Hard Drive Bottleneck

dhlucke · Apr 28, 2004

It seems to me that the HD market is stagnant and that is no fun since the hard drive is obviously one of the biggest bottlenecks in today's systems.

We have had the same 74GB raptors, 250GB 8MB cache drives, and 300GB 5400 RPM drive forever now.

What is going on?

_______________________________________
Nov. 6, 1971: "I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals"

- John Kerry, a Presidential Candidate

etp777 · Apr 28, 2004

If you're so concerned with getting something faster out, get on over to IBM and start doing R&D work.

Or realize that hard drives aren't really a bottleneck as any decent raid 0 array can max out bandwidth of the PCI bus, where the real problem lays. This of course is addressed by various things such as, wait for it, PCI Express. Guess what's coming out in next 6 months at latest, yep, that's it, PCI Express motherboards.

sjonnie · Apr 29, 2004

the hard drive is obviously one of the biggest bottlenecks in today's systems.

If you have any data to back this up I'd be interested to see it. Run a perfmon log during a typical day's usage and find out when exactly your hard drive is holding you up.

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dhlucke · Apr 29, 2004

Both of you seem to be suggesting that the motherboard is the biggest bottleneck.

_______________________________________________
Nov. 6, 1971: "I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals"

- John Kerry, a Presidential Candidate

blah · Apr 29, 2004

Maybe it is a slowest thing in PC, but it is also the only thing that is THAT BIG so you can hold ALL of your stuff in it. And what is that you are doing with it? are you constantly reading/writing/copying/moving, or is it just a complaint. Get a RAID0 SCSI array and be happy with it, but no, you want to stay cheap and still have the fastest stuff. There is no way the rule "You get what you pay for" is going to change.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

Crashman · Apr 29, 2004

The hard drive IS the biggest bottleneck. A single drive can't hold a candle to Gigabit LAN, I'm seeing sustained data rates of around 80MB/s. The only reason it's not handicapping applications that much is that most of the files you're using in those apps are cached to RAM.

Sure a RAID0 with two drives can handle gigabit LAN, but then you add the overhead of RAID on most controllers, 1/2 the reliability, etc. I don't see anyone using RAID5 for their personal systems. The cost even for a RAID0 is almost prohibitive, over 50% greater than simply buying a larger drive. So RAID isn't always a good answer.

The biggest reason my system takes over 20 seconds to boot up is that Windows has to load all those files from various locations on my hard drive.

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jim552 · Apr 29, 2004

I don't know what you are talking about?

If you where to look at Hard Drives from 1990-1995 you would have seen Hard Drives progess from under 1gb to 4gb.

Many Hard Drives exist now with MTBF of 100,000+ hrs!

Access times are often below 5ms.

Hard Drive cache sizes larger than average computers in 1986.

You don't have to worry about skipping a track when you bump your external Hard Drive cabinet a bit.

Almost anyone that wants to can afford to put in a RAID system for a couple of hundred dollars.

All of this, and Hard Drives are under 1lb and under $200. (The majority of those consumers would buy.)

And next year things will be better.

The last five years have been, quite possibly, the most productive 5 year period in Hard Drive History.

I am sorry I just don't see the stagnation that you are talking about.

If you think you have a bottleneck then get a motherboard that can handle 4gb of RAM.

dhlucke · Apr 29, 2004

I was moving 60GB of data this morning and it's a definite bottleneck. No, I don't have Raid or SCSI but I'm not about to spend that much money. RAID 0 is not very safe and RAID 5 would cost a ton of money. SCSI is way beyond my means just to ellimate the bottleneck.

I have a 120GB JB and a 200GB JB and they're fast but still, as far as I'm concerned, a bottleneck. The transfer speeds are pretty slow compared to the size of data that we play with nowadays.

_______________________________________________
Nov. 6, 1971: "I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals"

- John Kerry, a Presidential Candidate

dhlucke · Apr 29, 2004

I was refering to the last year or so, not decade btw.

