why does my downloading use up so much resources?

[zimu]

I don't understand why, but when i download many files either through bittorrent/ kazaa/ any other service, my computer seems to choke when i have too many downloads.

e.g. i've got 5 downloads going on now, totalling about 600 Kb/s. I know my drive can handle MUCH higher speeds, but when i look at system resources, processor usage is 100%, my computer acts choppy, my RAM is all sucked up and my page file chokes too.

Any idea why? Why shoudl the download go through the processor? Cna't it just use something like DMA between drives and just store it straight to disk rather than run throuhg the processor first?

Thanks

 

[zephyrprime]

It has to be run through the processor first. No avoiding it.

But you've got some sort of problem. What processor are you using? What OS? How much mem? What programs do you having going in the background? What NIC do you have? Is it sharing an irq with one of you other devices? (this is only a rare problem but it might be worth looking at) Try to see which program is sucking up your processor time.

 

[zimu]

whoa! ok the specs you asked for:

what processor are you using?
~celeron 1GHz

OS
~ XP

memory
~ 384 MB

programs running
~ the usual, AIM, weatherbug, mail checker, norton anti virus.

NIC
~ 3com 10/100, came w/ my dell, no device conflicts.

each of the downloads, if using bittorrent use like 20% of my resources!!

 

[Siddhartha]

Originally posted by: zimu
whoa! ok the specs you asked for:

what processor are you using?
~celeron 1GHz

OS
~ XP

memory
~ 384 MB

programs running
~ the usual, AIM, weatherbug, mail checker, norton anti virus.

NIC
~ 3com 10/100, came w/ my dell, no device conflicts.

each of the downloads, if using bittorrent use like 20% of my resources!!

Memory is real cheap right now so I would get one gig of the fastest memory your motherboard supports.

 

[Psyber]

I may be possible that you are acting as a supernode or as an indexing server. Make sure your settings on the download software don't have that enabled. If it is enabled, alot of computers may be connecting to yours for their searching. Also, make sure you use spyware free download apps.

 

[kalster]

kazaa takes up lot of cpu power. but its very sporadic


on my xp 2000 with 512 megs of ram sometimes it takes up lot of cpu, most of the times tho it uses very little cpu power

 

[Slammy1]

Originally posted by: Psyber
I may be possible that you are acting as a supernode or as an indexing server. Make sure your settings on the download software don't have that enabled. If it is enabled, alot of computers may be connecting to yours for their searching. Also, make sure you use spyware free download apps.

They see a high bandwidth connection and default to it in the software. I had this problem with my 977 MHz PIII.

 

[0roo0roo]

ide 0wnz j00

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: zimu
I don't understand why, but when i download many files either through bittorrent/ kazaa/ any other service, my computer seems to choke when i have too many downloads.

e.g. i've got 5 downloads going on now, totalling about 600 Kb/s. I know my drive can handle MUCH higher speeds, but when i look at system resources, processor usage is 100%, my computer acts choppy, my RAM is all sucked up and my page file chokes too.

Any idea why? Why shoudl the download go through the processor? Cna't it just use something like DMA between drives and just store it straight to disk rather than run throuhg the processor first?

Thanks

Is DMA enabled on the drive?

I would drop weatherbug.

- Run adware.

 

[John]

Weatherbug is the epitamy of all evil. Use the Weather Channel program instead.

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: John
Weatherbug is the epitamy of all evil. Use the Weather Channel program instead.

Totally agree..

You don't need all that $hit.

 

[Sid59]

weatherbug = evil .. just bookmark weather.com ..

also, some apps aren't well coded and when you use them with other apps, CPU usage spikes.

 

[peter7921]

Originally posted by: zimu
I don't understand why, but when i download many files either through bittorrent/ kazaa/ any other service, my computer seems to choke when i have too many downloads.

e.g. i've got 5 downloads going on now, totalling about 600 Kb/s. I know my drive can handle MUCH higher speeds, but when i look at system resources, processor usage is 100%, my computer acts choppy, my RAM is all sucked up and my page file chokes too.

Any idea why? Why shoudl the download go through the processor? Cna't it just use something like DMA between drives and just store it straight to disk rather than run throuhg the processor first?

Thanks

I have heard that bit torrent is CPU intensive and if you have 5 downloads in progress like you mentioned i could definately see it adding up.

 

[zephyrprime]

Your system looks alright. Check to see if your HD is using DMA.

 

[zephyrprime]

...

 

[BurnItDwn]

One way to see if its the drive .. or something else .. would be to use FTP to download (or even DCC on irc) .. those shouldnt lag your system much, even at 2 or 3 MB per second.

 

[Cerb]

1) 3Com NICs can EAT UP slower machines. The crippledness of the celeron could be partly to blame.
2) As noted, functioning as a supernode does it.
3) I've noticed that even at low speeds, more than 10 or so concurrent downloads (unless they are really slow--2-4KB/s), that my machine starts slwoing down, even though there's no reason for it, other than some not-so-great coding.
I've noticed this in my machine using the Linksys LNE100TX and no-name (Dell OEM'd, I think) Realtek 8139 (maybe slightly off, going by memory), and my machine is hardly a slouch.

 

[zimu]

ok, so i got rid of weatherbug, got the desktop weather from weatherchannel instead.



regarding DMA, yes it is enabled.

 

[Sid59]

the only time my computer really lags is in the home network. The other day, my friend brought his computer nad took about 12 gigs of movies and music. Couldn't do much, just sat around.

 

[XBoxLPU]

No slow downs here.

SCSI does help though

 

[ugh]

BitTorrent is really resource hungry. Just opening ONE d/l session on my old P200 64MB RAM, can kill it immediately