I am looking to buy an MP3 player with a fairly decent storage capacity. Having looked in some local places I can only seem to get say a maximum of 2 Gb. I'm not sure what the standard amounts are but have seen 10 up to 40 Gb advertised on the web(Ipod I think). Does anyone know where I can buy something decent locally?

Panthip Plaza in the Night Bazaar in Chiang Mai has up to 40 GB.

I'd like to suggest you consider an alternate way of looking at mp3 player storage size.

I assume you have a personal computer, with a reasonable amount of storage available on the hard drive in reserve. If not, disregard what I'm about to suggest.

Buy a 1 GB player, powered by (1) AAA battery, such as the one I've owned for 2+ years (a Creative Labs Zen). Size of a cigarette lighter, holds about 16 CD/albums of music. I use rechargeable NiMH batteries; operating cost is nil.

Keep all your music archived on your computer. I have about 80+ GB, thousands of albums, stored on an external hard drive attached to my laptop. I also have all the contents of my laptop's hard drive, and the music external hard drive, backed up onto yet another 160 GB external hard drive. We all know we should have all our data backed up, right?

The concept is simple- buy the cheapest, simplest mp3 player out there. Load onto it just what tickles your fancy this week. When you're bored with the mix, delete the files and load a new mix. Keep all your music archived at a safe and secure central repository, whether that be your personal computer, or an online storage service, etc. If you lose the player, no great loss; I payed about $60 for mine.

I never could understand the appeal of a 40 or 60 GB player, that you carry around with you all the time. Lose it and you've just lost all your music. Oh, but you say the music is already backed up on a computer? Well then why bother with a $300-$500 iPod? You can buy a decent small laptop here in Thailand (Acer, Asus, etc.) for that money.... I don't mean to fault Apple, but I think they are geniuses at marketing- their players are more a fashion statement and lifestyle accessory than a practical and inexpensive way to listen to music....just my 25 satangs worth.

BTW, my 80 GB 2.5 external HDD was about $80 at Panthip, the 160 GB about $120. Both are powered by the USB connection (no power supply, cords, etc.) and fit in a shirt pocket.

Good post, sensible suggestion.

I'm now looking for a new mp3 player. Any iRiver user here? I was told most of iRiver players sound very good.

Any iRiver user here? I'm looking forward to purchase this unit.

http://www.warehouse123.com/ProductInfo.ph...d=IRIE1008G-BLU