Home Computing Upgrade

Leslie

Leslie

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Leslie
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Hi all,

I'm just about to upgrade my home computing system and would appreciate any advice/comments. I'm currently using a laptop which is about 5 years old and is now slower than a week in the jail.

I plan on getting a new laptop (it has to be a laptop, no space for a desktop in the house) and a NAS.

I'm thinking about this laptop clicky but to be honest it's right at the very top of the budget. If there's something that will be able to handle web browsing, office applications and lightroom that's cheaper i'd probably go for that.

I'm currently using ViewNX 2 (which came with my camera) for very basic photo editing and have decided that lightroom is the way forward just now.

This is the NAS I'm looking at clicky 2 I'm sure I read somewhere that this can be set up in a raid 1 configuration. Is that recommended?

So that's the hardware i'm thinking about my questions are:

1. Would it be preferable to set the NAS up before I set up a new laptop?
2. Would it be preferable to set the NAS up before I start using lightroom?
3. What is the current advice re anti-virus software? When I got my last PC, Norton and McAfee were to be avoided at all costs due to them slowing everything down in favour of AVG or similar free options. Is that still the case?

Sorry for the long post! Kudos if you read this far!
 
First question - why a NAS unit and not a simple USB hard drive for backup?

If you have other uses for the NAS like holding music/video/pictures to play on networked devices etc then it may be a good idea. If the sole use is backing up lightroom files then the network speed restrictions may frustrate you.

For laptops I'd watch hotukdeals for a week or two and go for a bargain they all get excited about quickly...assuming it fits your needs.

As to AV software we all have our favourites. I use Kaspersky partly because Barclays give it to me for free with online banking but mainly because I trust it and it doesn't slow the PC. I think Norton is a lot better now than when it got the reputation for slowing the PC. You'll probably see Avast reccomended a lot as is MS own free security essentials.
 
Thanks for the replies. I've never used a nas or lightroom so both are a step into the unknown so to speak. The nas is going to be used for more than just storing lightroom files though. I want to stream photos and music to my dlna enabled TV.
 
How are the NAS and PC (and TV) going to be linked?

Avast! or Microsoft Security Essentials are the go-to free software offerings.
 
We view pictures on the TV while listening to music. Ours comes from a server but a NAS does the same thing.

Lightroom obviously has to open each picture file as you edit it so you want those files on the PC. Copy them to the NAS as backup but don't work with them from the NAS. Lightroom lets you choose what size to export your pictures at. All our TV viewing images are resized down to full HD - 1920 pixels max width 1080 pixels max height. Makes the file size smaller and slideshows stay fast.

You mention raid but I think that NAS unit only has one drive inside it so it will not do raid... and you really don't need raid.
 
I work with my raw from the nas (over gigabit as mentioned previously). Works fine, unless you're rapid firing through images (they m cause any noticeable effectsay


Damn app.. I can't edit that line so here it is again..

I work with my raw from the nas (over gigabit as mentioned previously). Works fine, unless you're rapid firing through images (they may take a fraction - maybe half a second on huge raw files tops - longer to render preview compared to a local drive) cause any noticeable effects.
 
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