What to upgrade to (1 Viewer)

[Ted Y.]

I have had hubs in the past, but they all ended up going faulty, dropping the connection, which was a bit frustrating. Maybe new ones are a bit more reliable?

I have not had bad experiences with USB hubs but I am not an intensive user.
Meaning a few devices are connected and used in the same time, and always only one hard drive / SSD connected and transfering small files.
I just hope the products improve in time, at least for companies with a lot of buyers wanting to stay in business.

 

[Scridifer]

One thing to bear in mind Delia, as Ted hinted at most laptops these days don't have internal CD/DVD drives as the manufacturers strive for ever slimmer lines.

Chris

 

[delia todd]

One thing to bear in mind Delia, as Ted hinted at most laptops these days don't have internal CD/DVD drives as the manufacturers strive for ever slimmer lines.

Chris

Thanks Chris. So (possibly) pay more and get less. Grrrr

It seems, for the same facilities, I'm going to have to get extra equipment, taking up more room in limited space, when I'm trying to de-clutter LOL.

 

[IanW]

Thanks Chris. So (possibly) pay more and get less. Grrrr

It seems, for the same facilities, I'm going to have to get extra equipment, taking up more room in limited space, when I'm trying to de-clutter LOL.

Hello Delia, have you considered looking at an All-in-One desktop. These are essentially a screen, keyboard and mouse and therefore take up a small footprint on a surface with no need to store a base unit. I have previously used a HP (7 years and still going strong but slow) but have in the last year moved to a Dell which is super fast. My use is mainly photos and the processing is now rapid! The screen size will be generally between 23 and 27 inch so very good visuals. As mentioned earlier they use both SSD and hard disk for storage. The (minor) drawbacks are that the USB ports are situated at the back (overcome using a USB hub - no problems) and no CD/DVD (overcome by a small DVD drive from Amazon). I see the smaller screen version of mine selling for around £750 currently on a certain PC store website.

 

[delia todd]

Hello Delia, have you considered looking at an All-in-One desktop. These are essentially a screen, keyboard and mouse and therefore take up a small footprint on a surface with no need to store a base unit. I have previously used a HP (7 years and still going strong but slow) but have in the last year moved to a Dell which is super fast. My use is mainly photos and the processing is now rapid! The screen size will be generally between 23 and 27 inch so very good visuals. As mentioned earlier they use both SSD and hard disk for storage. The (minor) drawbacks are that the USB ports are situated at the back (overcome using a USB hub - no problems) and no CD/DVD (overcome by a small DVD drive from Amazon). I see the smaller screen version of mine selling for around £750 currently on a certain PC store website.

Thanks Ian.

I did see mention of some All-in-Ones somewhere but it didn't mean much, as I didn't know what spec I should be looking at LOL. I presumed it had a tower. Sooo,,,, where is the hard drive on these - sorry, can't get my head round it yet.

 

[Essex Tern]

I’m currently using this keyboard and mouse with a laptop, only uses one USB and cheap as chips if you use rechargeable batteries - so far no complaints, not luxury, but they work.

 

[IanW]

Thanks Ian.

I did see mention of some All-in-Ones somewhere but it didn't mean much, as I didn't know what spec I should be looking at LOL. I presumed it had a tower. Sooo,,,, where is the hard drive on these - sorry, can't get my head round it yet.

Hello Delia, the drives are embedded in the rear of the screen. The screen is about 3cm thick so clearly the drives are thin. Bit like your laptop where the drives will be under the keyboard. With a modern All-in-One you can even tuck the keyboard under the screen out of the way when not in use.

 

[Anon2020]

I would second the suggestion that you go for a All-In-One desktop. I work from home and have been using an HP 21” screen version for six years now without any problems. It’s used for word processing, annotating ‘photos which I take for my work and connecting to work related websites.

It takes a while to boot up if switched off but left in sleep mode that’s not a problem. I’ve heard that new versions with solid state drives are much quiker.

 

[Mono]

There is a Dell All-in-One in the sale at the moment. No CD/DVD but then not many come with those anymore.

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[delia todd]

You mean something like this one: PORTUS PRO AIO-102 24" PRO ALL IN ONE PC INTEL i5 11TH GEN/ 16GB RAM/ 256GB SSD / 1TB HDD / R.SCREEN

Not saying that's what I've decided on, just the first one I came across on Googling. However, if you say it would suit my needs I might settle on it.

Are they a good company?

 

[delia todd]

There is a Dell All-in-One in the sale at the moment. No CD/DVD but then not many come with those anymore.

