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How are HDD speed and CPU usage related?

Ultimex
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Hey guys!

So my question is pretty simple (i think so :D) and it popped in my head after sb told me that "you need a faster cpu to play games normaly off of a slow hdd". (which is questionable imo and sounds like illuminati stuff since as far as I know it would affect only loading times..)

 

So I was wondering if CPU usage would be higher when playing (music or movies or games even) off of an external HDD (usb 2.0; 5400rpm) instead of my SSD (intel 520) for example or my internal HDD (WD green; sata 2, intellipower rpm (w/e that is)).  Basicaly I want to decrease the disk usage of my internal drives by using my external hdd or even flash drives for playing media files. 

But if this guy is right and CPU usage is higher when pulling off of a slower drive, then it's not worth it, since I've got a crappy CPU.

 

Any knowladge is welcome and pls don't judge my potato tech skills. :D

 

P.S. i don't store my crap on the SSD, it's for boot and programs only and my internal hdd is for the rest (music, movies, games)

 

 

Hey Ultimex,
 
A HDD is usually the slowest part in a computer data processing. It would take less time to transfer and process the data that is delivered from a drive than the drive can actually read it. I doubt that the CPU would bottleneck USB reads, even though USB was designed to use much more CPU bandwidth compared to let's say FireWire. I have a pretty old i3 in my laptop and I haven't had problems streaming 1080p movies from a 5,400 rpm external USB2.0 drive regarding the CPU. The load on it from streaming from an internal drive is lower but either way I did not have any major impact on performance. :)
 
Captain_WD.
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Hey guys!

So my question is pretty simple (i think so :D) and it popped in my head after sb told me that "you need a faster cpu to play games normaly off of a slow hdd". (which is questionable imo and sounds like illuminati stuff since as far as I know it would affect only loading times..)

 

So I was wondering if CPU usage would be higher when playing (music or movies or games even) off of an external HDD (usb 2.0; 5400rpm) instead of my SSD (intel 520) for example or my internal HDD (WD green; sata 2, intellipower rpm (w/e that is)).  Basicaly I want to decrease the disk usage of my internal drives by using my external hdd or even flash drives for playing media files. 

But if this guy is right and CPU usage is higher when pulling off of a slower drive, then it's not worth it, since I've got a crappy CPU.

 

Any knowladge is welcome and pls don't judge my potato tech skills. :D

 

P.S. i don't store my crap on the SSD, it's for boot and programs only and my internal hdd is for the rest (music, movies, games)

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Higher data rate = more load on the processor.

Most mid to high end processors will be able to easily handle data rates from even the highest performance SSDs. To properly bottleneck an SSD with a processor you would need a laptop Celeron, and even that might not do it. 

If your CPU can handle your graphics card, it can handle your SSD.

I've built 3 PC's, but none for myself... In fact, I'm using an iMac that my dad bought for me as my desktop. Awkward...

Please don't say "SSD drive." By doing so, you are literally saying "Solid State Drive Drive" and causing my brain cells to commit suicide. The same applies to HDD (Hard Disk Drive) and PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express).

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Higher data rate = more load on the processor.

Most mid to high end processors will be able to easily handle data rates from even the highest performance SSDs. To properly bottleneck an SSD with a processor you would need a laptop Celeron, and even that might not do it. 

If your CPU can handle your graphics card, it can handle your SSD.

First of all thanks for the reply :D

im afraid though that you didn't fully understand my question, but that might be just because of me explaining like an idiot. Anyways, "higher data rate = more load on the cpu" so therefore my (slower) external hdd should use even less cpu than the (faster) internal one or the ssd is what I understand. If so then awesome! :D

Thanks ;)

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Hey guys!

So my question is pretty simple (i think so :D) and it popped in my head after sb told me that "you need a faster cpu to play games normaly off of a slow hdd". (which is questionable imo and sounds like illuminati stuff since as far as I know it would affect only loading times..)

 

So I was wondering if CPU usage would be higher when playing (music or movies or games even) off of an external HDD (usb 2.0; 5400rpm) instead of my SSD (intel 520) for example or my internal HDD (WD green; sata 2, intellipower rpm (w/e that is)).  Basicaly I want to decrease the disk usage of my internal drives by using my external hdd or even flash drives for playing media files. 

But if this guy is right and CPU usage is higher when pulling off of a slower drive, then it's not worth it, since I've got a crappy CPU.

 

Any knowladge is welcome and pls don't judge my potato tech skills. :D

 

P.S. i don't store my crap on the SSD, it's for boot and programs only and my internal hdd is for the rest (music, movies, games)

 

 

Hey Ultimex,
 
A HDD is usually the slowest part in a computer data processing. It would take less time to transfer and process the data that is delivered from a drive than the drive can actually read it. I doubt that the CPU would bottleneck USB reads, even though USB was designed to use much more CPU bandwidth compared to let's say FireWire. I have a pretty old i3 in my laptop and I haven't had problems streaming 1080p movies from a 5,400 rpm external USB2.0 drive regarding the CPU. The load on it from streaming from an internal drive is lower but either way I did not have any major impact on performance. :)
 
Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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Hey Ultimex,
 
A HDD is usually the slowest part in a computer data processing. It would take less time to transfer and process the data that is delivered from a drive than the drive can actually read it. I doubt that the CPU would bottleneck USB reads, even though USB was designed to use much more CPU bandwidth compared to let's say FireWire. I have a pretty old i3 in my laptop and I haven't had problems streaming 1080p movies from a 5,400 rpm external USB2.0 drive regarding the CPU. The load on it from streaming from an internal drive is lower but either way I did not have any major impact on performance. :)
 
Captain_WD.

 

Ay thanks for the response man, looks like this pretty much wraps it up. :)

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Ay thanks for the response man, looks like this pretty much wraps it up. :)

 

You are most welcome. Feel free to ask if you happen to have other questions!

 

Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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