SSD or HD for HTPC

Matt_Hirst

Matt_Hirst

Matt_Hirst

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Just setting up a HTPC and am not sure wether to go for a SSD or traditional HD for it.

The HTPC will be fed movies from a server across a home plug network.

Obviously the SSD will be quicker and quieter but what esle will I gain to make me go for one of these over the traditional HD?

Next question is also size, what size do I really need? Going to have XBMC, win7 and thats about it.

regards,

Matt
 
I'd go with a 2.5" HDD. Unless you've got money to burn there's no need for an SSD in an HTPC. If you sleep or hibernate the system then you don't need to boot the OS everytime and the speed of the disk becomes less important.
 
Personally, for that usage I would get an SSD.

As you mention it will be quieter (silent) and obviously quicker. This will mean that the system, and applications load up faster. Because of this you will be able to shut down the system (instead of putting it to sleep) when not in use, because it will boot back up so fast.

As you will only be installing win7, XBMC then a 30GB like this will be more than enough.
 
I'm running a 40Gb intel in mine, love it. My HTPC is completely passive now with no moving parts. It was also great for my XMBC database, scrolling through loads of thumbnails is much much smoother now.
 
I'd echo the above posts. If you're streaming then 40GB will be plenty fast and plenty of space.

One issue though is if you are planning to stream HD through your homeplug network, you need to see if you are getting sufficent bandwidth. My house is quite new but the nature of the wiring is such that I only get about 15mbs over homeplug (even though it's rated 200mbs) - this is fine for SD but even 720p can stutter - 1080p is no-go.

I've had to store movies/tv locally so I've got 2TB HDD's.
 
Not much benefit going SSD here unless you plan to use it for booting and energy saving with a Blue-ray or DVD drive. I don't know any HTPC owner and I'm not planning to build one but Hard drives would do great here as it would not matter while watching films and it could be used as a storage drive.
 
SSD definitely.

HTPC is ideal for a SDD and I would strongly advise you to purchase one.

I went from a traditional HD to a SSD in my HTPC and have not looked back. Fast booting and responsiveness is important in a HTPC in my opinion - for me anyway. SSD provides this and does not slow down over time (well mine hasn't after months of use).
 
For me an SSD would be a complete waste of money in my HTPC. I never switch the PC off, I use sleep. I use Media Portal as my front end and that also is never shut down. The films and TV series are on two 2TB HD's. The system is responsive enough having it on a std HD and would not benefit from a SSD type.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

I supose the SSD appeals as it will be quiet and quick and cool. The case only has space for a pair of 2.5 inch hard disks so fitting a large hard drive is not practicable, also would mean whats the point of having the server.

Robcat you do have me concerned about the homeplugs now, I have 200Mbs ones but now worry it won't be upto the task! Is there anything I can do to help speed the network up?

regards,

Matt
 
Does it matter that a htpc may well be used to watch live tv on and the buffer would write to the disk drive a lot of times?
 
Matt_Hirst said:
Robcat you do have me concerned about the homeplugs now, I have 200Mbs ones but now worry it won't be upto the task! Is there anything I can do to help speed the network up?
Click to expand...

I use 200Mb/s homeplugs myself, in file copy tests to check the throughput I get around 80Mb/s (10MB/s), which is plenty for streaming 1080p (1080p needs around 25Mb/s for smooth streaming).

What you can do is make sure you plug them directly into the wall, don't put them through an extension lead.
 
Matt_Hirst said:
Robcat you do have me concerned about the homeplugs now, I have 200Mbs ones but now worry it won't be upto the task! Is there anything I can do to help speed the network up?

regards,

Matt
Click to expand...

I think you just have to try it. As Zarf says, there should be enough bandwidth for HD in theory. It very much depends on the way your house is wired up. As I said, my house is modern so it should have good quality wiring but (and I don't really know much about this) it might be down to the "ring mains" for different floors - whatever they are - but the two PC's are on different floors at opposite ends of the house. I've tried with/without extensions and with/without encryption - none seem to get me upto a decent birrate. Upshot is though for me I get about 15mb/s average. For similar reasons wifi "n" also gives v poor connection so I'm snookered unless I'm prepared to lay cable.

The easiest thing to do is just try and transfer a normal (large) file from one PC to another over the network. Windows will give you the transfer rate in the "more details" bit. I only get the equiv of about 15mb/s i.e. just about 2MB/s. - you have to remember that video bitrates vary normally, so you need a bit of extra headroom for "peaks".
 
The "ring mains" you talk about are the mains circuits around the house. As I understand it every fuse in your fusebox protects a separate circuit. Lighting, sockets, cooker, storage heaters are all on different circuits. Key though is that most houses have the downstairs and upstairs sockets on different circuits - this means that any homeplugs for PCs on different floors have to go through the fusebox and this kills speeds.
 
boosfuk said:
The "ring mains" you talk about are the mains circuits around the house. As I understand it every fuse in your fusebox protects a separate circuit. Lighting, sockets, cooker, storage heaters are all on different circuits. Key though is that most houses have the downstairs and upstairs sockets on different circuits - this means that any homeplugs for PCs on different floors have to go through the fusebox and this kills speeds.
Click to expand...

From what I understand it's something like this, but I've also read houses can have mains rings in various different configurations - 2 or 3 mains rings, not necessarily individual fuses. The upshot is the same - you can end up with your homeplugs electrically separated leading to lowered bandwidth.
 
So ideal situation is to house server somewhere downstairs so it's on the same ring as the one for TV - hhhhmmm can't see the misses being too pleased.

I live in a house that is 10 years old, it also suffers from next to no good wireless just in the locations where I want pc's etc.


What size SSD would people reccomend for what I am trying to achieve?



regards,

Matt
 
For a HTPC, presuming you'll be running a fairly base operating system/spec and not storing media on the internal drive, go for the fastest small drive you can afford. Effectively you're after the speed, noise and power improvements not capacity.

I'm considering putting one in mine too when I have a few £££ lying around, but not decided which yet. That said I'm going to be quite strict on budget with mine; definately not spending about £100 for what is just an OS boot drive!
I'll be coming from a 5400RPM 2.5" so the performance improvement should be nice, my system runs very light anyway, and already boots in about 30 seconds so theres only so much I can expect. That the write/reads should be fairly low means the drive should last quite some time as well :)
 
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