Occasional Aspiring Newsletter: Uninterruptable Power, big printers, bigger hard disks
Printers: I have done the research this week on which is the best value ‘medium size’ networkable colour laser printer/scanner/fax. The winner is a Samsung … I like this one for medium size Small Business or demanding home based businesses as it is:
- Fast (20 pages per minute colour or B+W)
- Duplex (prints on both sides automatically saving paper)
- Photographic quality colour prints
- High quality resolution scanning with decent sized sheet feeder
- Relatively inexpensive to purchase (Under $1,000 installed)
- Relatively inexpensive to run (each toner is $150 for up to 5,000 pages – compared to $80 for 1000 pages on cheaper models)
- It’s rated for 60,000 pages a month, which means that while most will not print that much, it is built to last with a minimum of jams etc.
Let me know if you are in the market for a new printer, I can help.
Uninterruptable Power Supplies: These look like big power boards and have batteries inside them so will prevent power glitches from ‘crashing’ your network. They are always recommended for your networking gear and any ‘server’ computers. They are nice to have on any important workstation. They generally will run the computer for 10 minutes or so and if the power hasn’t been restored in the meantime, they will gracefully shut it down, thus extending its life and reducing the risk of corrupted files. They start at about $150 plus installation, a small price to pay for peace of mind and increased reliability.
Disk cloning: I have done a couple of crashed hard disks this week, so have ‘invested’ in a new toy J a hardware based ‘disk imager’. In simple terms this means that I can clone (make a complete copy) of a hard disk in less than half the time than before. So, I can now upgrade hard drives with bigger units more cheaply for you. If you want a larger hard drive, let know and I will quote. To find out how much hard disk space you are using now, on a PC go to <Start> <My Computer> Right-click over the C: drive and select <Properties> You should see a pie chart. If the blue area is more than 75% used, you need a bigger hard drive for storage and to speed up the computer The average life of a hard drive is 4.5 years, if you have less than 25% free space, the hard drive is working unnecessarily hard doing your work and is likely to fail more quickly.
Don’t hesitate to drop me a mail or call if you want to discuss any computer issue.
Regards
Lester
