multiple hard disks with MP + TV server - best performance setup?

[etheesdad]

TV-Server Version: current
MediaPortal Version: current
MediaPortal Skin: monochrome
Windows Version: xpsp3
CPU Type: celeron 2.4
HDD: 80+160
Memory: 1gb
Motherboard: ga-8ig1000 pro
Video Card: fx 5500
Video Card Driver:
Sound Card: soundblaster
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: hvr-1100
1. TV Card Type: hybrid
1. TV Card Driver:
2. TV Card: dtv2000h
2. TV Card Type: hybrid
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec:
MPEG2 Audio Codec:
h.264 Video Codec:
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case:
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote:
TV:
TV - HTPC Connection:


I was lucky enough to get my hands on a 160gb hard drive for free, and want to add it to my mediaportal setup.

My understanding with hard disks is that two can be accessed faster than one, and I got great results recently on Vista by splitting the page file across two physical drives. Im wanting to apply the same principal to my dedicated MP machine, to get it running as fast and efficient as possible.

Ive got 1gb ram and the memory useage never seems to max out, so Im thinking that hard drive swapping isnt too much of an issue.

So my question is, whats the best hard-disk setup for MP and TV server? Im thinking one drive per card, but that means running [OS and software + recording] from one drive and using the other drive for [time-lapse or recording].

Or am I better off running the OS and Software from one drive and using the second drive for both cards?

Is three hard drives a better way to go? (one for each card and one for OS?)

Any thoughts/opinions/experience appreciated....

[revs]

Hard drives (depending on type) can transfer 150 - 300MB a second.
TV Timeshifting and recordings are maybe, at most 15 - 20Mb a second each (for a really high quality HDTV stream).

So one HD per card is complete overkill. However this is what I would suggest if you want to use multiple HDs and maybe gain some speed:

System and MP install on one HD.
Seperate small HD for Timeshifting only.
Other hard drives for storing any finished recordings/dvd rips.
and maybe a seperate HD for the page file.

but i doubt it would make a huge difference. So go with your idea of OS and software on one drive, and second drive for timeshifting/recording.

[Paranoid Delusion]

Deleted duplicate post.

[Bagal]

Originally Posted by revs

Hard drives (depending on type) can transfer 150 - 300MB a second.

That's the theoretical maximum, in reality most consumer hard drives max out at about 75MBs - see this small net builder article about building a really fast NAS where the aim is to max out a Gigabit network, really interesting read.

Originally Posted by revs

System and MP install on one HD.
Seperate small HD for Timeshifting only.
Other hard drives for storing any finished recordings/dvd rips.
and maybe a seperate HD for the page file.

Apart from the dedicated drive for the page file, that's pretty much the setup I've got and I don't notice any particularly huge performance improvements, IMO it's only worth doing if you've got the drives already, I had quite a few spare so it didn't cost me any extra, the one thing to remember though is that it will cost you more money running multiple drives than having a single large one, so unless you're suffering performance problems I wouldn't bother changing anything.

[mdbarber]

disable the swap file and set the recording/timeshifting to a diff drive, works great for me, i use 2gb ram but 1gb should be enuf...

[Maedhros]

I gave up using too much time on optimizing file setup on my mediaserver.

I have however set up mine with a HDD for OS + MP + installs.
Another HDD is taking care of storage.
A third HDD is the working drive of uTorrent.

Then I just remember to have documentation of my OS and MP setup and backup of the settings and DB. The most likely HDD to break down is the system drive, since it has the most activity, so that one is covered by backup. If I had a spare HDD of the same size or slightly bigger, I would probably set up an automatic image of the installation drive for when I make major changes. And daily/weekly backups of MP settings and so on.

The point is just that you can move the page-file to the storage drive. But this is where you have your media, which is what you use your mediacenter to playback and therefore you won't get much of an improvement. Probably the start-up time will be decreased. But like it was said, the best is to make sure that you have enough memory and then disable the pagefile. Especially if it is only MediaPortal running.

If you really want noticable performance improvement with only effort, then consider purchasing one of the new Intel SSD for the system drive. That will speed your PC up beyond what you imagined!

The solution of many harddrives dedicated to different things is in my experience wasting a lot of money, fragmenting your available space, and waste of electricity.... for a marginal improvement if any in overall performance. You have to remember, that not all disks are the same. Some are slower searching, others slower in IO-performance.... Some might even slow down you system overall because of a poor controller in the HDD.... Speaking of controllers.... You SATA-controller is probably on-board, meaning that you most likely won't get anything performance-wise with 4 disks. The onboard controllers are usually crap. However, if you happen to have a proper dedicated controller, you might actually feel an improvement. But I would personally go for the SSD if you have the cash for it. But remember to buy the Intel ones, since they are wastly superior to other models on the market today.