New Laptop - Specs

Look for USB 3.0. Faster transfer rates. How much info do you plan on transferring at a given time ?

 

my02c for shuffling stuff around - Download 'dropbox' (free) to all of your computers. Once registered, you simply drop whatever into it, and it gets auto- synced into all your other drop boxes. Further, said stuff is also stored in the cloud, so it's a fine backup. You (& others if permitted) can also access stuff from a browser if desired.

No affiliation, just a satisfied user who's life improved after installation.......

Cheers,
Ian

 

Should have mentioned; There's a brand new connection technology on the latest Mac Book Pro's called "Thunderbolt". [It may have also debuted on some PC's by now, but I'm not sure.]

Developed by Intel with collaboration from Apple, it combines data, video, audio & power in a single connection. Many times faster than Firewire 800 and USB 3.0 and significantly faster than eSATA.

There isn't much yet in the way peripherals supporting it, but if you need to move *big* files around it may be worth a look.

Cheers,
Ian

 

Thunderthighs is kind of a meaningless interface for pc-to-pc transfers unless all the machines are equipped with the fastest SSD's on the market today. Kind of funny that Apple is pushing Thunderthighs on machines equipped with 5400 RPM spindle drives that can pinch out a max of 70 Mb/s if nothing else is going on.

 

Classic apple marketing garbage. hahaha. Usb 3.0 is what your looking for. USb 3.0 supporting motherboard will transfer fast. Adding too many other peripherals to the equation will end up being slower because one part will bottleneck it. I'd love to see how my agility 2 runs against apples 5400 rpm spindle drives.

 

Possibly. I wasn't advocating it, just putting it out there as a requirement mentioned by the OP was the ability to move stuff around. I also noted that it was developed by Intel, so I'm sure it'll start appearing on PC's in due course. [Don't want the OP coming back with "wish you guys had told me about Thunderbolt last week! ]

BTW, you're right, Apples marketing is indeed garbage, that's why they're not selling anything.

Incidentally, Gigabit ethernet remains faster than USB 3.0, correct?

Cheers,
Ian

 

From the SJ Merc this morning:

But their marketing is garbage

Cheers,
Ian
PS - Dr W, would you consider an Apple product?

 

Fair enough.

If all you want to move around is tax S/W, I'll stick with my original recommendation of Dropbox.

Cheers,
Ian