Computer upgrade ideas

[choucove]

Thanks for all the replies, I have a Velociraptor 80 gb coming to designate as a Scratch disk. I also noticed my CPU is only running at 28%, is this normal? I would think it should work harder than that.

I think the VelociRaptor is a very good choice for a pretty simple upgrade to separate scratch disk for Photoshop. Installation of the drive really is quite simple, and if you need any help you can probably find some good demonstration videos online of how to do this. I made up one as a project for class a while back, but have yet to post it online.

You have a pretty decent quad-core processor in your computer. Even when working in Photoshop on my AMD quad-core system it rarely is more than 20-25% average usage. With just firefox windows open it's less than 3% usage! It only rises above this when loading applications and applying heavy filter or rendering work. Also remember that many CPU usage meters combine all cores of your processor into one for that percentage use. It may be that you have a single threaded application that can only use one core and not all four evenly.

 

[Si Allen]

Install the Win7 as a 64bit..you won't be sorry!

It is much leaner and faster than the Vista that Microfraud foisted on the world!

 

[dirtracer23]

Already installed W-7, so far so good. Looking into overclocking CPU and RAM. Im not using Photoshop, still on Corel X-3

 

[choucove]

Many pre-built systems such as Dell and HP (unless you are purchasing systems specifically designed for high-performance gaming and overclocking) will have most if not all overclocking settings disabled or not available in the bios. Additionally, the standard thermal compound and cooling for the computer, as well as the included standard power supply, are not designed nor will they permit very much of an overclock on any of these standard systems. Generally, the power supply installed in these computers is barely enough to run what is already in the computer. Adding an additional hard drive or optical drive can sometimes be more than it can handle power-wise.

I am just wanting to let you know that these issues may exist if you are looking to overclock your computer. The quality and build of these pre-built desktops are not there for overclocking and you may run into issues. And don't forget...it will void your warranty if you do try an overclock and it damages components of the computer, which I wouldn't be too surprised in this kind of situation.

 

[jiarby]

Dont use an external usb hdd as a scratch drive! If it has to be external the only choice is eSata! It makes USB look like a turtle.

 

[jiarby]

As a followup:

I did some disk benchmarks (un-scientific) using a utility (DiskBench V2.5.3.2)
I copied a 700mb file located on the root of my system drive to various locations on my design workstation (Quad Core i7-920, Win7-64, 12gb RAM)

To 8gb USB Memory Stick:
Time: 102963 ms
Transfer Rate: 6.799 MB/s

To 8gb "PATRIOT Extreme Performance Xporter XT Boost USB" Flash Drive
Time: 45194 ms
Transfer Rate: 15.490 MB/s

To: External IDE HDD (7200rpm) via USB 2.0
Time: 25903 ms
Transfer Rate: 27.026 MB/s

To internal IDE HDD (7200 rpm)
Time: 583 ms
Transfer Rate: 1200.774 MB/s

To SATA-2 10k Raptors (two disks in RAID-0)
Time: 514 ms
Transfer Rate: 1361.967 MB/s

To internal SATA-2 7200rpm HDD
Time: 510 ms
Transfer Rate: 1372.650 MB/s

An eSata External would bench about the same as an internal SATA2....
1372 MB/s versus 27MB/s for USB

The raptors are a pinch slow because of the RAID.

 

[choucove]

As a followup:

I did some disk benchmarks (un-scientific) using a utility (DiskBench V2.5.3.2)
I copied a 700mb file located on the root of my system drive to various locations on my design workstation (Quad Core i7-920, Win7-64, 12gb RAM)

To 8gb USB Memory Stick:
Time: 102963 ms
Transfer Rate: 6.799 MB/s

To 8gb "PATRIOT Extreme Performance Xporter XT Boost USB" Flash Drive
Time: 45194 ms
Transfer Rate: 15.490 MB/s

To: External IDE HDD (7200rpm) via USB 2.0
Time: 25903 ms
Transfer Rate: 27.026 MB/s

To internal IDE HDD (7200 rpm)
Time: 583 ms
Transfer Rate: 1200.774 MB/s

To SATA-2 10k Raptors (two disks in RAID-0)
Time: 514 ms
Transfer Rate: 1361.967 MB/s

To internal SATA-2 7200rpm HDD
Time: 510 ms
Transfer Rate: 1372.650 MB/s

An eSata External would bench about the same as an internal SATA2....
1372 MB/s versus 27MB/s for USB

The raptors are a pinch slow because of the RAID.

