Just when you think you have enough (RAM/HDD space/Processing power), you need more

[muchadoaboutnothing]

I sit on the verge of spending $90 on a 2TB WD Green Hard drive, just 9 months after I bought a 500GB SpinPoint F3 for booting and a 1TB SpinPoint F1 for storage 7 months ago.

A terabyte and a hafl. That ought to be enough for a few years, right?

Wrong. The boot drive is half full and the 1TB drive is almost all the way full. I just bought 4GB of DDR3 for $40 after rebates to get 8GB into my system too.

It's pretty amazing when you consider what was high end in 2003. It's part of the reason I never buy cutting edge and usually opt out of bleeding edge too and go straight for the bang/$ sweet spot.

I'm sure somebody here can relate.

[ch_123]

The quantity of your data expands to fit the size of your hard drive space. Isn't that, like, Newton's Second Law?

[hyperlinked]

Wrong. The boot drive is half full and the 1TB drive is almost all the way full. I just bought 4GB of DDR3 for $40 after rebates to get 8GB into my system too.

Let me guess, you also bought a video camera recently too? I was able to make do by cobbling together old hard drives until I got a video camera. I bought a 1Tb WD Green figuring that ought to hold me for a while... my visions of spaciousness lasted two weeks. To be fair, I had to learn better ways of storing video, but still... Wow.

[muchadoaboutnothing]

Let me guess, you also bought a video camera recently too? I was able to make do by cobbling together old hard drives until I got a video camera. I bought a 1Tb WD Green figuring that ought to hold me for a while... my visions of spaciousness lasted two weeks. To be fair, I had to learn better ways of storing video, but still... Wow.

Part of the reason. Digital video just eats up space like crazy.

[TheSoulhunter]

Yep, video eats a lot HDD space....



Plus 2x 1TB NAS
:3

[Phaedrus2129]

My 500GB recently got to 20GB shy of full, so I had to delete a bunch of stuff. I have a 320GB sitting at half full, but a lot of programs don't like being on D:\, or auto install onto C:\.


I'm going to get an F3 1TB next, and eventually turn my Athlon XP into a NAS.

[microsoft windows]

I still haven't filled up my 3.6GB hard disk. Or the 515MB one. Or the 768MB one.

[Mith]

It's easy when you don't produce.

Waiting for 60GB SSD from post, it will replace my 250GB HDD and I'll put both my media and my OS on it... :|

[hyperlinked]

Hard drive manufacturers should buy out video camera makers and then adopt the business model used by the printer industry. They'll sell you the camera at cost or at a loss and then have the last laugh when you end up buying hard drive after hard drive.

You need a special Cannon 750Gb Digital Media edition HD "specially formatted" for AVCHD at $350 a pop, don't you think?

[ch_123]

I hear you need a cluster of Pentium Is to do that.

[EverythingIBM]

I hear you need a cluster of Pentium Is to do that.

Guess I'm out of that category then since it's the only pentium I don't possess currently (which is ironic).

I still haven't filled up my 3.6GB hard disk. Or the 515MB one. Or the 768MB one.

I'm already using a few GB on my 20 GB IBM HDD. Windows games suck up lots of MB (plus I have music on there too).

[InSanCen]

I'm in a similar-ish situation.

I'm making do with my current setup, as I am slowly building a monster server to do *everything* I need. I am sick of boxes lying around, dedicated to 1 or 2 tasks, and my main rig is getting full, slow etc.

The plan is, 4x12 core Opteron's, a Supermicro board to accommodate, 32GB of RAM, and some RAID6 goodness. I'll use one of the retiring boxes and some new drives, and add in FreeNAS to make a viable backup solution, with the critical stuff going onto BD-RE DL discs for backup. Digital Video is partly to blame, but RAW pictures from a DSLR at the rate I shoot them at, coupled with 1200+ DPI scans of 6x6 Negs are the largest contributor.

[microsoft windows]

I hear you need a cluster of Pentium Is to do that.

Nope. My Gateway2000 handles it just fine.

[microsoft windows]

Guess I'm out of that category then since it's the only pentium I don't possess currently (which is ironic).



I'm already using a few GB on my 20 GB IBM HDD. Windows games suck up lots of MB (plus I have music on there too).

Music's the thing that takes up hard disk space. I've got some music on my 10GB hard disk and it's down to only about 1Gb left.

[InSanCen]

Music's the thing that takes up hard disk space. I've got some music on my 10GB hard disk and it's down to only about 1Gb left.

There are times I'm sure someone has three accounts and is just trolling the **** out of us.

[ch_123]

It's me. I'm carrying out a bizarre social experiment, and having a verbal battle between my three alter egos at the same time.

[InSanCen]

It's me. I'm carrying out a bizarre social experiment, and having a verbal battle between my three alter egos at the same time.

Gentoo Compilation driven you over the edge?

[instantkamera]

Gentoo Compilation driven you over the edge?

Definitely explains the over-abundance of free time for the aforementioned "social experiment"...

[gr1m]

There are times I'm sure someone has three accounts and is just trolling the **** out of us.

Yes but not exactly how you imagine it - ch is troll account. So their posts are legit and anything ch says that makes sense is their idea of trolling because people aren't supposed to make sense right.

[ch_123]

Gentoo Compilation driven you over the edge?

It actually came from trying to make a PC300 do something useful. I can be seen standing at computer skips around Dublin with a thousand yard stare on rainy days.

[gr1m]

I'm in a similar-ish situation.

I'm making do with my current setup, as I am slowly building a monster server to do *everything* I need. I am sick of boxes lying around, dedicated to 1 or 2 tasks, and my main rig is getting full, slow etc.

The plan is, 4x12 core Opteron's, a Supermicro board to accommodate, 32GB of RAM, and some RAID6 goodness. I'll use one of the retiring boxes and some new drives, and add in FreeNAS to make a viable backup solution, with the critical stuff going onto BD-RE DL discs for backup. Digital Video is partly to blame, but RAW pictures from a DSLR at the rate I shoot them at, coupled with 1200+ DPI scans of 6x6 Negs are the largest contributor.

That really puts the monster in "monster server". Hot damn. Don't you want to wait for Bulldozer though.

[ch_123]

When you're dealing with that many CPUs, the quality of the individual ones isn't necessarily all that important.

Well, depends on what the server is being used for.

[niplfsh]

I can definitely relate to this thread. My computer's a total beast right now, and I've run out of things to upgrade at the moment, so I've turned my attention to the keyboard and mouse... which brought me to this forum

[gr1m]

When you're dealing with that many CPUs, the quality of the individual ones isn't necessarily all that important.

Well, depends on what the server is being used for.

Well, if the Bulldozers are that much better than Opterons that he would be able to use less of them, that's a good thing no?

[InSanCen]

Well, if the Bulldozers are that much better than Opterons that he would be able to use less of them, that's a good thing no?

Cash flow is the issue with this build, hence it being done in stages. If Bulldozers were a viable option financially, then I would have them. 4 of them, more if someone figures a way to squeeze 8 on a board that will fit in a 4U rack. As it is, they are an unknown quantity, and I can get the Opteron's at a nice price for what they offer, if you have the ability to utilise them fully.

What I am doing is highly parallel threaded (Raytracing), and although some tasks will be offloaded to the GPU's (CUDA), the simple rule is "Horsepower is king". The more I can get, the more I can do. As it is, there is a possibility I will get to test out a Bulldozer system (Don't bother asking, no offence, but no details will be given), but it's likely to be with a view to assessing one of my Clients needs, (which are the same as mine, albeit on a much larger scale), and speccing out a 500 node farm.

These cores (In my build) will be pegged at 100% utilisation, and stay there barring maintenance, upgrades etc. Sadly, Bulldozer will not be released until I have completed this build. I keep hearing that it will be a G34 drop in replacement though. I can always upgrade when the silicon matures a bit, asssuming there is truth to this rumor (AMD would be loved by me if they kept a G34 upgrade path open, assuming your motherboard just needs a BIOS flash or similar).

Oh, cheers for the comments on the build. It is a monster by all but the big "big iron" standards. It's just nice to hear about it from someone else other than my other half chipping in with comments like "How f**king much!?!?!?!?"

