Is HD speed that important

[iamaboringperson]

..but is hard disk speed really THAT important?

YES!! Well, to some more than others!
To me, HDD speed is very important, one of the more important factors these days.
Some people seem to be okay with slower computers etc.

...but is my, and no doubt others', obsession with speed a but needless?

You have to remember that it's not speed just for the hell of it. It's peoples time we're talking about here.
I have better things to do that sit around and wait for computers to boot and programs to compile.

will I even notice the fact that it ain't as fast as it could be?

Sure! In time you will surely notice.
Try this experiment:
Step one: Set up a fast HDD with the OS(etc.). Use it for three months.
Step two: Set up a slow HDD with the OS(etc.). Put the fast HDD aside, and start to use the slow one.
You will notice a difference, and after using the fast stuff for a while, slow computer hardware will most likely irritate you!

[iamaboringperson]

Incidentally, the gap between SCSI and IDE is also much smaller on modern hardware. In fact, you need a really pressing reason to choose SCSI these days, as IDE drives and interfaces are pretty fast.

The main advantage of SCSI these days is that it is Asyncronous.
SCSI is really better for multitasking than IDE, and that is where it will really perform.

If like me, you have several programs accessing the HDD at the same time(well not exactly the same time - but you know what I mean) you will certainly benefit from a SCSI HDD. I'm the sort of person who likes to load several programs at once, and an IDE HDD goes bezerk and takes much longer than a SCSI one.

[iamaboringperson]

I currently get about 70 MB/s (not a misprint) from my IDE raid, thats 3 uncompressed streams of D1 video out my VT[3]. Is that faster that what you are going to see from a single Ultrawide SCSI?? Yeah it is, in fact I have those in there too, its just until I Raid0 them together, they are slower then the IDE configuration. EIDE & SATA raid PCI cards are easily available and prevent most of the shortcomings of those formats.
-Tig

I'm not saying I doubt you, but I would love to know the exact details of your configuration.

Especialy drive models/speeds etc. :-)

[iamaboringperson]

Cyberus wrote:

... it's just that I was thinking some users may notice the differences more than others. I mean, for many users fast HD access may be just a luxury, rather than a necessity, if you gather what I mean

Sure, it's kind of like those people who are okay with 486's, and want to run all the latest apps on them.

Or people who don't know the difference between a sports car and a dumb old stationwagon.

IMAO some people just don't deserve to use computers, if you don't want speed.... ...nah only joking. ;-)

[iamaboringperson]

We used to have everything on SCSI for speed but these days IDE is more than fast enough.

That's impossible tintin! Nothing can even be 'fast enough', let alone 'more than fast enough'!

Crazy talk! :crazy: