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HTPC with flash drive

  • 06-12-2006 2:07pm
    #1
    TheGreatest
    Closed Accounts Posts: 249 ✭✭


    One method of reducing noise in an HTPC is to use a flash drive on a basic computer, and run just an operating system and the media software from the flash drive, while the media files that are accessed are stored on another computer in the network (files generated from PVR are also saved on the network computer.) This solution allows for the HTPC to have minimal parts, reducing noise from the hardrive, as well as reducing heat generated by a harddrive.
    says wikipedia...

    I wonder is there anybody using this method on their HTPC setup? Is this a cheap or expensive option?


Comments

  • #2
    SouperComputer
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,949 ✭✭✭SouperComputer


    Many have already done this with MythTV. DOM's have been around for a long time, so its not really a new thing. I woulnt be in a rush to run bloatware like MCE from one though.

    Using flash is not all its cracked up to be, one problem is the bandwidth and the second the the limited number of r/w opertations you can peform before cells in the flash start dying. Overall the peforamance of flash is not fully up to scratch yet, and I would only use it if the OS is light enough to run with acceptable peformance.

    The cheap option is boot from LAN, again works best with linux and mythtv.


  • #3
    secret_squirrel
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,357 ✭✭✭secret_squirrel


    Unless you want to build a tiny EPIA box I dont see the point.

    Its fairly easy to build a quiet/silent htpc without resorting to a flash disk.

    1 big slow fan for cooling, a quiet fan on the chip, and a silent/quiet psu.

    Hard Disk running with AAM engaged.

    Add some acoustic foam and you are sorted.


  • #4
    adrian.s
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 171 ✭✭adrian.s


    I ended up going the route of building a mini-itx box which is fanless, and dropped in a 512MB or RAM into it and a flash card (which I never used). It boots from the network from my main myth server and by and large is seriously reliable. The net effect of all this is that there's no noisy machines in the sitting room, it's all completely hidden behind the TV so looks much neater. Upgrading is a breeze since all you really have to do is change the Minimyth install (on the server) which sucked in when the frontend machine PXE boots. This machine also plays DVDs over the network as well.

    In terms of cost, I spent about 1.5K on the back end machine, I foolishly bought a very expensive HTPC case, which although it looks nice, it's sitting in the back room completely out of sight, so not the best investment. The machine is an AMD 3200, 1GB RAM and 500GB available recording diskspace.

    The front end is this little jobby: http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=27

    I spent weeks trying to get the something installed on the flash drive I bought, but in the end gave up, and went with the PXE boot instead.

    Stuck in the middle is a Linksys router which acts as the DNS server for the network and is configured to allow the frontend to network boot. I've re-flashed this with dd-wrt.

    My advice on this is not to spend a fortune on trying to silence a PVR style machine in your living room, shift it out to another room, and spend some money on a nice thin front end client (mac mini) or a not so nice one like the above and hide it behind the telly.

    HTH,
    A.


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