Problem with ram and disk cache

[Snakeulescu]

I`ve asked here one time and no one did manage to help me so as a hail mary i`ll try again.

 

The freakin` problem is the following: (let me elaborate on the title)

So i got a new gigabit internet a month or so ago and i don't have an ssd. I don't  encounter problems with small torrents (that`s at most 9gb) but only with big ones, for example a tv series season (witch in 720p has about 20+gb).

Everytime i try to download my ram (8gb) rises up to around 3,80-4 gb (witch in my opinion is extremely high for 1 program) and the utorrent suddenly crashes. When i turn it back on almost half of the download is gone. Start and crash again. I have disk cache set up at around 1000mb, so i do not get disk overload. If i uncheck the box, utorrent does not crash but the download speed will reach at most 3mb cause of disk overload 100%.

 

Is there any way to solve this fast, `till i buy an ssd? Cause is kind of time consuming to press play and pause all the freakin` time i download a big torrent. I appreciate the help and please only constructive comments, i`m sick of the bullcrap.

[Tensk]

The way I see it, and taking into account that I have no way to test what you're experiencing (no gigabit here but 100/10), I feel as if you're asking for more than you can get according to your hardware.

 

On the other hand, it's weird it only happens for torrents over 9GB (to say the same as you said), it feels as it should begin "sooner", I mean, with smaller torrents. A partial solution would be, as long as the torrent is in episodes, to select just about 8-9GB to download at once. That doesn't solve the problem but should prevent that from happening. I also wonder if that happens if you fine grain the priorities of the files in the torrent but that's just out of pure curiosity, I guess it would happen as well but...

 

Have you tried smaller disk cache sizes? Again, I think you're asking for something you can't get with your current hardware but I hope I'm proven wrong.

[Snakeulescu]

The only problem with my hardware as i see it is the hard drive. 8gb of ram and i7 3.4 it think it`s ok for a gigabit, at least as far as my internet provider says on it`s website (6gb of ram, i5, and the freakin ssd.)

 

If i select by episodes and go `till the 9gb it`s ok. No problems, no nothing. 

 

What do you mean by "fine grain the priorities"? (did not have problems with utorrent, or issues, so i did not invest much time in knowing all the tips&tricks). If you refer to setting a priority for each file i didn`t do that until now, i`ll try, and hope it will make a difference.

 

I`ve tried working with the cache size, but for me nothing under 1000mb does the trick. If i set it under i get disk overload.

 

What i don't understand is why the ram goes up so fast. I mean if the fact that the hard drive can`t write faster makes it do that why only for bigger than 12gb? it`s not that big a difference between 9-12. 

 

All in all i think the solution is that ssd, until then i`ll stick to selecting fewer files.

[Tensk]

I do believe there must be some connection between that 8GB you say you have in your pc, and those 9GB limit for "things to go well and then crash". That and maybe the ssd, but I would start looking at memory. If I were you and had the time and interest, I would try and change the amount of memory of that pc to something else (say you have two memory sticks, 4GB each, I would take one out so I had just 4GB) and see where it crashed, if about 4-5GB of file or still at about 9GB. But that's me and only if it's possible. If your memory is all contained in just one stick and don't have any chance to get another one, then... that's obviously not possible.

 

I meant  just that. If you leave utorrent as it comes, you can set it to "high, medium, low", but if you go to options, you can set it to "fine grain..." whatever, so I would click on that and now have 16 different options for each file in the torrent. Then I would select a few of the files and set it at high priority, a few others in a lower one (not necessarily in the next priority level, but a couple or three under) and so on, with, say, about 5-6GB each group at most (so you're well under that 9GB limit and have still room to spare for those with lower priority levels). My point here is trying to make utorrent "forget" to have in memory those that get completed in a more automatic way than having to choose how many for it to download each time. I hope I've explained myself.

 

I wonder if that happens with every torrent or only if it goes really fast to download.

 

I hope that helps and... well, at least I tried

[Snakeulescu]

After a little more testing (i did not try "fine grain" yet, only the ram stick one)  i got same results and got to the conclusion it`s my hard drive at fault. It all happens when my speed on big torrents goes up to around 50-60 mb/s. At that point the ram starts to spike and it all goes down the drain. I linked the missing percentage to the fact that it was much more data downloaded than storen. After you explained in detail the "fine grain" i think that`ll work, i`ll try it with season 8 of dexter . Oh and i have to mention that on medium torrents (8-9 gb) after it downloads a message appears on the download bar: flushing to disk (and a number, of files i think), that got me to the above conclusion.

 

Anyway, Thanks so much for the help.