F10 Hard Drive
Discussion
The HDD based iDrive system in the F10 is wonderful, a great home for all your music.
But why is it only 12gb? In a world where a 1TB HDD - almost ONE HUNDRED TIMES larger - costs just £45 delivered, why is a £30,000-£60,000 car supplied with a hard drive that would have looked puny on a PC 10 years ago?
Surely the cost difference here is just immaterial?
But why is it only 12gb? In a world where a 1TB HDD - almost ONE HUNDRED TIMES larger - costs just £45 delivered, why is a £30,000-£60,000 car supplied with a hard drive that would have looked puny on a PC 10 years ago?
Surely the cost difference here is just immaterial?
the reasons why are relatively straightforward...
Technologically, the 'big capacity' hard disks are mechanical and thus in a vehicle environment are more susceptible to vibration which could knock out the read/write heads. Although most likely the HDD that does come in the car is also mechanical, I 'think' the latest generations are indeed SSD type drives. Another aspect would be perhaps a 1TB disk would take ages to have all it's data and properties read by the brains of the audio system. You don't want to sit there for 5 minutes as it indexes and searches out files etc on such a vast hard disk. Although you are only playing one song contained on X area of the hard disk, the electronics inside need to make all the other files available quickly. So smaller sizes suit much better the processing power of the brain/processor unit so that the user experience is as responsive as possible.
The flip side is, from recent research, it's been found that most people's music collections are I think around '16 GB' in size - this I think is a figure that's been derived from independant research etc. Now of course, some people, myself included have much much larger collections and others may have only a few GB. For the most part, a 12 GB system in the car would be very capacious for many peoples needs, just look at how much more that can hold than the now dying CD Changer's of older cars!
As mentioned as the pricing in bulk of SSD's comes down even further as capacities start to increase, the OEM systems will start to get bigger. Give it a few years or so
- I've spoken with the biggest car maker's and representatives of the big electronics specialists who are working on the next 3+ years of vehicle technology solutions at the 2010 CES show. I won't be making it to the 2011 show in early January this time I'm afraid, however the future is of course quite exciting for in car electronics, solutions and functions
Cheers, Dennis!
Technologically, the 'big capacity' hard disks are mechanical and thus in a vehicle environment are more susceptible to vibration which could knock out the read/write heads. Although most likely the HDD that does come in the car is also mechanical, I 'think' the latest generations are indeed SSD type drives. Another aspect would be perhaps a 1TB disk would take ages to have all it's data and properties read by the brains of the audio system. You don't want to sit there for 5 minutes as it indexes and searches out files etc on such a vast hard disk. Although you are only playing one song contained on X area of the hard disk, the electronics inside need to make all the other files available quickly. So smaller sizes suit much better the processing power of the brain/processor unit so that the user experience is as responsive as possible.
The flip side is, from recent research, it's been found that most people's music collections are I think around '16 GB' in size - this I think is a figure that's been derived from independant research etc. Now of course, some people, myself included have much much larger collections and others may have only a few GB. For the most part, a 12 GB system in the car would be very capacious for many peoples needs, just look at how much more that can hold than the now dying CD Changer's of older cars!
As mentioned as the pricing in bulk of SSD's comes down even further as capacities start to increase, the OEM systems will start to get bigger. Give it a few years or so
- I've spoken with the biggest car maker's and representatives of the big electronics specialists who are working on the next 3+ years of vehicle technology solutions at the 2010 CES show. I won't be making it to the 2011 show in early January this time I'm afraid, however the future is of course quite exciting for in car electronics, solutions and functions Cheers, Dennis!
sinizter said:
But is it a hard drive or a SSD ? SSD prices can multiply for small size increases.
And why would any sane person want 1TB storage in the car ? Don't be lazy and load a selection of your music rather than everything on the planet.
I just plug in my 60Gb Ipod. No point in copying the music since I know that the music list I have is exactly the same anywhere I go. I've also got the hard disc on my car but it's only ever used for the satnav.And why would any sane person want 1TB storage in the car ? Don't be lazy and load a selection of your music rather than everything on the planet.
Edited by sinizter on Thursday 23 December 19:56
sinizter said:
But is it a hard drive or a SSD ? SSD prices can multiply for small size increases.
And why would any sane person want 1TB storage in the car ? Don't be lazy and load a selection of your music rather than everything on the planet.
It's described as a hard drive. You dont need, or want, 1Tb in a car, I was simply illustrating the low cost. The main point is that 12gb is hugely stingy given the small cost of a massively larger device.And why would any sane person want 1TB storage in the car ? Don't be lazy and load a selection of your music rather than everything on the planet.
Edited by sinizter on Thursday 23 December 19:56
Was just wondering they do it?
Fox- said:
sinizter said:
But is it a hard drive or a SSD ? SSD prices can multiply for small size increases.
And why would any sane person want 1TB storage in the car ? Don't be lazy and load a selection of your music rather than everything on the planet.
It's described as a hard drive. You dont need, or want, 1Tb in a car, I was simply illustrating the low cost. The main point is that 12gb is hugely stingy given the small cost of a massively larger device.And why would any sane person want 1TB storage in the car ? Don't be lazy and load a selection of your music rather than everything on the planet.
Edited by sinizter on Thursday 23 December 19:56
Was just wondering they do it?
daemon said:
Fox- said:
sinizter said:
But is it a hard drive or a SSD ? SSD prices can multiply for small size increases.
And why would any sane person want 1TB storage in the car ? Don't be lazy and load a selection of your music rather than everything on the planet.
It's described as a hard drive. You dont need, or want, 1Tb in a car, I was simply illustrating the low cost. The main point is that 12gb is hugely stingy given the small cost of a massively larger device.And why would any sane person want 1TB storage in the car ? Don't be lazy and load a selection of your music rather than everything on the planet.
Edited by sinizter on Thursday 23 December 19:56
Was just wondering they do it?
Silver993tt said:
daemon said:
Fox- said:
sinizter said:
But is it a hard drive or a SSD ? SSD prices can multiply for small size increases.
And why would any sane person want 1TB storage in the car ? Don't be lazy and load a selection of your music rather than everything on the planet.
It's described as a hard drive. You dont need, or want, 1Tb in a car, I was simply illustrating the low cost. The main point is that 12gb is hugely stingy given the small cost of a massively larger device.And why would any sane person want 1TB storage in the car ? Don't be lazy and load a selection of your music rather than everything on the planet.
Edited by sinizter on Thursday 23 December 19:56
Was just wondering they do it?
Yes, i would imagine just a matter of time before somebody works out how to upgrade the size of it (if they havent done it already)
Gassing Station | BMW General | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff