Page 1 of Help Needed buying a pen drive/mp3 player...Does Size Matter? ;)

I need to buy a portable pen drive and I am undecided as to which to buy...can anyone help? I had wanted a metal outer case on the drive, simply because it is durable and because I don`t like the big plastic ugly ones, and I am purchasing it on eBay..(I know prob a bad idea, but it is cheaper than anywhere else with the same specifications.) I am also interested in MP3 players,and was considering getting an ipod but to tell the truth I don`t really know much about MP3 players but do you think the models that I am considering are a good buy?


Could anyone advise on which I should buy? The 128MB or the 512MB?

Could someone explain the difference between 128mb and 512mb...I know 512mb is larger but would it be sufficient as memory for work and for music?

I`ve heard that ipods hold upto 40GB, so would it be sensible to get the 128MB pen drive-(need a pen drive anyway to transport work and perhaps use as a dictation machine for lectures) and get a seperate MP3 player(such as an ipod)later on.

OR

Get the 512MB and use that for work and music?

To put it simply I`m asking if £70 for 512MB is a good deal considering the specifications? (The links are above)

Thanks in advance for any help...:) as I am v. confuddled with all this hi-techness

tbh, if you can budget for an ipod, don`t even think about those "static memory" jobbies, trust me, i have a 256meg one thats very simillar, needed it till i can afford my new phone (that will have an mp3 player built in) consider an ipod mini, @ 4gig for around £160 it will hold 8 times more than the 512meg one you`re looking at, 128meg is deffinatly to small (imo) also you could look at the hp or zen mp3 players, that also use hard drives for storage, you can get a 40gig model for around the £200 mark thats 80 times the amount of storage the 512 player has + tbh these small static mp3 players (like mine) are built in china for tupence each, and they tend to be very fidly to operate (being tiny has it`s drawbacks when trying to navigate the menu`s) and most of the hard disc mp3 players are around the size of a mini-disc player (maybe a little bigger) so droping em in a pocket or hanging them on a strap is no problem :)

all just my opinion of course :D & please let us know what you decide to get :)

On 9th December Aldi have a 128MB mp3 player for £39.99.
If 128 MB isn`t enough it has a SD card slot.
Ebuyer have 1GB SD cards for less than £50.

Don`t know if it`s any good tho`.

Hi,

Thanks for your recommendations :) - I haven`t yet acquired a brand spanking new mp3 player, but I bought a pen drive with similar to the one I posted about from ebay (but not from the same seller) I got the same model elsewhere but paid £41 for 512mb instead of £35 for 128mb as it was needed for college and such like, tis not going to be used for listening to music, prob be best to purchase a separate player.

It`s my Birthday next week so I have to pick one soon- not really on a budget, but looking to spend around £200...

I am spoilt for choice between:

[*]An iPod mini (just because of it`s resale value, and aesthetics, but it has lost the *snob* appeal as everyman & his dog seems to have one!)

[*]A Rio Carbon (saw it on a gadget show, and I love how it looks)

[*]A Creative Zen Micro ( an advantage to this is that you can record straight from the radio- all for perfectly legitimate reasons of course, and not breaching any copyright laws *cough*)

Plus there are millions more which are swaying my decision! :o

Decisions, Decisions! :D

This item was edited on Saturday, 8th January 2005, 17:33

My birthdday`s coming soon too but tho I`d like an iPod I can`t justify the cost...

I have been playing around wth MP3s for several years which I play on my PCs and various other machines...

I bought a couple of items off EBay in this regard. Delivery etc was fine... watch out for the heavy P&P and various other costs.

I bought a neat 128 kb player and it worked fine for a while then it started playing up... the little switches were `going off`. I kept it tho but now have lost it coz it was so small!

Second toy was a CD player - great fun since it also plays VCDs. This kept playing up too... worst thing about it was accessing the songs... when you have 200 MP3s on a CDR it can take ages to find that song you like. I have since got a Sony CDR player and that is better all round but still has the access problem.

Another toy I have is a Philips CD player portable music centre thingy... has a radio too... speakers etc. This sounds great but again accessing tracks is a pain but worst of all it lacks a headphone socket!

So, you might wonder what I am using now... a Panasonic MiniDisc player!

This was another EBay purchase and is one of the best things I have ever bought! Still has the access problem but you can record off the net - streamed audio etc. - record player, radio etc. Then plug it back into the PC to make MP3s.... lots of fun.

Conversely for around the house I set up a playlist on the PC and plug in the wireless headphones...

As a final thought I wonder how many people have a big enough legitimate MP3 collection to fill an iPod? IMHO the only advantage these HD machines have is being able to scroll through to locate your fave track.

Think ahead too and look at portable video as per the Archos range... in some respects music only iPods are already obsolescent.

My advice would be to get the cheapest portable you can find and try it out to see what features you really must have and those which are wasted.

Roy