as needed. My boyfriend does not like using the cloud.
We thought about some version of the new Windows Surface and maybe a docking station for a larger monitor and keyboard. We are not exactly looking forward to buying all new software, as most of what we need will no longer run on XP. Adobe applications (if I understand correctly) are not resident on the computer and need internet connections to run. Windows seems to be moving in that direction, as well. The Surface notebook doesn't have many USB ports, etc., but I guess a docking station would take care of that? We will need a fairly extensive network in Petaluma.
Maybe external hard drives that we can take back and forth would work? We don't know how sturdy and reliable those are if you are contstantly moving them around.
Any suggestions would be very welcome. We're really quite confused!
Thanks,
--elizabeth
"we only recently have DSL available to us"
Transfer of large data through the many safe methods will be slow.
Small data such as photos, etc can be easily moved using Skype.
"Maybe external hard drives that we can take back and forth would work? We don't know how sturdy and reliable those are if you are contstantly moving them around."
If you need to transfer / move large amounts of data, then 2.5 inch SSD external hard drives may be the best way, or large capacity flash memory (SD cards USB sticks) these are all very robust and virtually indestructible.
Transfer of large data through the many safe methods will be slow.
Small data such as photos, etc can be easily moved using Skype.
"Maybe external hard drives that we can take back and forth would work? We don't know how sturdy and reliable those are if you are contstantly moving them around."
If you need to transfer / move large amounts of data, then 2.5 inch SSD external hard drives may be the best way, or large capacity flash memory (SD cards USB sticks) these are all very robust and virtually indestructible.
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ASKER
So, do we buy the Windows Surface Pro for both locations with a docking station, monitor, and keyboard, and a large external hard drive to take back and forth? And how do we manage the software without adequate DSL access? There are frequent power outages, and if our software is on the cloud and not on the computers, we would not be able to work. Are there current versions of Adobe and MS products that are resident on the computer and don't need the internet?
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can you give an estimate on the size of data to transfer dayly - weekly - monthly?
that would give us a good starting base
you can use something like teamviewer, for small sized data transfers - even for free
that would give us a good starting base
you can use something like teamviewer, for small sized data transfers - even for free
I do not keep critical data in the cloud. I keep it on my Laptop and I make sure it is backed up on the other machine.
A Surface Pro will do for "away" but I would have a good desktop at one location with lots of storage.
I travel all over all the time. I keep my Laptop with me and it works really well.
A Surface Pro will do for "away" but I would have a good desktop at one location with lots of storage.
I travel all over all the time. I keep my Laptop with me and it works really well.
ASKER
JMCG, there is no cell phone coverage in our little pocket of the universe.
We do know we will have to eventually (sooner rather than later) move away from XP. We've been dragging our feet because of the costs of new software for four computers.
Thank you, everyone, for your input and time. There seems to be no clear solution at the moment that doesn't involve throwing lots of money at the problem, which is exactly what we feared. We will be discussing this at great length in the coming days and weeks.
We do know we will have to eventually (sooner rather than later) move away from XP. We've been dragging our feet because of the costs of new software for four computers.
Thank you, everyone, for your input and time. There seems to be no clear solution at the moment that doesn't involve throwing lots of money at the problem, which is exactly what we feared. We will be discussing this at great length in the coming days and weeks.
New computers with considerably more power than your original XP computers will cost less than they did, so maybe the situation is not as bad as you may be fearing.
On the software side, I can't be as reassuring. That's why I was reaching for ways for you to keep using what you currently use.
There seems to be an issue of interpretation about why your boyfriend does not like working in the cloud. I took it as a reluctance to depend on constant internet connection (in a situation where that internet connection is known not to be particularly constant). Yes, Dropbox is a cloud-based product, but it does not require constant connection. If there's also a concern about data privacy, I offered the OwnCloud alternative.
Whether the obsolescence is planned or unplanned, the juggernaut of so-called progress keeps grinding on and demands that you pay time or money or both to keep up.
On the software side, I can't be as reassuring. That's why I was reaching for ways for you to keep using what you currently use.
There seems to be an issue of interpretation about why your boyfriend does not like working in the cloud. I took it as a reluctance to depend on constant internet connection (in a situation where that internet connection is known not to be particularly constant). Yes, Dropbox is a cloud-based product, but it does not require constant connection. If there's also a concern about data privacy, I offered the OwnCloud alternative.
Whether the obsolescence is planned or unplanned, the juggernaut of so-called progress keeps grinding on and demands that you pay time or money or both to keep up.
ASKER
Thanks, jmcg. His objection is because of internet connection reliability and speed, true, but he does not like the idea of our data being out on the web in any form. I, and he, know that a lot of our personal information is accessible to anyone who really wants to find it, but we don't want to put things like bookkeeping information, private pictures, etc. out there. OwnCloud, though it may be a private "cloud", still goes over the internet.
OK, that's more like being allergic to Internet than disliking the cloud. Can't help much there.
The USB devices that you shuttle your data around on and your laptops, if they're ever left alone in your car, will also need to be encrypted, based on this concern.
It's possible your dwelling could be burglarized, too, so even the home devices will need to be pretty well secured.
The USB devices that you shuttle your data around on and your laptops, if they're ever left alone in your car, will also need to be encrypted, based on this concern.
It's possible your dwelling could be burglarized, too, so even the home devices will need to be pretty well secured.
Nothing you buy today is going to run XP. In fact, in less than a year, you will not be able to buy Windows 7. Surface tablets run Window 8.1 and Windows 10.
Yes, you need new software on Windows 10 compared to what you are using.
I suggest a small laptop as they are "all in one" without need for a docking station if you do not need one.
I use a ThinkPad X230 laptop with Windows 10 Pro 64-bit. I synchronize about 100 GB of data back to my desktop computer daily or more frequently and keep the same applications and data on both.
XP is dead (truly dead) and you might wish to reconsider staying with it. Yes, XP runs and works, but it is now hopelessly insecure and will never be fixed.