introduction

XMR is abbreviaion for Monero. Monero is cryptocurrency, it differs from others mostly in privacy aspects and resistancy against ASCI mining.

As you can check on moneroj page here¹ XMR blockchain size grows steadly. In 2024, you need about 206 GB disk space to download whole XMR blockchain.
And if you happen to start synchronization process on system that uses rotating drive (HDD), you can find warrning in log :

... W The blockchain is on a rotating drive: this will be very slow, use an SSD if possible

This post tries to answer what ‘very slow’ means in late 2024 by comparring blockchain synchronization speed on different storage devices.

hardware, drives

Bellow list of hard drive disks (HDD) that I use in tests :

Model Number	manufacture date	size	spindle speed	cache [MB]	other
ST1000DM003-1CH162	~2014	1 TB	7200 [RPM]	64	x2
ST4000NM0035-1V4107	~2016	4 TB	7200 [RPM]	128	-
ST6000NM0115-1YZ110	~2016	6 TB	7200 [RPM]	256	-

I also used two solid state disks (SSD) in xmr syncronization tests.

Model Number	manufacture date	size
Samsung SSD 870 EVO 500GB	~2021	500 GB
Patriot P210 1024GB	~2022	1 TB

hardware, workstations

To preform tests I used two ‘FUJITSU CELSIUS Workstations’ described bellow.

workstation 01 (aka. 099)

Workstation model : FUJITSU CELSIUS Workstations

• CPU : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-1620 0 @ 3.60GHz
• RAM : 8 GB
• NET : 1 Gbps
• Disk drives :
  • Samsung SSD 870 EVO 500GB
  • ST1000DM003-1CH162
  • ST6000NM0115-1YZ110
• OS: Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS

workstation 02 (aka. 098)

Workstation model : FUJITSU CELSIUS Workstations

• CPU : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-1620 0 @ 3.60GHz
• RAM : 8 GB
• NET : 1 Gbps
• Disk drives :
  • Patriot P210 1024GB
  • ST1000DM003-1CH162
  • ST4000NM0035-1V4107
• OS: Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS

tests description

For each test I’ve created new monero config file (monero.conf) with ‘data-dir’ parameter pointed to folder located on tested drive.

Each time I used the same monerod binary ( Monero CLI Wallet, ‘monero-x86_64-linux-gnu-v0.18.3.3’ ).

Each test was done separately, also test were not run in parallel on both workstatnions.

In case that test was disturbed ( like power outrage ) I delete all downloaded ‘data-dir’ data and run ‘fresh’ test.

results

Model Number	from	to	days
ST1000DM003-1CH162	2024-09-27 12:02:36	2024-11-02 10:00:40	~36
ST1000DM003-1CH162	2024-07-14 05:01:58	2024-08-01 03:26:50	~18
ST4000NM0035-1V4107	2024-08-02 12:44:35	2024-08-12 01:51:11	~10
ST6000NM0115-1YZ110	2024-09-10 06:29:47	2024-09-27 04:59:13	~17
Patriot P210 1024GB	2024-08-12 13:36:31	2024-08-13 17:06:48	~1
Samsung SSD 870 EVO 500GB	2024-08-14 12:40:28	2024-08-15 17:30:48	~1

results summary

I am not sure what is the reason behind vast difference between two ‘ST1000DM003-1CH162’ drives. My suspicion is - because of the difference between ‘ST4000NM0035-1V4107’ and ‘ST6000NM0115-1YZ110’ - that the reason is workstation (099). This workstation seems to be slower when it comes to disks IO operations.

So warrning message about use of rotating drive is accurate. Results shows that with relativly new HDD drive you need to wait about ~2 weeks to synchronize with xmr network. Using (even) old HDD to store xmr blockchain is still possible, but it require patience. To sync XMR from scrach use faster drive, copy it from other computer, or download blockchain directly ( more information about at Import Blockchain ).

This project tests were done between July 2024 and November 2024. As you see total test duration was about 83 days. I estimate that elecricyty used for this tests cost about $31 USD.

addtional informations, links, and sources

hardware, drives

To get ‘Model Number’ I use hdparam tool (usage example hdparm -I /dev/sda).

Value of ‘manufacture started’ represent year when this storage device was introduced on consumer market. It is my estimate based on Googles trends page, and other sources like offical spec. PDFs.

current Monero Blockchain size

see current value at moneroj page : Monero Blockchain Size

other

Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS download page

Monero Downloads page