Media Center SSD

[Dr. Don Sandell]

I've been using Media Center for several years on my PC. I'm planning on adding an SSD to my system using it for the OS and a few programs. My question is: can I keep Windows 7 and thus Media Center resident on an SSD and change the destination drive of the recordings to my traditional 2Tb HDD? My goal is to use the SSD to accelerate my system and boot time while NOT junking up the SSD with my recorded TV. I'm new to this forum so I hope I have not asked a question that has been answered a few thousand times, but when I look thru the forum I didn't see any specific posts about this issue. Thanks in advance for any help that you may be able to offer on this issue!

[newfiend]

You absolutely can.. I do this now..
I have the OS and all my Apps on the SSD and the 2TB HDD for all the recording storage.
Once the SSD is installed
Open Media Center
Select Tasks/Settings
TV
Recorder (I believe, I'm not in front of my HTPC at the moment.)
In here you can set up which Drive to Record to.
Easy Peasy.
newfiend~

[foxwood]

Yes, you can change the default drive used for recordings in Media Center.

Tasks/Settings/TV/Recorder/Recorder Storage

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... dia-Center

[newfiend]

Yes, you can change the default drive used for recordings in Media Center.

Tasks/Settings/TV/Recorder/Recorder Storage

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... dia-Center

Thanks for the assist Foxwood. =)

[Dr. Don Sandell]

Thanks guys!!! I appreciate the help. I just built a new system for myself last week and after I built it I decided to take the plunge and go with an SSD. I've never used an SSD before so this stuff is all new to me. I'm thinking about a 128 gig SSD because I usually keep my system pretty clean. Anyone have an opinion wether going with a 256 gig unit vs. a 128 gig other than the obvious (space)? I understand the 256 gig parts may be a bit faster but coming from a HDD to a SSD I'm not sure if I really need to pop for the larger drive.

My system is an Intel I-5 3570K residing on an MSI Z77 M-Power MB.

[milli260876]

I had a 60 in mine, so a 120 would be ample if U run a lightweight system....

[newfiend]

I don't even think you need that big. I have a 90GB in mine and even with all the apps installed It's barely 1/2 filled. Check the Motherboard ports.. see if they SATA are 3gb/s or 6gb/s ports., if you have 6gb/s ports get a good 6gb/s SSD to take advantage of the speed increase. 128GB SSD is plenty but you can easily do 90 and have room left over. I use a Corsair Force GT 90GB SSD 6Gbps http://www.corsair.com/us/ssd/force-ser ... drive.html it has plenty of room and is super speedy.

[Dr. Don Sandell]

Thanks again guys! I'm pretty sure a 128 gig SSD will fill the bill for my new system. Thanks for all the help and opinions.

[Paul Anderegg]

Can someone help me choose the right SSD for my Media Center PC?

I have a 2010 HP running an i3 550, 6GB of RAM, and a lame 5400rmp 1.5TB HDD. I am stuck with SATA II. I have two Ceton InfiniTV4 tuners, and I use them for my job which requires me to record a minimum of 7 recordings at once while replaying active and past recordings. Sometimes everything works fine, but lately, the darn thing just locks up....sometimes, it gets stuck playing and button presses don't "take" for 30-45 seconds. Most times now, every time I press the 30 sec advance, it takes like 5 seconds....this while recording 7 things at the same time.

I checked Task Manager while this was occurring, and i am only using like 10% CPU, and 30% RAM. HDD activity shows at a constant 13MB/s. I don't know where my hangup is, but I figure throwing in an SSD for the OS could help. This computer is only used to record TV, and review it.....no other programs, not even anti-virus installed.....Ceton doesn't like anti-virus software!

I know lower GB SSD's are typically much slower than larger capacity ones, but I have SATA II, does it matter? I could get a PCI-e adapter for 6GB/s, but would that really matter to me and how I use the computer? I would like recommendations for a quality mid-range reliable SSD, maybe in the 60-90GB capacity range, one that has the specs to handle how Win7 64 Media Center works while recording and playing back TV shows off of a separate storage HDD. I will be keeping the slow 5400rpm drive until I determine if it is in fact a bottle neck.

