Download of the blockchain interrupted all the time

[pereira4]

As you see on this pic:



my download of the blockchain gets interrupted all the time. It downloads in small chuncks. It takes me hours to download 3 or 4 last days (I usually open my node every 3 or 4 days because my computer is crap to leave it open all the time) and it takes just so much to download the thing.

As you can see for some reason, it downloads for a while, then it stops for a while, then it downloads a little bit, stops again... it takes ages.

[unamis76]

This is normal behaviour, the graph looks like that. Don't forget that blocks are, tops, 1MB and that you have to verify them in between downloading.

[ranochigo]

The spikes would usually indicate the client downloading new blocks that are mined recently from an updated peer. IIRC, Bitcoin Core does download and verify the blocks simultaneously or at least download several blocks and verify them(?). Dont quote me on that though.

[pereira4]

But is it normal that it takes hours to go from "4 days ago" to the current one? I mean its just only 4 days, how many mb can be that? As far as I know they have made Bitcoin verify the blocks faster with this update, but it's still as slow as ever for me.
What I noticed is it's a lot faster when you open it, but now then synchronizing.

[ayesha201009]

But is it normal that it takes hours to go from "4 days ago" to the current one? I mean its just only 4 days, how many mb can be that? As far as I know they have made Bitcoin verify the blocks faster with this update, but it's still as slow as ever for me.
What I noticed is it's a lot faster when you open it, but now then synchronizing.

entire blockchain is big so far  a couple of gb...
it's normal that you have to wait a bunch of time... just be patients...

[ranochigo]

But is it normal that it takes hours to go from "4 days ago" to the current one? I mean its just only 4 days, how many mb can be that? As far as I know they have made Bitcoin verify the blocks faster with this update, but it's still as slow as ever for me.
What I noticed is it's a lot faster when you open it, but now then synchronizing.

Bitcoin network on average, generates roughly 144 blocks per day. Multiply that by 4 and it would be 576 blocks. On the worst case scenario when the blocks are filled to the brim, it would result in 576mb.

Even though the verification is improved, quality of your connected peers, internet speed and HDD speed remained unchanged. These could cause a bottleneck.

[pereira4]

But is it normal that it takes hours to go from "4 days ago" to the current one? I mean its just only 4 days, how many mb can be that? As far as I know they have made Bitcoin verify the blocks faster with this update, but it's still as slow as ever for me.
What I noticed is it's a lot faster when you open it, but now then synchronizing.

Bitcoin network on average, generates roughly 144 blocks per day. Multiply that by 4 and it would be 576 blocks. On the worst case scenario when the blocks are filled to the brim, it would result in 576mb.

Even though the verification is improved, quality of your connected peers, internet speed and HDD speed remained unchanged. These could cause a bottleneck.

Yeah I should update my hardware, but I can't now, no money.
If I had to choose, what would be better, more ram, an SSD, a better CPU? what's the priority here?
I've got an old quadcore, a regular 7200 RPM hard drive, and 4 gigs of ram.

[shorena]

But is it normal that it takes hours to go from "4 days ago" to the current one? I mean its just only 4 days, how many mb can be that? As far as I know they have made Bitcoin verify the blocks faster with this update, but it's still as slow as ever for me.
What I noticed is it's a lot faster when you open it, but now then synchronizing.

Bitcoin network on average, generates roughly 144 blocks per day. Multiply that by 4 and it would be 576 blocks. On the worst case scenario when the blocks are filled to the brim, it would result in 576mb.

Even though the verification is improved, quality of your connected peers, internet speed and HDD speed remained unchanged. These could cause a bottleneck.

Yeah I should update my hardware, but I can't now, no money.
If I had to choose, what would be better, more ram, an SSD, a better CPU? what's the priority here?
I've got an old quadcore, a regular 7200 RPM hard drive, and 4 gigs of ram.

Unless you are several CPU generations behind I dont see a reason for you to update yet. As long as the machine runs 24/7, is well connected[1] it should do fine. Even if you shut it down over night you should be fine. You obviously cant expect from the machine to have core up and running within a few minutes as with a modern CPU and an SSD, but I dont think its unreasonable to run a node on an older machine. Keep in mind people are still using RasPis to run a full node. Your machine should be way faster than a RasPi.


Edit:
[1] try adding

Code:

addnode=188.68.53.44:8333 
checkblocks=144 #0=all; default 288
checklevel=2 #0-4; default 3

to your bitcoin.conf.

This will make you connect to my node (and others) so you have at least one connection that can provide blocks quickly and reduce the time needed to check blocks on startup.

[unamis76]

But is it normal that it takes hours to go from "4 days ago" to the current one? I mean its just only 4 days, how many mb can be that? As far as I know they have made Bitcoin verify the blocks faster with this update, but it's still as slow as ever for me.
What I noticed is it's a lot faster when you open it, but now then synchronizing.

Bitcoin network on average, generates roughly 144 blocks per day. Multiply that by 4 and it would be 576 blocks. On the worst case scenario when the blocks are filled to the brim, it would result in 576mb.

Even though the verification is improved, quality of your connected peers, internet speed and HDD speed remained unchanged. These could cause a bottleneck.

Yeah I should update my hardware, but I can't now, no money.
If I had to choose, what would be better, more ram, an SSD, a better CPU? what's the priority here?
I've got an old quadcore, a regular 7200 RPM hard drive, and 4 gigs of ram.

When you upgrade, SSD should be your priority in order to run Core faster, as far as I can see from syncing speed feedbacks.