RAM Disk Advice (1 Viewer)

[elsmandino]

Hi there,

I am running an HTPC with Windows 7 (64-bit) and 4GB RAM.

The HTPC is a standalone setup and I use this to stream to two other clients.

I currently have an HVR-2200 and Nova-S2, but am going to sell these for a Blackgold BGT3600 (Dual DVB-T2, Dual DVB-S2).

I have three hard drives: The first one is used for the OS and Timeshifting only (500GB of which the OS is on a 60GB partition) and two others for recording and storage (1.5TB and 2TB).

It seems a bit of a waste to keep such a big hard drive partition just for Timeshifting and I have decided to try a RAMDisk instead.

How much RAM, do you I need to dedicate just for time shifting? - e.g. I could sell the 2X2GB of RAM I have and buy 2X4GB insteard or add an additional 2x4GB to give 12GB RAM.

I don't really understand how the timeshifting settings in media portal relate to the number of tuners.

For example, if I get this new Tuner Card, which has four tuners and 8GB RAM and dedicate 4GB to the RAMDisk, does this mean that I need to the time shifting files never become bigger than 1 GB (e.g. 4 tuners x 1GB = 4GB of RAMDisk available)?

If this is the case, what I don't understand is that this does not take into account the fact that a tuner can hand more than one channel on the same multiplex. For example:

Say I am using both DVB-S2 channels and one of the DVB-T2 tuners for recording.

I then have one DVB-T2 tuner for watching live TV, but what happens if I watch two live channels on the same multiplex on two separate computers? If this tuner has been given 1GB of RAMDisk space, do the two people using it at the same time automatically on get half 1GB of timeshift as long as they are both using the same tuner?

Sorry if this has got really technical - please feel free to ask for any clarification!

Perhaps I am overcomplicating things unnecessesarily, but I want to be sure that using a RAMDisk is going to work for me.

Also, has anyone got any experience generally of using a RAMDisk for time shifting?

Thanks very much.

 

[porky996t]

I did try it and it worked, but I really needed to go from 4Gb to about 12Gb RAM to be effective. I think I used RAMDisk application to set it up IIRC. I cannot remember what I did to the timeshifting allocations in the config tho. Sorry.

For me it was cheaper to get an SSD, than the additional RAM. I put the OS on the SSD and also use it for the timeshifting folder. The whole setup is now very fast indeed - it did speed up the display of fanert etc as the SSD is a lot faster than the ol' mechanical HHD. However, it may reduce the life of the SSD. Have a read of this >>here<<

HTH,



M.

 

[elsmandino]

Hi Porky,

Thanks for that.

I read the link that you pointed me towards and it seems that you had exactly the same dilemma as me - i.e. should you stick in another 8GB RAM just for time shifting or add a small SSD for this.

Even though RAM is ridiculously cheap at the moment (8GB for £35.00), I suppose that on a £ per GB basis, it does work out much cheaper to get a SSD - I note that you for twice the price of the RAM above, you could get 60GB of of HDD.

When you factor in the benefits of once you have reserved 8GB of the HDD for timeshifting, you have 52GB for the OS, which has the plus point of making the system snappier, it does seem that what you have done is the most sensible option.

The only downside is write cycles to the SSD for the timeshifting (and using hybrid sleep mode), as you say. As all my vital stuff will be on my mechanical hard drives, it would not be the end of the world if the SSD goes kaputt. However, it does seem a bit unclear how long a SSD could last being used for this?

Have you come accross any approximate figures? I have come accross suggestions of a couple of years at eight hours per day of use.

I tend to record a lot of TV rather than watch it live, so it is not going to be used eight hours per day, but I tend to put it on live TV whenever I leave the room.

Thanks again.

 

[porky996t]

Hi Elsmandino,

I hadn't thought much about it until I answered your post.

As I already have a SSD in place it won't cost much to stick some more RAM in and use some RAMDisk software for timeshifting. I am beginning to have concerns about read/write cycles, not because anything is playing up, but due to the OH not turning off the clients when she has stopped watching them - she just turns off the TV and continues to let the setup stream.

I only have the OS on the SSD so as you say, not much to lose. Decisions, decisions... where have you seen 8Gb of RAM for £35. I need two sticks of 4Gb DDR2 800 and Amazon were charging £90 for that.

I really have no idea how long a SSD will last. No figures or anything... and I suppose timeshifting tv transmissions is a bit of a specialist area too.



M

 

[elsmandino]

Hi Porky,

Unfortunately, all the best deals out are for DDR3.