Again, I simply wish to break this "clogging" I have run into, as long as the SSD achieves the specific performance needs of the OS running my specific tasks, i am good to go. I don't need to pay for performance i will never use. As my system stands now, it is Media Center that locks up, and other boxes take extended times to open, but the Windows start menu, task manager and such still operate quickly. All programs record without a single glitch, they are getting laid down to the slow HDD perfectly, it is just the playing back and the navigating of MC that locks up.

Help me fix this problem and I will give you a cookie!

thanks guys!

Paul

[dmagerl]

If you are going to use an SSD and just clone your existing harddrive onto it, make sure you have the SSD partitions aligned correctly.

Win7 takes care of all that if its a fresh install but a lot of cloning programs dont bother doing it.

Here's one article explaning it:
http://lifehacker.com/5837769/make-sure ... erformance

just google for "SSD partition alignment" for more info.

[Doctor Feelgood]

An SSD has small as 40GB should be fine. I had Win7 on one of my HTPCs using a 40GB for a while, and used a 500GB HDD for TV recording/buffer (before being pushed to my server). There was plenty of space left (probably 40%+) on the SSD with Windows and a few critical apps installed. I upgraded to 120GB drives recently just for a speed boost.

There are plenty of reasons to do a fresh install over a cloning, but one MCE specific reason was with Play Ready. I couldn't get Play Ready working again on a system I cloned from one drive to the next. It saw it as a hardware change and I couldn't get around it no matter what tricks I tried. Wound up doing a fresh install in the end.

[erkotz]

IMHO 40GB is too small to allow for a few programs, pagefile and servicing of Windows. I would recommend at least 60GB

[foxwood]

Can someone help me choose the right SSD for my Media Center PC?

I have a 2010 HP running an i3 550, 6GB of RAM, and a lame 5400rmp 1.5TB HDD. I am stuck with SATA II. I have two Ceton InfiniTV4 tuners, and I use them for my job which requires me to record a minimum of 7 recordings at once while replaying active and past recordings. Sometimes everything works fine, but lately, the darn thing just locks up....sometimes, it gets stuck playing and button presses don't "take" for 30-45 seconds. Most times now, every time I press the 30 sec advance, it takes like 5 seconds....this while recording 7 things at the same time.

An SSD isn't going to solve your problem - 30-45 second delays aren't being caused by a 5400rpm Hard drive being too slow, or else we'd all have been seeing that happen before SSDs were available.

Unless you've partitioned your existing Hard Drive to use a small C: partition, and put your recordings on a 2nd partition, migrating to an SSD isn't going to be a trivial operation - you can't clone a 1.5TB C: drive onto a 60GB SSD. So you might be looking at doing a clean install of Windows anyway, in which case you might be better off spending your $100 on a new 2TB drive and backing up any media you want to keep and then re-installing Windows.

The major benefits of an SSD is fast boot speed and fast program loading times - neither of which are particularly relevant for a Media PC that you only boot once a month, and that you only run WMC on.

In the meantime, you might want to run a manual defrag on the PC, and free up some space - if your drive is more than 90% full then you might find that those 7 streams that you are recording are scattered all over that drive, which can slow the system down quite a bit.

[Paul Anderegg]

First off, I am going to do a clean install of Windows 7 64 bit........this is due to a major malfunction of my Ceton tuners, lots of net exclamation marks, red X's and non ability to update drivers to ignore. I already moved all the non-copyrighted shows off to a backup drive, and am watching the ones I can't copy over first to prepare for the fresh OS install.

It is the fresh install reason that I want to make the SSD switch. I figured if I am going to go through the trouble, it would be the best time to upgrade. I won't be migrating, and I will be using the SSD for the OS only, and setting up Media Center to use the old 1.5TB HDD as the storage device.

I think I am pretty much set on a 60-64GB SSD, I already have a 3.5" SSD adapter tray that came with a nice Intel 180GB 520 SSD I just installed n a laptop......wow, that made a HUGE DIFFERENCE to that computer!!! But I don't want to pay $200 for the same drive, so, still looking for recommendations for 60-64GB SSD's......I think I am going towards the Intel route, simply because they have better firmware and reliability......which of their smaller capacity drives should I look into? I am not too familiar with the various model numbers, all I see is the GB numbers! If you need higher capacity, I found that my 180GB Intel posted better numbers than most competing drives, and was much faster than the lower GB Intel 520's....my laptop needed the performance for video editing though, and for storage space.

Thanks again!

Paul