Smart shopper: Guides to buy

LCD monitors, storage devices

With PC Fair taking place near you, it will be a good time to enhance your current computing tool. Nigel Yap tells you what to look for when purchasing these devices.

Decide the screen size and the type of connecting port you want when buying an LCD monitor.

External hard disk drives allow you to store more data without needing to open up your PC for installation.

Portable storages are small enough to fit into your pocket.

LCD monitors

With dipping LCD monitor prices, there is never a better time to purchase one. Apart from offering widescreen options, an LCD monitor takes up less power than a CRT. So, if your office has a significant amount of PCs, converting a CRT to an LCD might just lower the electricity bill.

Buying tips

A lot of us would love to plunk our money down on a 24-incher but they aren’t exactly the cheapest LCD monitors in the market. So, we usually have to make do with their smaller brethren – the 19 inchers and 20 inchers.

When you’re looking for a monitor, take into account the size that you’re comfortable with and your budget. Most of the good deals would be geared towards the 19-inch monitors rather than the 20-inch ones.

Once you’ve got the size that you want, the next thing you should look out for is the type of connecting ports on your monitor.

With a lot of graphic cards these days that support high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) and digital videos in HD format, you would probably be looking at a HDMI-compliant monitor.

Bear in mind that HDMI monitors do come with a slight premium. Not all 19-inch monitors support them.

In fact, most of them come with a standard DVI connection. It is easier to look for a HDMI-compliant 20-inch monitor rather than a 19-inch as well.

External hard disks

Many of us download some form of media, and with a broadband connection, a 250-gigabyte of hard disk won’t be able to handle the huge amount of downloaded videos and music. So what do you get? An external hard disk.
External hard disk drives allow you to store hundreds of gigabytes (or terabytes (TB) ) of data without needing to open up your PC for installation.
They’re not exactly expensive: a good terabyte of capacity will most likely cost between RM350 and RM800.
External hard disk drives are also great storage solutions if your office information system infrastructure is running on a tight budget. Instead of spending thousands of Ringgit on a high-end storage solution, this device can double up as your in-house backup system.
Buying tips
Buying an external hard disk drive is rather simple. It’s just like buying a hard disk. What you have to look out for is the capacity that you want.
Usually you will think that buying a lower capacity would be cheaper. But that isn’t really the case when you calculate the cost per gigabyte.
Take for example, a 500GB external hard disk drive that costs around RM230 and a 1TB that costs RM350. At first glance, the 500GB costs less but when you calculate the cost per gigabyte, the 1TB version is more value-for-money. So, when buying an external hard disk drive, take into account how much value you’d like out of your purchase.
Pricing for external hard disk drives vary, depending on the features they come with. Some external hard disk drives function more like a typical high-capacity thumbdrive. You plug it in, and you have access to storage.
But there are some that come with network capabilities – you don’t even need to connect them
to a PC to access the data. These external hard disk drives can also function as network attached storages (NAS). They are useful especially if you’re in an office environment and require a cost-effective storage solution. Some even come with built-in software that allows you to do automatic backups.
So, if you’re looking for an external hard disk drive, keep in mind that the higher the capacity, the more value you get for your money.
Also keep in mind what you’d like to use the external storage for. If it is just for storing your media files, a simple external hard disk drive with minimum functions would suffice. But if you’re in an office environment and require multiple PCs to access the data, an external hard disk drive with a dedicated network port would be more useful.

Portable 2.5-inch storage
If you think that an external hard disk drive is too big the size and want something smaller, you might want to consider portable storages. The good thing about portable storage devices is that they can now store in larger capacities (up to 500GB). Considering that they are small enough to fit into some pockets, having capacities as large as 500GB will allow you to take your video and media collection anywhere you go.
Buying tips
Buying a standalone portable storage is simple. All you need to do is consider the capacity you want and the budget you have. Take external hard disk drives, for instance, the higher the capacity, the better value you would get.
You might want to check the additional applications that come with the drives. Most branded portable storage devices, such as Western Digital Pockets and Maxtor come with their own set of backup software which you can install into your PC. This is an added value to the drives as you use the software to automatically backup your data.
If you don’t want to rely on standalone and branded portable storage devices, you can also make your own. This is usually cheaper as it allows you a wider variety of capacity choices.
Capacities of most branded devices are from 120GB to 160GB. If you do not require such high capacities or you would rather save some money, you can purchase a normal notebook’s 2.5-inch hard disk drive and a 2.5-inch hard disk drive enclosure. This will provide you with your customised portable storage.
A 2.5-inch hard disk drive enclosure also comes in a variety of sizes and functions.
Most 2.5-inch hard disk drive enclosure functions nothing more than to connect the notebook’s hard disk drive to a PC. But some enclosures come with additional functions.
If you are used to carrying your media collection with you, you might want to consider enclosures that come with media-playing functions, which allows you to connect directly to a TV, and a remote for easy navigation of your media.