_______________________________________________
Nov. 6, 1971: "I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals"

- John Kerry, a Presidential Candidate

blah · Apr 29, 2004

do you even imagine what 60Gbz of data is??? it will take THOUSANDS of peepel and THOUSANDS of years to write that much of data by hand. You are complaining about something you don't even think of in a real life dimension. It is not a bottleneck in your PC, but the bottleneck in your pocket that slows down your PC. Peepel that do not wish to have the HD bottleneck don't have it.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

dhlucke · Apr 29, 2004

Huh? I don't care how many tablets 60GB could fill or how many egyptians and papyrus it would have taken to write 60GB worth of hyroglyphics. I just want HD's to keep getting faster and faster.

_______________________________________________
Nov. 6, 1971: "I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals"

- John Kerry, a Presidential Candidate

blah · Apr 29, 2004

But you have to admit to yerself that they DO get faster and faster and faster and faster ( and bigger too

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

Toejam31 · Apr 29, 2004

Ran across this tonight ... thought you might enjoy taking a look:

<A HREF="http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1572234,00.asp" target="_new">Hitachi 7K400 400GB Deskstar Hard Drive</A>

Sure, it's not exactly a fundamental breakthrough in technology, per say, but I'm sitting here enjoying the thought of running four of 'em, just for fun. 1600GBs of storage space would bring a smile to my face for a week or two.

Toey

<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=328&s=91c282f2e5207e99b7a652ee13b3512a" target="_new">My System Rigs</A>
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Woodman · Apr 29, 2004

1600GB of space. Gosh, just think how much por... err I mean 'files' it could hold.

I'll be smiling for years.

-----
Wanted: Wet Nurse needed for 25 yr old male. Payment in bed credits.

dhlucke · Apr 30, 2004

lol. I can always count on you toejam!

_______________________________________________
Nov. 6, 1971: "I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals"

- John Kerry, a Presidential Candidate

dhlucke · May 1, 2004

I still have ill feelings toward the deskstar though...

_______________________________________________
Nov. 6, 1971: "I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals"

- John Kerry, a Presidential Candidate

etp777 · May 1, 2004

Yeah, we all do.

Get Deskstar, fastest drive on market.

Just epect to have to RMA it in 6 months. :-/

dhlucke · May 1, 2004

4 months for me.

_______________________________________________
Nov. 6, 1971: "I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals"

- John Kerry, a Presidential Candidate

Toejam31 · May 1, 2004

Agreed. Me, too. But ... not all of them failed, interestingly enough, even without applying the firmware update. I still have two Deathstar 75GB drives running in a Win2K system on my LAN that were originally installed in July of 2000. They are loud when accessed, but there seems to be no impending sign of failure. (The original install of Win2K is still on the master drive, too, and is in pretty good shape ... nowhere near needing a format, although the computer has been used every day since first assembled.)

Strange, but true.

You spends your money; you takes your chances. You win some; you lose some.

Toey

<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=328&s=91c282f2e5207e99b7a652ee13b3512a" target="_new">My System Rigs</A>
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dhlucke · May 1, 2004

Almost everyone lost though. I'm just wary is all.

_______________________________________________
Nov. 6, 1971: "I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals"

- John Kerry, a Presidential Candidate

blah · May 1, 2004

Dude, I have GXP-60:40Gs running ORIGINALLY installed 2 years ago Windows ME in P3-800 I sold to a friend of mine after using it for a year. Call that "weird".

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

Toejam31 · May 1, 2004

Correct me if I'm wrong (faulty recall, and all that) but I don't think the 40GB 60GXP series was quite as prone to failure as the older 75GXP 75GB drives, despite the greater areal density of the platters. I never sent any of those back, although I read plenty about other users who were complaining about the drives, especially the 60GB.

Toey

<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=328&s=91c282f2e5207e99b7a652ee13b3512a" target="_new">My System Rigs</A>
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blah · May 2, 2004

I am sorry, my bad, it is a 75GXP:30Gs. I've messed up with my own 60GXP:40Gs which died couple of months ago after 2 years obuse

>

So never zee less it is still working (proper cooling does the trick in most "cases")

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

dhlucke · May 2, 2004

I had a 40GB 60gxp that died after 4 months. I had a friend who had one for a year and it was dying but I don't know what happened in the end.

_______________________________________________
Nov. 6, 1971: "I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals"

- John Kerry, a Presidential Candidate

blah · May 2, 2004

""I don't know what happened in the end.""

It is probable still dying..

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

Hard Drive Bottleneck

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