RamDisk XBMC
#1
I was thinking about setting a ramdisk driver for XBMC, specially for the cache files.
I have a dedicated HTPC with 4Gb RAM, and I wonder if I will see good improvements while browsing my media (I have around 110 movies and coverflow is starting to get less fluid).

Did any of you guys try it? Can you suggest any software for it? I wonder if it worth the effort.

For those of you that don't know:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAM_disk
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#2
getting windows to cache to a ramdisk usually improves performance alot.. so I can't see why it wouldn't benefit xbmc aswell
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#3
Thx for your reply. That's what I'm hopping for.
But I just dunno how to make XBMC use the ramdisk as cache.
Can I change the default cache directory? Any ideas?

Or should I just install XBMC into the ramdrive (the problem is that I'm not sure how well that would work, considering that I would have to use some backup supporting software, since the ramdisk is volatile).
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#4
hmm what cpu are you usin? on my intel core duo 6850 with 4gb ram and a big library (beyond 1000 movies) its fast as hell ?!

since the ramdisk is deleted on shutdown it wouldnt be a good solution, try a different approach .. stuff your profile onto another disk/partition this could also help a lot!

as far as i know you couldn't move the cache dir, only thing you could do is install xbmc onto another disc and use the -p command line switch so the profile path isn't used!
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#5
The CPU is a little on the slow side... It's a AMD64 5000x2.

All of the views are good, but the coverflow (using media stream skin) is getting a little slow.

I'm also preparing my media for AEON, so the covers are quite big...
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#6
I use the AR Soft RAM Disk software on XP. http://arsoft-online.com very small (under 100k) and can be scaled to any size.

Haven't used it for anything other than web and temp encoding caching, but i do notice a difference in speed since I'm not thrashing the disk.

personally, i don't see a way for it to benefit XBMC, except for thumbnail generation and retrieval, and even then, you would have to sync the ram drive every time you close XBMC. (although EventGhost would make that kinda easy)

Lemme know if there are other benefits, I'm kinda interested in this too.
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#7
http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-s...re/ramdisk
http://www.pctipsbox.com/create-symbolic...tem-links/

I am considering trying out a ramdisk for XBMC on my Windows 7 PC, I find if I enable fanart then scrolling becomes sluggish. By using symbolic links I can move the cache to the ramdisk and XBMC would think it is still in its default location. Does anyone have any advice before I try this?
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#8
Avigrace Wrote:http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-s...re/ramdisk
http://www.pctipsbox.com/create-symbolic...tem-links/

I am considering trying out a ramdisk for XBMC on my Windows 7 PC, I find if I enable fanart then scrolling becomes sluggish. By using symbolic links I can move the cache to the ramdisk and XBMC would think it is still in its default location. Does anyone have any advice before I try this?

i used to use magic link to do this same thing with media cneter and my music database. worked great, just make sure you find a RD that loads and unloads at boot/shutdown.
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#9
Why don't you just get an SSD? I put one into my HTPC and found an immediate and large decrease in the time it took for images to load. Everything seems to load nearly instantly now.
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#10
money i guess, if you already have a ton of extra ram (don;t need much for htpc), a ram drive is free.

though i do plan to pick one up next year if the G3's bring $/GB down appreciably...
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#11
Star 
Depending on size.. you might consider a USB stick instead of a ram disk, might be a tad slower but all your files are kept on shutdown.
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#12
Im running a phenom II X4 so cpu poer was not a problem running xbmc but i was still having issues with it lagging on certain menus especially accessing films, i have about 180 so far with a few more hundred expected.
For the time being im using this computer as my win2008 server for downloading overnight so the pc is on 24/7.
My programs are Sickbeard, Couchpotato and sabnzb. Main os is on a 2.5" 300gb drive and have 2 3.5" drives for storage so these spin down when not being used. When a download finished this also caused problems for xbmc as the laptop hard drive was struggling to cope with the expanding of the rar files.
I didnt want to go down a SSD route due to the extra expence so decided on a RamDisk.
Dedicated 1.2gb to the ramdisk and copied over XBMC and run it with the -p command so it stores the cache and all settings inside the program folder. Its running amazing, cleared all the lag during expanding of rar files and the films section is smooth.
The program im using has been mentioned in here before http://memory.dataram.com/products-a...ftware/ramdisk , its actually a really neat bit of software, you can save the ramdisk image onto a harddrive on windows shutdown and load it back when windows starts, so a extra 30secs of shutting down and rebooting is all it needs to complete the process.
Then make a bat file to run XBMC in portable mode .../xbmc.exe -p
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#13
craigdabbs Wrote:Im running a phenom II X4 so cpu poer was not a problem running xbmc but i was still having issues with it lagging on certain menus especially accessing films, i have about 180 so far with a few more hundred expected.
For the time being im using this computer as my win2008 server for downloading overnight so the pc is on 24/7.
My programs are Sickbeard, Couchpotato and sabnzb. Main os is on a 2.5" 300gb drive and have 2 3.5" drives for storage so these spin down when not being used. When a download finished this also caused problems for xbmc as the laptop hard drive was struggling to cope with the expanding of the rar files.
I didnt want to go down a SSD route due to the extra expence so decided on a RamDisk.
Dedicated 1.2gb to the ramdisk and copied over XBMC and run it with the -p command so it stores the cache and all settings inside the program folder. Its running amazing, cleared all the lag during expanding of rar files and the films section is smooth.
The program im using has been mentioned in here before http://memory.dataram.com/products-a...ftware/ramdisk , its actually a really neat bit of software, you can save the ramdisk image onto a harddrive on windows shutdown and load it back when windows starts, so a extra 30secs of shutting down and rebooting is all it needs to complete the process.
Then make a bat file to run XBMC in portable mode .../xbmc.exe -p

Sweet, this is just what I'm looking for. Now riddle me this...I never shutdown my HTPC (Zacate with 4GB of RAM) I only sleep it (S3). Will this cause any issues or problems? What do I need to look out for?
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