Eligibility to purchase thought the MCSC ends with graduation. Don't miss out on getting the computer you want by waiting until the last minute. While the MCSC generally stocks a variety of popular computer models, delivery dates cannot be guaranteed for items that need to be ordered. Special orders for computer equipment from the Microcomputer Support Center (MCSC) at 175 Whitney Avenue or the MCSC-Medicine at C3 SHM must be submitted by April 26. Payment is due upon receipt of the equipment in the form of a certified or cashier's check or credit card (MasterCard/Visa). Students will be notified when their equipment arrives at the MCSC, and the equipment must be picked up by graduating students no later than Friday, May 24.
Why buy a backup device? Because if your hard drive crashes, you are toast. Why buy a new storage device? Because it's either that or erase the high scores file from "Space Track Avenger".
Backup and storage are complementary ideas; indeed, backups are one way of using storage. But you may also use storage because the hard drive is filled and you don't have room for even a first copy. In either case, breathe easy Ñ storage has gotten incredibly cheap, and it's no longer necessary to pay $800 for a cheesy, warranty-impaired 20MB hard drive. Nowadays you can get a 2000MB drive with those deflated $800, and it has a real, multi-year warranty.
However, are you sure you want a hard drive? There are so many other options! Here are the major categories:
On the downside, removable hard drives are generally fragile, and somewhat cumbersome to use. They can also be expensive when compared with straight hard-drive storage or tape backups (see below).
Zip drives are thus a favored method of backup for those whose backups fit conveniently on a 100MB disk.
Rewritable Optical Drives Rewritable optical drives use magneto-optical disks in place of the removable hard drive or Zip drives cartridge, with somewhat enhanced data stability. While nifty in concept, however, rewritable optical drives have fallen behind in recent price wars. Thus, a 230MB rewritable optical with 5 extra cartridges would cost $948, a Zip drive with 14 cartridges would be about $382 Ñ with about 1400MB of storage in either case.
Tape Backup Units Tape backup units are precisely best used for backups or duplicates of material you might need to restore if, e.g., a system crashes. Tape drives write information on to extremely cheap and reliable, but also extremely slow-to-access electromagnetic tapes. Unlike the case with other storage media in this article, it is impossible to run software programs directly off tapes, and even getting your files off is a fairly noxious task. But then there is the price... an 8000MB tape drive costs $1291, the 8000MB cartridges only $30 each (!) - so you can easily afford to make multiple, gigantic backups frequently. In the high-end backup market, tape drives are hard to beat.
Internal/External Hard Drives The old standard hard drives, now several-fold cheaper than they used to be, and an easy upgrade for many an antiquated system. For example, you can add 1000MB to your Mac desktop for a mere $349, and almost exactly the same for a PC system. Hard drives are made tiny, to fit inside your Mac PowerBook (800MB for $563), or massive, to give you 4000MB of external storage ($1199). And hard drives are still the fastest and best media if you want to run programs off them, rather than merely back up.
NB: All prices given In this article are costs when purchased through the Microcomputer Support Center.
Just a reminder that the Microcomputer Support Center (MCSC) is no longer allowed to honor departmental prebilling requests for computer hardware/software products ordered prior to, but delivered after, 6/30. Special order items should be ordered well in advance of 6/30 to ensure delivery and billing prior to 6/30.
Our newest arrivals at the counter are:
Coming Very Soon:
Upgrade your computer with a multimedia kit and enjoy the benefits. With a multimedia equipped computer you can peruse an encyclopedia, load gigantic software packages easily, even listen to the Red Hot Chili Peppers while you grind away at your latest paper! The MCSC carries a number of multimedia upgrades at very appealing prices - for about the price of many CD ROM drives you can have a CD, Sound Card, Speakers, and some software to play with. Prices and descriptions of the kits available from the MCSC follow.
External CD ROMs and Multimedia Kits (1 year warranty)
Internal CD ROM Multimedia Kit for DOS Machines (1yr Warranty, Price Includes Installation)
Internal IDE CD ROM Drives (Including Installation)