It's nice to see some raw testing and scores here to show an example for this topic. However, I think there was a difference in labeling that throws these results off by a factor of 8x. These results should be in Mb/s no MB/s. The difference is Megabits per second versus Megabytes per second. There are eight bits per byte. If you take the above scores and divide each by 8 you get what should be the correct MB/s throughput transfer rate, which seems about right.

One thing I was a little confused on, you said that your Raptor SATA 10,000rpm hard drives are in RAID 0, but that they are slower than the standard SATA 7,200rpm hard drive because of the RAID. With this type of RAID the Raptor drives should be nearly double the speed of a single Raptor drive as that is what RAID 0 is meant for. Perhaps you meant that they were in RAID 1 (mirroring instead of striping) which would thus mean the drives would be a tad bit slower (but still should be faster than your standard SATA2 7,200rpm hard drive).

 

[dirtracer23]

choucove, you are right, i checked today on overclocking and my motherboard seems to be Locked out from overclocking, Dangit. Well, my Velociraptor came in today, so I will try to install tomorrow. I will let yall know how it handles. I already have a WD 500gb external HD for storage only.

Jiarby, thanks for benchmark comparisons, its helpful to see it that way.

 

[jiarby]

The results were cut & pasted directly from DiskBench. However, If you take a 700 megabyte file and it takes 25.903 seconds to transfer then the transfer rate IS INDEED 27MB per second

MB = MegaBytes (1,000,000 x 8 bits)
Mb - MegaBITS (1,000,000 x 1 individual bit)

You are right, though, that hardware mfg'ers advertise BIT transfer rates rather than what we all care about... BYTE rates.

Get an eSata enclosure for that WD-500.... if your mobo does have an external eSata connector then add one for a couple bucks....
Itwill save you a year of complaining about the slow USB, expecially for the large files we use...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...104063&cm_re=PCI_eSata-_-12-104-063-_-Product

This is the best single drive enclosure I have seen:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817173043

 

[choucove]

The results were cut & pasted directly from DiskBench. However, If you take a 700 megabyte file and it takes 25.903 seconds to transfer then the transfer rate IS INDEED 27MB per second

MB = MegaBytes (1,000,000 x 8 bits)
Mb - MegaBITS (1,000,000 x 1 individual bit)

You are right, though, that hardware mfg'ers advertise BIT transfer rates rather than what we all care about... BYTE rates.

Get an eSata enclosure for that WD-500.... if your mobo does have an external eSata connector then add one for a couple bucks....
Itwill save you a year of complaining about the slow USB, expecially for the large files we use...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...104063&cm_re=PCI_eSata-_-12-104-063-_-Product

This is the best single drive enclosure I have seen:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817173043

The transfer rates that I saw for the external transfer methods (the first three benchmark transfer speeds) seem correct, but the internal transfer bandwidth is what threw me for a loop. Your average 7,200rpm SATA hard drive will range in the 80 MB/s transfer speed. I found this average by numerous benchmarks on the internet rating hard drive speeds.

A VelociRaptor averages in the 100 - 120 MB/s transfer speed. Even in RAID 1 it should outperform a standard 7,200rpm SATA hard drive because of it's spindle speed and access times. I have two OCZ Vertex SSD drives in RAID 0 in my computer, which blow traditional mechanical drives out of the water in terms of average transfer bandwidth, and even then I can only achieve about 400 MB/s transfer rate.



This is just why the numbers I saw on internal transfer rates threw me for a loop. The only thing that approaches 1000+ MB/s transfer speed is either numerous (six or more) high-performance SSD drives with a powerful RAID controller, or the actual transfer speed between CPU and memory.

Still as you stated the point remains that you would never want to use a USB external drive for this kind of usage. If you have an eSATA enclosure or adapter for your hard drive, that would be most ideal. If you have the space within your computer case to install the VelociRaptor hard drive, do so. That way you don't have to worry about an additional power adapter, the drive accidentally getting disconnected, as likely chance of overheating, or the drive getting lost, stolen, or damaged in transit.

 

[jiarby]

I guess we can go back and look at teh DiskBench program and see how it works...

I expected the raptors to be alot faster than the 7200 IDE also!! I am sure that they are, but this utility may be the culprit. My bet is that the disk cache is throwing the numbers off.

I'll hunt down ATTO and see what I get.

The analogy is still good:
Don't use USB to hook up an external HDD if you can find a better way!

 

[dirtracer23]

Silly question, do I set my second hard drive up as a slave?