[kenam]

Looking at building a HTPC for use with Win7 and XBMC.

I have a budget of approx 300 eur (in Ireland) and would like full 1080p and a semi flexible system for future upgrades.

For this budget I am looking at getting the Zotac ZBOX HD-ND22 and 2x2gb ram - but I am stuck with what hard drive to get. This budget rules out SSD (which I dont mind for now/ maybe as a future upgrade) but I would still like to get a 500GB+ HDD preferable running at 7200rpm (which I beleivve is the most important speed factor?)

I came accross a Samsung Spinpoint MP4 HM640JJ for 46£/ 55eur - does this seem a reasonable drive? Any other comments/suggestions on the above hardware for this price.

Thanks!
kenam

[poofyhairguy]

Budget rules out a SSD?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-KTC-30G...1&sr=1-124

Only a little bit more.

The only reason to not get a SSD is if you plan on using the drive as local storage, and then 500GB is WAY too low. In this case I still recommend getting a SSD and an external 2TB drive for storage, but I understand if you want one drive now that does everything. In that case this is what I recommend:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-SpinPoin...omputers_3

Don't get hung up on the 7200rpm vs 5400rpm thing. Often slower larger hard drives are faster than faster smaller hard drives. Both will give you the same experience, but one will have more space. The only way to significantly improve the experience is to bump up to a SSD.

[kenam]

ok.. for a larger drive I guess the 5400 v 7200 aint that bad (I have been living with the 5400 on my laptop and that seems ok..)

The other issue is that if I go for SSD then I need a HDD hanging out the back esata/USB..

500gb/640 wouldnt be too bad for me - I dont hoard much video - music maybe! but I also have a 1tb nas (1 bay only unfortunately)

arrgg.. decisions !!

Maybe I should go for SSD for now then add 1TB local esata storage later and live with the nas for now..

Also I would worry 30gb is tight for installing win7;

One other thing - what do you mean by: "Often slower larger hard drives are faster than faster smaller hard drives" any particular reason, or just a general observation :confused2:

[wicky]

generally speaking you wont see any real performance difference with various mechanical drives when it comes to boot times. As poofyhairguy mentions, thats one of the bragging rights of an SSD. But once you've booted up, and XBMC is loaded, I doubt you'd find any measurable performance difference between even an SSD and a mechanical drive. Your navigation through the menus and what not is going to be limited more by that Atom processor.

And as poofyhairguy notes, arealdensity is often a bigger deciding factor in hard drive performance, rather than strictly spindle speed. You also have a lot of post processing, firmware code, and caching systems that helps determine the bottom line in performance. Where as a few seconds (think 3-8) might separate the fastest 7200 rpm drive from the slowest 5400 rpm drive in system boot tome, an SSD will shave about 30. Basically there's no real reason to pay premiums for high performance mechanical drives unless you strictly need to use a mechanical drive as storage.

Also if you are on a strict budget, you could consider dropping down to 2gb of ram instead of 4gb, assuming there's a reasonable savings to be found...a few quid is reasonable. But even in windows 7 4gb isn't required for XBMC, and you can turn off things like Aero and other services that you will not be using in the background to save ram and processor cycles.

Although another option to avoid external storage might be to run XBMC live off of a USB drive, and use the internal mechanical drive for storage only. Or to use a mini PCIE SSD in your secondary expansion slot in the Zotac system as your OS/XBMC installation, and once again just use what ever 2.5" drive meets your storage needs.


*edit*
and windows can be stripped a bit to fit a 16gb SSD, 30gb is plenty

[kenam]

hey

I am not really bothered about boot times, the machine will be on constantly but would like it to be as snappy as possible when running (which is why I went for the Zotac nd22, which has the dual core core2/celeron, which is reveiwed as much more performant than the atoms+ion2).

its all the post processing/ cache stuff I am unsure of. I think I will forget the SSD completely as per my original thoughts. I really would prefer a decent enough (size+performance) all in one internal mechanical drive than 2 drive system for now (although maybe I will consider the PCI SSD in the future - although I think this may void warranty - and I guess it would run hot hot hot!)

Also - I had never really considered the samsung drives when I originally posted. out of interest what else should I bee looking at (if not the pure spinde speed).

Thanks again!

*edit.. appologies - that really turned into a rambling stream of consciousness post *

[Thunder8]

You might want to consider the Zotac ZBOX-AD02-PLUS-E, which will be around 300€ including 250GB HDD and 2GB RAM on the Zacate platform.

[DavidT99]

In the UK an AMD Zacate self build will be about £200 or less for what you require.

David

[Subliminal Aura]

The only way to significantly improve the experience is to bump up to a SSD.

Come on ! You know that's not the only way :p

For Windows 7 - Fancycache looks great

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthr...t=18243823

Anyway for the record without getting into any heated discussions with poofy and his sidekick, I think SSDs are a waste of resources for an XBMC setup. Yes they'll provide you with an instant noticable and easy boost but seems to be a waste just to speed up a small amount of userdata cache.

[kenam]

Thanks all again - maybe this should be merged with the other thread... (sorry for creatng 2!)

but basically I am full circle again...

I am going with the zbox on the celeron/ion platform as I would like the pc to be more responsive, I plan on doing other stuff with it at some stage (dont ask ) and I gather Zacate is a similar spec as atom?

Back with the ssd/hdd.. I am going to scrap that and go for a 500GB WD Blue WD5000BEVT which is plenty space for me at the moment (as I sayI dont often keep movies/tv and would like local storage for music, plus I have 1TB on the network for back up anyway).

I will get round to SSD - but it will be for the laptop where I will really notice the boost (and by the sound of it my laptop HDD is on the way out anyway!!)

I also managed to pick up 2 X 1066MHz / PC3-8500 , CAS 7 , 2GB (1 x 2GB Stick) , SODIMM for £34 so total build is running at £280 delivered, which doesnt seem too bad

so final round of questions... WD blue drives seem ok (I could get a black, but they seem to be louder) - any objections?


Thanks again all,
kenam

[poofyhairguy]

WD Blue drives are solid.