Is a 4200rpm hdd fast enough for audio streaming?

petal · Post by **petal** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 4:56 am

I'm about to buy myself a laptop. The only problem with the one I'm looking at is that it might have a "slow" hdd. So what is your opinion about this. I seldom stream more than 10 audio tracks at a time, is a 4200rpm fast enough then?

Thomas

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: petal on 2004-09-16 06:02 ]</font>

bassdude · Post by **bassdude** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 7:05 am

Is that 10 stereo or 10 mono? 10 stereo you might have abit of trouble.

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 7:31 am

It might be worth checking the following aspects of the HDD specs:

seek time - needs to be < 10ms, typically

data transfer rate(s) - burst & continuous
(sorry, can't give specific numbers - will investigate)

Just because the disk spins proportionally slower than a 7,200 (or higher) rpm speed doesn't necessarily mean that the data will be read that much slower - it depends on how the HDD has organised the data on the disk with respect to its spin speed, the number of read/write heads, buffering etc.

It does sound a bit 'old tech' though - do you have an opportunity to try it out before commiting?

Royston

petal · Post by **petal** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 8:03 am

Thanks for responding!

Well, it might be stereo-tracks....

No I havn't got a chance to try it out before I buy, at least not with a sequencer installed.

The laptop in question is a HP Compaq Business Notebook Nx7010 comparable to this one:
http://www.hp.ca/products/static/notebo ... /index.php

hmmm... Maybe I should check if I can upgrade the HDD to a faster model...!?

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 8:31 am

petal wrote:
hmmm... Maybe I should check if I can upgrade the HDD to a faster model...!?

Should just be a standard 2.5" IDE drive - I'm pretty sure that you could upgrade it.

(Worth checking first though!)

Royston

petal · Post by **petal** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 2:24 pm

Ok, I went for this baby:

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/ho ... 20803.html

Pentium M 735 (1,7 Mhz, 2MB level2 cahce)
512 MB (pc2700)
60 GB (4200 rpm)
15.4" 1280x800

I decided to try if 4200 rpm wasn't fast enough for my needs, since I seldom work with many audio-tracks at a time. If it turs out to be too slow, I'll buy a faster external 2.5" HDD and swith the two drives around.

I found this to be the best candidate because of the nice display, and it's a very silent machine.

Happy Thomas

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 9:21 am

I'm using a standard drive in my laptop and it works fine. I'm considering an external hd for more space and will get the faster speed.

Vasfed · Post by **Vasfed** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 2:12 am

10 stereo tracks @ 44100 16 bit = 1500 kbyte/sec plus serving data, almost every modern HD has burst read/write speed above this.
Long time ago i've tested my new (at that time, p2 450 + 10 gb 5400 rpm + 64 mb ram) for maximum number of tracks,
it carryed over 100 stereo tracks (only playback, writing was a cheat - i dont have so many inputs

)

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 6:25 pm

sorry, I'm dropping in a bit late, but it only just entered my mind...

you cannot compare the performance of a 2.5 and a 3.5 disks by rotation speed alone.
the laptop disk has a much smaller platter, hence the sustained transfer rate will drop significantly.
Imho 'peak' data rates are complete nonsense - (if at all) they are measured isolated, far away from a desktop OS, or the manufacturer just reprints the transfer rate of the controller interface.
I've even seen jokes like 10 MB transfer rate - defined as 5 MB in/5 MB out

Fortunately Petal made a wise decision

cheers, Tom

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Thu Nov 11, 2004 7:38 pm

I have a Toshiba Lifebook. I can do music on it alright. I love that you can make music in bed. My desktop is more powerful though.