[LIVE] 9.04.1 - Menus very slow from usb - were much faster from Live CD.
#1
Before buying new hardware to run XMBC on, i tested it on my old rig with the Live CD. I got version 9.04.1.

My old P4 with integrated intel graphics ran it no problem. To get a feel for its use i scraped my large 'Movies' share from my NAS and was very impressed. All the menus responded quickly and the movies loaded without delay and played well.

I have now purchased a Zotac ION-ITX-A and a M350 case. I decided not to get a hard disk - i thought id run XBMC from a USB drive. I have a SanDisk Cruzer Micro 16GB USB Flash Drive drive so installed the Live CD to that using my pc.

http://www.sandisk.com/products/usb-flas...drive.aspx

Running the system from the flash drive, it performs ok - but not nearly as well as the pc did. I get that the pc was storing all its info in RAM, which provides much faster access than USB, but im having 5-6 second delays between menus.

For example, if i change the 'list' option on the left of my library from 'list' to 'full list' i have to wait 6 seconds for a response.

The also happens when browsing through the library - selecting a season to access the episodes for example. The libary will respond well for a few selections, then freeze for 5-6 seconds.

This is not the end of the world, but it certainly takes the edge off the feel of the system. Is this slow performace something usb users have to deal with? Would this improve with a different USB Flash drive? I dont really want to get a hard disk just to store OS and the database info.
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#2
I've also recently purchased a Zotac Ion, and I'm trying to run XBMC from flash. I also have a Sandisk Cruzer. I've noticed that the performance is pretty bad, but after running some tweaks (setting the scheduler to noop) and moving the home directory to my server using NFS, the performance is much better. Personally, I'm having trouble with audio-video syncing and not being able to fast forward HD videos...
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#3
I'm running into the same problem with an Asus ION motherboard and a Patriot XPorter XT Boost 16GB USB Flash drive. I've switched to the noop scheduler, moved the /home/xbmc directory to my central server and mounted it via NFS, set noatime on all mounts, and set up a tmpfs for /tmp. I'm also using MySQL to host the database on the central server. Yet I still get long wait times between menus -- first a while with no response whatsoever, and then a while with the spinner. I don't think the MySQL is the problem, as I have another system using a hard drive that is nice and fast. I'm hoping I can find an acceptable solution, but if I have to throw a hard drive in there, that's the way it goes...
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#4
I gave in and stuck a little 40gb intel SSD in the case. Cost about £100 and is very fast. Boots up in around 4 seconds from the bios flash "zotac" screen, and the menus respond pretty much instantly.
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#5
I think I may very well do the same, especially since they're down to $110 for 40GB now at CompUSA (whose warehouse is literally a half-mile from me). Big Grin
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[LIVE] 9.04.1 - Menus very slow from usb - were much faster from Live CD.0