NTFS File Compression Performance Hit on Media Server

[Guest]

I'm considering turning on the NTFS file compression with my music server,
which is an 80 GB partition approaching the 90% full range. It houses audio
mp3's only, nearly all encoded from my CD collection at the highest VBR
rating - so bit rates can get as high as 500+ kbits.

The question I have, is what kind of performacne hit am I going to have if
the server is trying to play maybe 3 streams simultaneously. The server is a
Dual 750 MHz PIII running XP with 512 MB of RAM. The system drive is a 10k
rpm U 160 SCSI drive, and the media hard drive is a 7200 rpm WD Caviar SE...

If anyone has experinece in this regard, I'd appreciate any feedback...

Administrator: If you feel that this would be a more appropriate post on
the Windows Media Player forum, will you move it there, or do I post again?

Cheers!

 

[unfrostedpoptart]

I'm considering turning on the NTFS file compression with my music server,
which is an 80 GB partition approaching the 90% full range. It houses audio
mp3's only, nearly all encoded from my CD collection at the highest VBR
rating - so bit rates can get as high as 500+ kbits.

This is totally pointless and won't do what you want. Generic data
compression is going to have almost zero affect on mp3 files (or jpgs,
mpgs, avis, and other, already compressed media files). Just to have
fun, and waste time, you can creat a tiny partition and try it with a
few files. Disk drives are dirt cheap - just add more space.

David

 

[Guest]

Thanks David... I wondered as much - I knew this applied to zip files and
compressed images, so I should have known it applied to mp3's...

Much appreciated!