I/O Intensity of OpenFOAM

m_ridzon · June 4, 2014, 10:17

I'm new and getting ready to install Linux and OpenFOAM on a workstation to start graduate research work. I'm thinking of installing a Solid State disk drive in the workstation for faster I/O time. Does OpenFOAM perform a lot of I/O read/writes to the disk? If not, I may stick with a cheaper SATA hard disk drive.

Thanks,
M Ridzon

bigphil · June 4, 2014, 11:11

My two cents:

it depends on your application: if you intend to run transient simulations with lots of time-steps then you will notice the speed of SSD.
However, an SSD will be much smaller than a HDD of the same price, so you may need to buy at least an external HDD to store models/results.

Philip

m_ridzon · June 4, 2014, 13:36

Philip,

Thanks for quick reply!

And yes, I agree that an external HDD would be very beneficial to store models and results since the SSD won't be as big.

Matt

June 4, 2014, 10:17	I/O Intensity of OpenFOAM	#1
m_ridzon Member Matt Ridzon Join Date: Jun 2014 Posts: 91 Rep Power: 12	I'm new and getting ready to install Linux and OpenFOAM on a workstation to start graduate research work. I'm thinking of installing a Solid State disk drive in the workstation for faster I/O time. Does OpenFOAM perform a lot of I/O read/writes to the disk? If not, I may stick with a cheaper SATA hard disk drive. Thanks, M Ridzon

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June 4, 2014, 11:11		#2
bigphil Super Moderator Philip Cardiff Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Dublin, Ireland Posts: 1,093 Rep Power: 34	My two cents: it depends on your application: if you intend to run transient simulations with lots of time-steps then you will notice the speed of SSD. However, an SSD will be much smaller than a HDD of the same price, so you may need to buy at least an external HDD to store models/results. Philip

June 4, 2014, 13:36		#3
m_ridzon Member Matt Ridzon Join Date: Jun 2014 Posts: 91 Rep Power: 12	Philip, Thanks for quick reply! And yes, I agree that an external HDD would be very beneficial to store models and results since the SSD won't be as big. Matt