What's with the Processors and HDDs?

[iAppleseed]

This is how my understanding goes. The HDD is not fast enough to deliver information that will be processed as fast as the processor can go, therefore making the system only as fast as the HDD delivers the information making the HDD the slowest component in the computer (bottleneck). The SSD makes the delivery fast enough to make the processor process the information at its full potential, making the system run faster. Correct me if I am wrong.

If this is true, then an upgrade to the processor wouldn't make a difference since the HDD is still slow enough to provide the information. Yet why is it faster?

 

[takeshi74]

It's not so black-and-white as you're making it out to be. Bottlenecks aren't necessarily the same in every single situation. Running a different type of application, for example, can change where the bottleneck is.

A faster processor can improve performance. An SSD can improve performance. More memory can improve performance. Not all will offer improvements in all situations.

 

[mac-collector]

I like your mac set-up. I've been waiting to upgrade to something similar.

 

[iAppleseed]

Well, it is a beast.

 

[squeakr]

You are correct in that a HDD is a bottleneck, but to get around that, we have L2 and L3 Cache and RAM. The SSD will not provide enough for full potential of the CPU. We ave the RAM and such as we work out of it swapping back and forth to the HDD. As said it is not as simple as that. When the application is small enough to all fit in RAM, then the HDD is taken out of the equation and a faster CPU will make the difference. So many factors at work here, to point to one particular area.