HTPC boot drive

FlyingFish

FlyingFish

FlyingFish

Soldato
Joined
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Posts
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Location
Derbyshire
Ive just built up a htpc for downstairs :) And have a few questions to help improve the experience.

Following specs:

Asus P5QL/EPU mobo
Intel E7200 cpu
ATI 3870HD
500Gb Samsung F2 5400rpm quiet HDD
2Gb OCZ memory
Wifi card
Windows 7

I have everything running and installed, and have been playing around with Windows Media Center, and just now XBMC. I would like to get straight to the action as fast and as simply as possible :D

Thing is, booting up Win7 takes time, quite normal for a home pc probably a minute (ish). Now I would like this to happen as fast as possible so it doesnt become a chore using the HTPC (esp if its far quicker sticking a dvd in a dvdplayer)

My 500Gb hdd is partitioned into a 65GB C: drive and 400Gb D: drive.

My question is would a small (cheap) capacity SSD improve things dramatically for me?

I'm coming from a 'popcorn' which was very quick and fairly user friendly....just limiting :(

I've installed Win7 64, but have the 32 version and also XP Pro 32.

Thanks
Mick
 
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Why don't you just put it to sleep....thats what I do on my HTPC which just uses an old 250GB drive for the OS. Takes a few seconds to be fully operational from total shutdown. No real need for an SSD unless you're using a small case or desperately want to save power usage (but it would take a loooong time to recoup the initial cost of the SSD in electricity bills :) )
 
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Simple answer is yes it will make boot a lot faster for you if you get an SSD, thats what ive done on mine and its made a big difference to load times as I switch off my stuff at the mains, very happy with having made the move to SSD.

Hawker
 
hawker1986 said:
Simple answer is yes it will make boot a lot faster for you if you get an SSD, thats what ive done on mine and its made a big difference to load times as I switch off my stuff at the mains, very happy with having made the move to SSD.

Hawker
Click to expand...

Same here. Just upgraded my HTPC from a 120GB 2.5" SATA to a 60GB SSD - all the data is on my home server - and it's so much faster to boot. I used to have real issues with it taking forever to come back from hibernating so now I don't bother and just shutdown instead.
Only problem is it makes me want to switch to SSD for all my other PCs.:eek:
 
bluebox said:
Same here. Just upgraded my HTPC from a 120GB 2.5" SATA to a 60GB SSD - all the data is on my home server - and it's so much faster to boot. I used to have real issues with it taking forever to come back from hibernating so now I don't bother and just shutdown instead.
Only problem is it makes me want to switch to SSD for all my other PCs.:eek:
Click to expand...

Hehe, yeah made me want to switch out too...so I did :), do it you know you want to!

Hawker
 
I'm using a 40GB intel in mine, very happy with it. aI leave it on 24/7 so boot time isn't really an issue, but it improved browsing my XBMC library lots. On a mechanical drive it used to freeze and stutter trying to load all the database thumbnails and descriptions when scrolling through, but now it's buttery smooth.
 
Download xbmc live and run it off a usb pen plugged into the computer, much faster and a more dedicated solution.
 
BeelzebubUK said:
Why don't you just put it to sleep....thats what I do on my HTPC which just uses an old 250GB drive for the OS. Takes a few seconds to be fully operational from total shutdown. No real need for an SSD unless you're using a small case or desperately want to save power usage (but it would take a loooong time to recoup the initial cost of the SSD in electricity bills :) )
Click to expand...

Wow! 1st time I've used the sleep function, just what I wanted cheers.
Great thing is its killed two birds with one stone, bootup takes only a second or so now and I can power back up from my wireless keyboard. So no more opening up the TV cabinet to press the power button.

:)
Mick
 
FlyingFish said:
Wow! 1st time I've used the sleep function, just what I wanted cheers.
Great thing is its killed two birds with one stone, bootup takes only a second or so now and I can power back up from my wireless keyboard. So no more opening up the TV cabinet to press the power button.

:)
Mick
Click to expand...

Glad the el cheapo option worked for you. I do the same with a gyration mouse. Flick the buttons a few times and it wakes up the PC.
 
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