Can Notebook be used to do heavy downloading?

hi, don't know if this is the right place to post this but... can notebook be used to do heavy downloading? i mean at MAX power! even my desktop hard disk is working full time when i'm downloading, the processor also working very hard.
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my current desktop spec:

intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz w/ HT
1GB RAM
7200rpm HD

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my desktop isn't exactly slow or old, so can a notebook like the Qosmio G30 (i havn't bought it yet) do the job? will a notebook be capable doing this without any bad effect to the system? i want to keep my notebook as long as i can.

 

Depends more on your internet connection. If you're on 56k, anything, even my old TI-82 calculator could keep up. If you're on 1gb/s, it's trickier.

The only bottleneck you *might* run into is the HD speed. You need to store everything you download on the HD. A 7200 RPM HD can usually read/write something like 50MB/s, which corresponds to a 400mbit connection. So if your connection is faster than that, you'll need a fast HD.

The CPU or other components should never be stressed by downloading. Unless there's something really wrong with your computer.

 

Im downloading at 200-300 mb/s and my hard drive and cpu are hardly at work. I have 512 mb of ram and I have a 80gb 4800rpm drive. When I torrent, It kicks up and CPU at about 30%-40% and hard drive kicks up like ever 20 mins. Might be my problem, dont know really.
-Ham

 

my connection speed is 1.5MB/s, so its alright if i dl for 24 hours?

 

Just what exactly you are downloading that would keep the connection stressed like that if you don't mind me asking

even downloading movies won't reach the speed of 1.5mb/sec "usually", unless if it is multiple download.

 

Im downloading all the time in the background, and I dont even notice it. If you are doing some extreme lan/internet gaming it might be in your best interest to pause the downloads or not start one before you start playing.

edit: oh yea make sure you have so decent virus software if your going to be doing limewire/bit torrents and all the other stuff! I know from experience.

 

i'll be using limewire to dl multiple files, usually when it reached 150kb/s the system started to lag, seems the harddisk is under strenuous load. Is that OK for notebook? for the harddrive to be working hard for 24 hour?

oh don't worry about security i know all about it

 

well... when it comes to thse programs, I am sure you know that in the same time you are downloading you are sending portions of what you are downloading to other users, try to limit the upload bit rate, and when it comes to protection there is a program called peer guardian (make sure you load the most recent block list for it).
I only use wireless with limewire, torrents...etc lol, I guess some poeple know why

 

i don't know, if you knew all about security, you wouldn't have limewire installed on your computer, nor would you be using p2p

 

well thats funny... i use wireless router w/ hardware firewall, and use zonealarm (which is very good), limit my upload, etc. so every precaution is taken.... actually what i'm trying to say is; perhaps limewire is the safest of all p2p program; look at it this way; internet is dangerous place right? but u have/need to use it so u use it anyway, but because internet explorers is not safe u use different browser... get wat i mean? anyway back to the topic, if u don't mine

 

I got bad news for you. ZoneAlarm (which is junk), your router and upload limitations help you in no way what so ever. If you voluntarily download something the firewall does not get involved at all. You see all a firewall does is block unsolicited traffic. So if you didn't ask for it you don't get it. By downloading from Limewire you are asking for it. If "it" is a virus or what have you, you got it! And most viruses and spyware are smart enough to get around ZoneAlarm (do yourself a favor and get rid of that it really is more of a pin than it is worth) BTW, many viruses/spyware rootkit themselves now also, which means that nothing can see them. It takes another OS to actually see the program, Windows can't.

Your question though. Your laptop can download just fine. There are other things that limit the download more than your computer. Oh and you have a 1Mb/s downstream, not 1MB/s There is a huge difference. Like 8x.

 

i can get files of limewire at 350 kb\s some thimes(limewire speed). as for my internet speed i am running at 1 mb\s statisticaly. as for security it is true limewire is not that good i WOULD

 

Any kind of heavy downloading, ie speeds exceeding 8mbit, will damage any harddrive.

If you do plan to download continuously, make sure the program your using has disk caching enabled.

 

Waah? You mean a harddrive can't handle, uh, writing data to it?
I don't know where you dug up *that* rumour, but it's definitely not true.

 

Especially consider most hard drive write faster than that I believe. I know they transfer much faster than that. I too am curious where that rumor came from.

 

I'm not talking about the fact that a harddrive can transfer faster then those speeds. Long term frequent I/O (from downloading/uploading) will put more stress on the harddrive then needed.

Using some sort of disk cache provided by whatever software you use, will decrease the amount of read/writes to the harddrive.

 

just a bit of advice...if you use Limewire a lot, then use Peer Guardian 2...google it...

It is a firewall designed for p2p programs.

http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/

you might run into overheating issues, I recommend buying a Targus Chillmat.