Do I need a faster harddisk?

In article <p9jfu0t9du4lbnog76nd98u18vrlscq5a1.DeleteThis@4ax.com>, Bob says...
 >
 >Hi,
 >I have Xp + amd 2400 + 512 mb + 80 gb 8k WD harddisk.
 >If I Quickpar 90 50mb files and at the same time Winrar the files for
 >an other dvd my computer comes to a halt (maybe at the same time
 >burning a dvd).
 >WindowsTask Manager says my CPU usage is 70% and my PF Usage is 350
 >MB. I have memory and cpu to spare, so I would think the weak point is
 >the harddisk.
 >Am I right or is Windows Task Manager not accurate?
 >Bob


When I Quickpar files on my XP 3200, with PF at 480 the CPU usage is around 40%.
However, when I get to the repair stage the CPU usage jumps to 100% and remains
there until the repair is finished. I would think that your problem is in
trying to multitask while doing a very CPU intensive program. I guess my
question is "why", when Quickpar doesn't take very long to do?

Ed<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Do I need a faster harddisk? 

Dave C. wrote:

 > Your CPU is the weak point. The information can be read/written from the
 > hard drive faster than the CPU can process it. But you are running
 > several
 > VERY CPU intensive processes at the same time. -Dave

Huh? CPU speed is measured in GB/s, whereas HDD speed is measured in MB/s.
How can the CPU be slowing down the hard drive?

--

Registered Linux user #378193<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Do I need a faster harddisk? 

Dave C. wrote:

 > Your CPU is the weak point. The information can be read/written from the
 > hard drive faster than the CPU can process it. But you are running
 > several
 > VERY CPU intensive processes at the same time. -Dave

Huh? CPU speed is measured in GB/s, whereas HDD speed is measured in MB/s.
How can the CPU be slowing down the hard drive?

--

Registered Linux user #378193<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Do I need a faster harddisk? 

 >When I Quickpar files on my XP 3200, with PF at 480 the CPU usage is around 40%.
 >However, when I get to the repair stage the CPU usage jumps to 100% and remains
 >there until the repair is finished. I would think that your problem is in
 >trying to multitask while doing a very CPU intensive program. I guess my
 >question is "why", when Quickpar doesn't take very long to do?
 >
 >Ed
I was planning to build in a second harddisk. Maybe a WD Raptor
(rather expensive) as master disk. My example was rather extreme, but
I always had the feeling that the hard disk slows down and that in my
case CPU and Ram are enough. And your right Ed multitasking slows down
terribly.
Bob<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Do I need a faster harddisk? 

'DMA is enabled on the hard drives?

"Bob" <bob1324 RemoveThis @xs4all.nl> wrote in message
news:4rjgu0t42e8omvi13kncn08ali4gcrf61g@4ax.com...
 >
  > >When I Quickpar files on my XP 3200, with PF at 480 the CPU usage
is around 40%.
  > >However, when I get to the repair stage the CPU usage jumps to 100%
and remains
  > >there until the repair is finished. I would think that your
problem is in
  > >trying to multitask while doing a very CPU intensive program. I
guess my
  > >question is "why", when Quickpar doesn't take very long to do?
  > >
  > >Ed
 > I was planning to build in a second harddisk. Maybe a WD Raptor
 > (rather expensive) as master disk. My example was rather extreme,
but
 > I always had the feeling that the hard disk slows down and that in
my
 > case CPU and Ram are enough. And your right Ed multitasking slows
down
 > terribly.
 > Bob
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Do I need a faster harddisk? 

Bob wrote:

 > Hi,
 > I have Xp + amd 2400 + 512 mb + 80 gb 8k WD harddisk.
 > If I Quickpar 90 50mb files and at the same time Winrar the files for
 > an other dvd my computer comes to a halt (maybe at the same time
 > burning a dvd).
 > WindowsTask Manager says my CPU usage is 70% and my PF Usage is 350
 > MB. I have memory and cpu to spare, so I would think the weak point is
 > the harddisk.
 > Am I right or is Windows Task Manager not accurate?
 > Bob

Yeah, with 70% cpu usage showing it's most likely disk constipation. It's
bad enough that you have such intensive disk activity going on trying to
keep up with the demand but if the files are at any distance at all from
each other on the hard drive it's wasting a lot of time seeking between them.

See what your CPU usage is when you do one thing at a time. I'll bet it
goes up because the hard drive is able to stream the single data set faster
than seeking between two, or more.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Do I need a faster harddisk? 

Dave C. wrote:

 > "Bob" <bob1324.RemoveThis@xs4all.nl> wrote in message
 > news:p9jfu0t9du4lbnog76nd98u18vrlscq5a1@4ax.com...
 >
  >>Hi,
  >>I have Xp + amd 2400 + 512 mb + 80 gb 8k WD harddisk.
  >>If I Quickpar 90 50mb files and at the same time Winrar the files for
  >>an other dvd my computer comes to a halt (maybe at the same time
  >>burning a dvd).
  >>WindowsTask Manager says my CPU usage is 70% and my PF Usage is 350
  >>MB. I have memory and cpu to spare, so I would think the weak point is
  >>the harddisk.
  >>Am I right or is Windows Task Manager not accurate?
  >>Bob
 >
 >
 > Your CPU is the weak point. The information can be read/written from the
 > hard drive faster than the CPU can process it. But you are running several
 > VERY CPU intensive processes at the same time. -Dave
 >
 >

Huh? If the data was coming in faster than the CPU could handle it then why
is it sitting idle 30% of the time?<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Do I need a faster harddisk? 

"Bob" <bob1324.TakeThisOut@xs4all.nl> wrote...
  >> I have Xp + amd 2400 + 512 mb + 80 gb 8k WD harddisk.
 > If I Quickpar 90 50mb files and at the same time Winrar the files for
 > an other dvd my computer comes to a halt (maybe at the same time
 > burning a dvd).
 > WindowsTask Manager says my CPU usage is 70% and my PF Usage is 350
 > MB. I have memory and cpu to spare, so I would think the weak point is
 > the harddisk.
 > Am I right or is Windows Task Manager not accurate?

Probably neither.

You are trying to do too many CPU- and I/O intensive tasks at the same time. If
you're burning a DVD on a single-CPU machine, stop trying to do other stuff at
the same time.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Do I need a faster harddisk?