I picked up 8GB of Mushkin Silverline RAM (2 x Sticks of 1333Mhz) for £29.99 only a few weeks ago and it has gone up slightly now to £31.99 (this was from Aria, though Ebuyer also have some pretty good deals at the moment).

I did read in Micromart this week that DDR3 is set to start creeping up slightly, thus I need to get my skates on and get the extra ram now if I want to go ahead as planned.

Having thought about it, I think that I what I am going to do for the time being is keep my OS on a partition on one of my hard drives but use the a 4GB Ram drive for time shifting (and keep the remaining 4GB for the system).

I note that you said that you really need 8GB of RAM disk to benefit for time shifting. I don't suppose you remember very roughly why you thought 4GB was not enough do you? Also what set up do you have?

I am planning on getting the BGT3600 (2 x DVB-T2 and 2 x DVB-S2) shortly and getting rid of my HVR-2200 and Nova-S2. With four tuners, that means that I can assign a gig to each. Very roughly, I think SD records at about 2GB per hour and at four times that on HD, so I could time shift for half an hour on a SD channel or 7.5 minutes on high definition.

Is this roughly the same conclusion you reached (i.e. why you though 8GB for timeshifting alone was necessary)?

Thanks for your help.

 

[porky996t]

I did find a US Seller on eBay with 8Gb RAM for 60 odd quid which wasn't too bad.

There was no logical process that I went over to come up with an 8Gb RAM Drive. RAM seems so inexpensive these days so I thought 'why not' and I didn't want to get any grief from 'management' for possibly buggering up a stable system.

I just thought 8Gb would be ample for timeshifting as I have two clients running off the main lounge HTPC and the GF cannot seem to grasp pressing the stop button when she has finished watching live TV on one client before watching it another. Also, as I don't get chance to stay put in one room when a TV show is running I am forever skipping back through what I have missed.

Additionally, I have looked into getting the TBS Quad satellite card to replace my current TBS dual one and allow me to utilise my quad LNB and thus could have all 4 tuners locked onto a HD signal (the GF does watch and record some sh!te ) Last week I put the TV Guide on and she was watching one channel and recording five others simultaneously. I have tried telling her about tuner numbers and channels etc, but it really is wasted breath. Conversely, I am supposed to understand and appreciate the fine nuances of shoes & handbags.



M

 

[elsmandino]

I know what you mean about keeping the system stable - my other half wants us to back to using MCE. She cannot deal with the occassional crashes and used to love the Red Button.

I think we also need to reach some compromise - I shall learn what or who a Jimmy Choo and a Max Factor is if she will let me explain the benefits of Mediaportal over Media Centre and why, although a little buggy, it offers so much more. The battle goes on!

In terms of the time shift function, am I right in thinking that the number of tuners is more important than the number of clients?

I note that you currently have a dual satellite card. Assuming that you do not have any DVB-T(2) card - say you have assigned 2GB on your SDD for each of the tuners and your girlfriend and you are both watching live TV on two separate clients on different channels. Then, if you leave the client that you are watching running on live TV and use a third client to watch a third channel that happens to be on the same multiplex as one of the tuners you are already using, what happens then?

I cannot get my head around how the 2GB of time shifting is dealt with for a single tuner. My first thought was that it
automatically halves the time shifting allowed for each person on the same tuner to 1GB of time shifting each. However, I am pretty sure that this would not happen (if it did, you could then designate memory to be used by all available tuners and they would carve it up between themselves as they were used).

What I currently think is that as digital TV deals with multiplexes - i.e. all the channels on a single mutliplex are received, but the decoder just filters out the one you want to watch, would the second client to share a tuner then just start picking up the time shift that had already been started by the first client?

Sorry if this is getting really complex - I tend to overanalyse these things!

 

[elsmandino]

I've decided to go the whole hog and buy two additional 4GB RAM sticks to use 8GB for time shifting. Are there limits as to the amount of RAM you can dedicate to a RAM Disk?

 

[Jay_UK]

Hi there,

It all depends on your RAMdisk software...

Some are limited by the OS (So if you are running 32bit - then only 4GB), others allow access above this limit.

If you are running 64bit, then no issue normally

Any idea on which RAMDisk software you are going to use?

J.

 

[elsmandino]

I am running windows 7 64-bit.

Damn - I have had a quick look at the RAM Disk Wiki and it seems that I am out of luck in terms of a free program that will allow me to use more thatn 4GB as a RAM Disk.

Are there any other options?

Actually, J, I note from your system list that you are using 6GB for RAM Disk - what program are using?