CPU vs. Hard Drive causing slowdown

[star987]

I have a custom built machine I use solely for statistical analysis. It runs relatively well, but I was looking to see if upgrading the processor would result in an improvement in overall run time. I was wondering if there is a specific way to determine if the speed of my machine is currently limited my the speed of my hard drive (reading and writing files) or the speed of my processor. I don't want to upgrade a processor if my current limitations are hard drive based (and visa versa).

Thanks!

 

[InvalidError]

Look at HDD activity % in task manager. If HDD activity is high during your time-consuming tasks, then a faster CPU may be of limited to no use.

 

[Rdslw]

simple way would be usage of cache and ramdisc for temp dirs and/or monitoring CPU/IO workload during the run.
replace/support one that never falls down during execution

 

[star987]

Look at HDD activity % in task manager. If HDD activity is high during your time-consuming tasks, then a faster CPU may be of limited to no use.

So I should just compare the CPU% to the Disk 2 (my C drive) % in the task manager performance tab while running my program?

 

[Greg Gregorich]

may help if you provide PC specifications

 

[InvalidError]

If CPU usage is high regardless of HDD activity, then the CPU is a significant bottleneck. If the CPU is nowhere near 100% while the HDD is consistently active (doesn't need to be particularly high activity) then the HDD may be the bottleneck.

If the algorithms you are using are poorly/lightly threaded, then the CPU bottleneck would begin as soon as that thread (or few threads) get close to 100% and for a 4C4T CPU, 100% load from one thread could mean CPU bottlenecking at as little as 25% total CPU utilization.

 

[star987]

If CPU usage is high regardless of HDD activity, then the CPU is a significant bottleneck. If the CPU is nowhere near 100% while the HDD is consistently active (doesn't need to be particularly high activity) then the HDD may be the bottleneck.

If the algorithms you are using are poorly/lightly threaded, then the CPU bottleneck would begin as soon as that thread (or few threads) get close to 100% and for a 4C4T CPU, 100% load from one thread could mean CPU bottlenecking at as little as 25% total CPU utilization.

Under the resource monitor, I have CPU 0 - 12 listed. All of them spike to 100% occasionally throughout my programs. At the top I have CPU - Total with a blue line and a green line. I'm not sure what the blue line represents, but I think it is maximum frequency. Any idea what this is and is it a problem if it remains at 100% throughout? The green line is probably around the 25-30% mark throughout.