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Thanks Mono... we cross posted, so I'm looking at it now

 

[Anon2020]

You mean something like this one: PORTUS PRO AIO-102 24" PRO ALL IN ONE PC INTEL i5 11TH GEN/ 16GB RAM/ 256GB SSD / 1TB HDD / R.SCREEN

Not saying that's what I've decided on, just the first one I came across on Googling. However, if you say it would suit my needs I might settle on it.

Are they a good company?s

You would need to do a little research, read reviews etc.

I know next to nothing about computers - they’re just tools which most of us now need but yes the PC above is the sort of machine I use although obviously more modern and presumably faster and more efficient. I’ve never heard of Portus but as I’ve stated I know very little about computers and rely on third-party recommendations on the rare occasions I need to make a purchase.

Good luck and I hope you find something suitable without too much stress!

 

[delia todd]

You would need to do a little research, read reviews etc.

I know next to nothing about computers - they’re just tools which most of us now need but yes the PC above is the sort of machine I use although obviously more modern and presumably faster and more efficient. I’ve never heard of Portus but as I’ve stated I know very little about computers and rely on third-party recommendations on the rare occasions I need to make a purchase.

Good luck and I hope you find something suitable without too much stress!

Thanks Anon.

I know little about computers as well. Know how to operate them until they go wrong LOL.

 

[Steve Babbs]

Although I have never been an Apple fan or a laptop fan, when I spent some time researching this for my son, the Apple Macbook Air

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came out as a fairly clear winner. He got one and is very pleased with it. Re desktops lasting, my present one is I think about 4 years old. That's about as long as I've got laptops or desktops to last.

 

[delia todd]

Thanks Steve.

 

[Ted Y.]

I reckon is a good idea to count the connectors for peripherals and understand the type of the connectors.

Here is my opinion, in simplified terms.
A laptop with 2 Thunderbolt and 1 USB C (the Apple one?) is not directly compatible with USB 2 or USB 3 peripherals. When a hub or a cable has the name Thunderbolt in it, the prices are so different. These connections are way more performant (speed) if one has the adequate peripherals. But a mouse, a keyboard, an external DVD, nothing to gain with this. Even an external storage unit can have a connector USB type C without the performance of the USB C, because the SSD inside is in general a SATA one and the speed is at the level of USB 3.

A laptop with one USB C, one USB 2 and two USB 3 is direct compatible with USB 2 or USB 3 peripherals.
Not having the peripherals to take advantage of Thunderbolt is my reason to stay at the USB 3 level. This and the $$$.

I think is better to evaluate the total cost of ownership before deciding: laptop + hubs + cables needed in each case.

 

[delia todd]

Thanks Ted. Think I'll need to read that a few times to fully understand it. LOL

 

[dixonlau]

Perhaps a Tablet? Nowadays a tablet can be quite powerful even for intense photo or video editing. You can always get an external wireless/bluetooth keyboard when you like get back to that full typing experience.

I'm using 2017 13" Macbook Pro on Windows 10 thru Bootmap with 16GB RAM. External SSD hard drive super fast.

Photo & video editing will depend what software you are using. Some software only works well on more powerful computer. I'm using Capture One Express, Affinity Photo, Topaz DeNoise, Topaz Sharpen, PhotoScape for photo related. For video I use Movavi Video Editor. Works well.

 

[delia todd]

Perhaps a Tablet? Nowadays a tablet can be quite powerful even for intense photo or video editing. You can always get an external wireless/bluetooth keyboard when you like get back to that full typing experience.

I'm using 2017 13" Macbook Pro on Windows 10 thru Bootmap with 16GB RAM. External SSD hard drive super fast.

Photo & video editing will depend what software you are using. Some software only works well on more powerful computer. I'm using Capture One Express, Affinity Photo, Topaz DeNoise, Topaz Sharpen, PhotoScape for photo related. For video I use Movavi Video Editor. Works well.

Thanks Dixon

So that's another route to addle my old brain LOL.

I am taking note of all these suggestions.

 

[MiddleRiver]

I would get a small but high performance laptop. It's just so nice to be able to drop it in a bag or move to deck/porch...

Dell XPS 13 Laptop | Dell USA

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Add and external monitor and cordless kbd/mouse combo and you can't tell it's a laptop you are working on. These days you can get a large LCD for under $200. Kbd/mouse combos prob as low as $50

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If you ever need a DVD player, you can get externals for $30-40. These days I don't even keep mine connected since most software deliveries etc. are download only. I no longer use discs to archive photos, just because tiny portable SSD drives are huge capacity and inexpensive.

Dell hubs are expensive (if you need it) but i got my first one at local Staples and I think it was around $50. Enough to give me some extra USB ports.

I pondered a tablet/laptop combo and decided it wasn't necessary for me, even after years of carrying one on-sites and sketching directly on panels with stylus etc. These days I just don't need it enough to justify add'l cost.

Just one data point... ymmv and all that!