[instantkamera]

. It's just nice to hear about it from someone else other than my other half chipping in with comments like "How f**king much!?!?!?!?"

I can only imagine, I feel like asking the same thing ... Seriously, you deal with some gnarly hardware, Im interested to hear more about the software.

[InSanCen]

I can only imagine, I feel like asking the same thing ... Seriously, you deal with some gnarly hardware, Im interested to hear more about the software.

I fancy a bash at Tachyon to see if OSS is capable of utilising that many cores. I'm not decided on the software yet, as what I currently use is limited to a single core anyway, and is not 3D (Terragen, 2D). This is not something I do commercially, so a huge outlay on software is not what I want to do. But, Maya is very nice indeed... I'm just not sure if it's $5K nice.

As for the cost...

4 of These

One of These

16 of These


Add on coolers, chassis, disks, redundant PSU's (Although initially it will run on a single 1.2KW PSU I have already)

It's a scary amount of cash, but barring bulldozer being the most awesome thing ever, that's it, it won't get touched for 5 years.

[ch_123]

AFAIK, Intel is only working on 10 core chips, and I've yet to hear of any definite plans for anything bigger.

Hell, the Sandy Bridge chips to replace the current Core i7s will only be quad core initially.

[Ekaros]

So, after 4 HDDs and 7 NTFS partitions, I'm still wondering about either to get new HDD soon, getting NAS/Server box project or chaning my using habits...

I'm having dreams of some day getting own SAN, just for sake, NAS being for newbies...

Addendum:
Yet haven't found need for more power than my current cheap quad-core, but I just have to wait ;(
On other hand 4GB should have done it, but still I had  to go and get another 4GB reaching 8GB which has done quite well... If game designers just had thought about multimonitor support in previous years...

[EverythingIBM]

So, after 4 HDDs and 7 NTFS partitions, I'm still wondering about either to get new HDD soon, getting NAS/Server box project or chaning my using habits...

I'm having dreams of some day getting own SAN, just for sake, NAS being for newbies...

Addendum:
Yet haven't found need for more power than my current cheap quad-core, but I just have to wait ;(
On other hand 4GB should have done it, but still I had  to go and get another 4GB reaching 8GB which has done quite well... If game designers just had thought about multimonitor support in previous years...

4 GB is suffice for me right now... I presume I'll have to buy 4 more GB of RAM in a couple of years though if everything keeps getting bl0ated.

Hard drive space was never really an issue for me though, but I don't download movies or any of that garbage. And a lot of my [current] work consists of text documents and FL projects which are very compact.

[InSanCen]

Hard drive space was never really an issue for me though, but I don't download movies or any of that garbage. And a lot of my [current] work consists of text documents and FL projects which are very compact.

See, this is why people have problems with you. The highlighting I have done above should have been a full stop. You don't download movies? Fine, stop there. There is no need to needlessly disparage it.

[ch_123]

See, this is why people have problems with you. The highlighting I have done above should have been a full stop. You don't download movies? Fine, stop there. There is no need to needlessly disparage it.

I think this calls for a QFT...

[EverythingIBM]

See, this is why people have problems with you. The highlighting I have done above should have been a full stop. You don't download movies? Fine, stop there. There is no need to needlessly disparage it.

My good friend, if my posts simply consisted of one-liners, there would be no MEAT to my writing! To make it interesting, I simply must add a few extra details.

Besides, if everyone's posts were pithy & uninteresting, there would be no point to a forum, which, is a collaborative effort on sharing various information and facts. Perhaps even a few opinions or jests here and there.

[ch_123]

So, in other words, "I have nothing useful or interesting to say, therefore I have to sound like an *******."

[EverythingIBM]

So, in other words, "I have nothing useful or interesting to say, therefore I have to sound like an *******."

In other words, you got glitches in your britches:

hl=en_US&fs=1">

[Lenny_Nero]

I fancy a bash at Tachyon to see if OSS is capable of utilising that many cores....

From what I have seen over the years OSS is often first to get the new/latest code tricks, but, I am biased because most of the OSS stuff I have used or played with the people have bent over backwards to help me, often much more so than places that were being paid thru the nose to do the same.
So now I always try to go OSS, but you need to give them a good amount of feedback first (not saying you will not) but IMO it is that which has helped me more at later dates. You stick in their minds and they might have taken an interest in what you are doing before you ever need them.

With the service co's you are just another in a long list for that day and they are there because they have to be and you are just another number to get thru.

The only ray tracing SW I know of is POVray and only because I and some of the coders have met in the same places and had things in common.

[8_INCH_FLOPPY]

My hard drive is 70GB....

[microsoft windows]

So, after 4 HDDs and 7 NTFS partitions, I'm still wondering about either to get new HDD soon, getting NAS/Server box project or chaning my using habits...

I think you oughta get a new hard disk and start over from scratch.

[EverythingIBM]

My hard drive is 70GB....

Hey that's the same as mine! Except it's a 68-pin ultra 320 SCSI. So if the computer dies, I'll probably have difficulties getting files off (unlike my thinkpad).

[ch_123]

Did the hard drive in the Thinkpad actually die?

[phillip]

in my system I have 1x 640GB, 5x1TB, and 1x1.5TB.  2x2TB (mirrored) in a d-link dns-323.

I have several older smaller drives that i'm no longer using, too :/

[phillip]

i have a lot of music (on the nas and the 1.5 TB drive)

the rest is all movies, tv shows, anime >_>, and porn of course.  basically the only thing that gets listened to is the music though, since i dont have time for the rest of the **** because i'm too busy playing cs.

[microsoft windows]

I've got my music on cassettes and records still...

[phillip]

nothing wrong with records....cassettes?  ew

[microsoft windows]

Most of my tapes are ones I recorded off the radio. "Proto-piracy" I guess you could call how we all got our free music before computers.

[itlnstln]

I used to record stuff of the radio back in the day.  That's old school.  I have pretty much stopped buying music.  While I wish the sound quality was a little better, Pandora is my source of choice these days.

Completely OT, but here's a Pro Tip:  If you upgrade your cell phone, and your previous phone has WiFi (Palm Pre to HTC EVO, in my case), you can use the old phone as a portable media device in your home.  Even though there is no cell phone service, I can still use Pandora, Sirius/XM, etc. over WiFi.  I have my Palm Pre connected to a pair of Klipsch computer speakers in the game room, and it works great as a little Pandora streamer.

[ch_123]

Some things never change... such as record companies.

[microsoft windows]

Yeah, but nowadays, downloading music illegally is much easier to catch than home taping. I don't want some massive, crooked corporate alliance knocking at my door with a $500,000 lawsuit over 20 songs.

[phillip]

don't listen to music from riaa-affiliated labels then

[J888www]

My present project, a ThinkPad T60p. I have nearly replaced/maxed out all the components.

Core 2 Duo T7600 (Mobo being Socket M)
1x 2GB + 1x 1GB RAM
80GB Intel X25-M SATA SSD

New NMB keyboard
New BOE HyDis 15" 1600x1200 FlexView Screen
New Heatsink + Fan unit
Windows 7 32-bit OS

Have accepted the fact that the ATI FireGL V5200 Graphics as the best possible when I chose the T60p for its build quality. I even replaced the two tarnished IBM ThinkPad logos.
Still there are two things which still trouble my mind.

3GB RAM is the maximum the system will recognise, but am considering replacing the 1GB stick with a 2GB stick for a more uniform combination for a minute increase in RAM speed. Is the teeny bitsy increase of RAM speed worth the cost for replacement ?

80GB is more than enough, after full installation, there's still 53GB free space, but......this X25-M Series with MLC technology is already considered to be outdated. An Intel Single-Level Cell SSD is on the wish list, with present product cost of SLC SSDs, it will remain on this list for a while.
Is the Multi-Level Cell be sufficient for my requirements, would SLC technology be beneficial ?

"Just when you think you have enough, you need more"
This yearning to better oneself is what makes us human, it is this strive which makes us better than other animals, also it is this strive which makes us to be animals.