Caching

[kC_]

yupwould be nice to be able to download to ram, then when the part is complete it puts to to HD download folder (no need for temp dir, just use ram)

can be done now by using RAMdisk software.. but would love to see the option included into altbinz

[spod]

It seems that NewsBin Pro uses a memory caching system that will try to decode and reassemble the file completely in RAM and therefore only write to the disk once (as a finished file), for downloads that occupy less than 100 blocks (approx. 70MB?) The frequency of hard disk writes is not adjustable, for reasons of trying to keep  preferences setting simple  by avoiding complex advanced-user settings. But the non-adjustability of disk-caching is  something that dialup users and those with crash-prone PCs obviously are not going to be happy about.

http://forums.newsbin.com/viewtopic.php?t=18986

(I actually prefer the concept of keeping two sets of settings:  the advanced settings - especially settings that inexperienced users could cause harm if badly chosen - available only by manually editing the configuration file, and GUI "tickbox" settings that make it easy for beginning users to understand, by not throwing out too many choices that might only confuse them.)


... if only I'd known about NewsbinPro's RAM caching feature before my last hard drive died using Grabit

[jp10558]

In the early days of eDonkey and BitTorrent, there was no read/write disk cashing, and I burned out 2 hard drives from all the time I spent online. When I started downloading from Newsgroups, I thought it would be different. I was wrong.

I discovered that Grabit writes to the disk constantly (and rhythmicly noisily) and using it on a 256kbit connection, the constant 'strumming' destroyed my 3rd hard drive after only a few months. (It was an external; I already learned my lesson from using P2P)

I'm not discounting your experiance, but in recent tests from Google over 100,000 consumer level drives in a year, load on a drive did not significantly affect drive lifespan. From what I saw, save for controlling temp somewhat, there's nothing you can really do to extend drive life - they will die when they die, and there's no real prediction. Thank goodness for warrenties and backups!

[Hecks]

They also revealed that SMART technology is basically pointless, IIRC, and that excessive cooling can actually be detrimental to a drive.  It just goes to show.

-Hecks