Are HDD's the bottle neck?

Guru · 19 Dec 2008 at 16:54

I've got a single 500gb Sata WD Caviar at the moment.

I've been wondering if my PC would generally be quicker if I got different HDD's.

My spec will be.....

ASUS P5K Standard, a q6600 and a GTX260-216 SSC with 2gb or Corsair XMS2 DHX ram (6400).

So... I think my question is, would my HDD be holding me back? Should I go raid? Is it worth it? or should I stay as is?

If so can I go raid and keep my 500gb for well under £100?

The 500gb is near full, but I am happy to delete stuff or put it on DVD's.

Thanks,

G

semi-pro waster · 19 Dec 2008 at 17:26

Hard drives are generally the slowest part of any modern system as they're still mechanical devices, whether they're holding you back is slightly different though. What do you use your PC for most?

Phil2008 · 19 Dec 2008 at 17:30

Well Ive just upgraded my boot drive from this.....

To...

And it does feel quite abit faster, so Im doing the same with my storage drive now and upgrading that

Guru · 19 Dec 2008 at 20:34

I thought about getting this spinpoint:

1TB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ

No idea what Sata 300 or NCQ is, but would I notice an improvement?

(Assuming it's compatable with an Asus P5K standard mobo)

G

/edit forgot to mention it will be for games

and some downloading/file sharing.

Phil2008 · 20 Dec 2008 at 00:09

Lets look at your drive in hd tune.

Guru · 20 Dec 2008 at 09:12

Will have to do that tomorrow night as i wont be by the pc till then, but i wiill check it out.

is it free?

Guru · 20 Dec 2008 at 10:31

Think I am just going to buy the samsung, but what does "We sell the most wanted NON Y Version!" mean lol?

Cheers,

G

/edit bought it

along with 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2 DHX @ 4-4-4-12

malcolm · 20 Dec 2008 at 18:34

Guru said:
Will have to do that tomorrow night as i wont be by the pc till then, but i wiill check it out.

is it free?

Yes, check out the 'Useful freeware Utilities ' thread on the Windows Software forum.

Guru · 28 Dec 2008 at 18:12

This is my old HDD in the HD Tune app:

This is the new one:

I've currently got the OS installed on the new one.

When I install games should I put them on the old one so they are not on the same as the OS? Or should I put them on the new one because its quicker?

Cheers,

G

alex24 · 28 Dec 2008 at 19:38

I have the F1 1tb, and an older WDREII, which is almost half as fast! OS went on WD, all games are installed to F1, as is the pagefile. Seems to work for me at the moment, esp now I have 4GB of RAM.

GolfBryan · 28 Dec 2008 at 21:51

sorry, wrong thread

Guru · 28 Dec 2008 at 22:00

Wonder why my WD uses so much cpu :confused:

Cyber-Mav · 29 Dec 2008 at 01:59

Guru said:
Wonder why my WD uses so much cpu

thats odd, my western digital drive hardly uses much cpu.

Sylver123 · 30 Dec 2008 at 09:06

One thing for sure, Hard Drives are definitely a bottleneck on modern systems, and to really get the most from today's high end computers, you would need something like a couple of Solid State Hard Drives in RAID, and then your windows and programs will load/run instantly.

Phil2008 · 30 Dec 2008 at 13:22

Sylver123 said:
One thing for sure, Hard Drives are definitely a bottleneck on modern systems, and to really get the most from today's high end computers, you would need something like a couple of Solid State Hard Drives in RAID, and then your windows and programs will load/run instantly.

My everyday apps do load instantly cos of the 8gb of mem, and even if the progs arnt in the mem, it only taks 1-2secs now that Ive upgraded my boot and storage drives. Plus I use hybrid sleep when I turn it off, so my system is always instant. Only takes 2-3 secs to wake up in a morning too

boot drive

storage drive

simonnance · 30 Dec 2008 at 14:13

hmm, my Raptor doesnt look in that good shape..... its a few years old now, but this isnt too good:

good thing i've ordered a 320GB F1, and a 1TB one as a storage drive.....

e36Adz · 30 Dec 2008 at 23:21

heres my seagate, its making weird chirping sounds, its running about 10C hotter then my other 2 drives (which are WD) and I think its on its way out but here goes anyway...

Is my one officially the worst one so far?

Cyber-Mav · 31 Dec 2008 at 02:25

simonnance said:
hmm, my Raptor doesnt look in that good shape..... its a few years old now, but this isnt too good:

good thing i've ordered a 320GB F1, and a 1TB one as a storage drive.....

if thats your boot drive running the operating system which is being benched then i doubt the drive is faulty since there could be other disk io operations going on at the same time as your benching it.

Phil2008 · 31 Dec 2008 at 02:40

Cyber-Mav said:
if thats your boot drive running the operating system which is being benched then i doubt the drive is faulty since there could be other disk io operations going on at the same time as your benching it.

Yeh I agree, Thats what happens most times if you benchmark a boot drive, the drive is needed for other stuff while the benchmark is going on.