Does installing something affect the speed of a large download?

[lip5016]

Hey, I was just wondering… Does installing something while you have a large file downloading at the same time affect the speed of either of them? I was just curious because I wasn't sure how the hard drive would be handling both the download and install at the same time.. I just had to run a fresh install of OS X, and I'm just trying to get all of my music stuff back up and running as soon as possible.. so that means a lot of large downloads and a lot of small installations.. which id like to complete as soon as possible, so I can get back to work ASAP!

so what do you guys think? Does an install affect the download speed or vice versa?

 

[maflynn]

If you're accessing the hard drive while the data is downloaded then yes, it may have an impact so the drive needs to handle multiple requests. In reality however, I don't think it will have a noticeable impact. The download is buffered into memory and then written so hard drive activity will be minimal.