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More => Old Versions => Media Center 17 => Topic started by: yugnat on February 14, 2012, 11:16:07 pm

Title: MC 17, SSD's, and page file
Post by: yugnat on February 14, 2012, 11:16:07 pm: I just finished a new computer build and plan to purchase / install MC17. I have a SSD as my main drive, one of the recommended tweaks is to disable the windows page file - will this cause problems with MC17 in any way? I will be using the play from memory feature. I also have 16GB of RAM installed.

Thanks!
Title: Re: MC 17, SSD's, and page file
Post by: BryanC on February 14, 2012, 11:31:36 pm: No.
Title: Re: MC 17, SSD's, and page file
Post by: hulkss on February 14, 2012, 11:41:14 pm: Quote from: yugnat on February 14, 2012, 11:16:07 pm
disable the windows page file

This is not a good recommendation for many reasons. Make a page file of a few gigs fixed size (set max and min size the same) it will keep you from having a number of possible problems. It won't get used much with lots of ram and it won't be jumping around or fragmenting when it is fixed size.
Title: Re: MC 17, SSD's, and page file
Post by: sunfire7 on February 15, 2012, 12:35:13 am: Or you can move the page file to another mechanical drive, just in case.
Title: Re: MC 17, SSD's, and page file
Post by: icstm on February 15, 2012, 03:31:15 am: Yes with that much memory, I would keep the page file, but move it off the SSD to prolong its life (or so they say).

As for JRiver, where does it store its cache and how large does it get?

MediaBrowser for example appears to "cache" (read copy) all coverart and fanart in its folder. I keep the main ones on the SSD, but actor photos and others like that I move off the SSD onto a HDD using JunctionPoints.
Title: Re: MC 17, SSD's, and page file
Post by: Hendrik on February 15, 2012, 04:15:08 am: All that hush-hush about SSD lifetime is seriously overrated.
If you take its write cycles, and then break that down over its capacity, it would require month of 24/7 full speed writing to exceed that, something thats absolutely far off any usual workload.
Title: Re: MC 17, SSD's, and page file
Post by: Matt on February 15, 2012, 06:20:04 am: You can configure most file placement in Options > File Location.

Thumbnails, which could be a GB or more with a large library, go to the AppData folder.

I would leave as much of the Media Center stuff on the SSD as possible.

In particular, keeping the library and thumbnails on an SSD will improve performance.
Title: Re: MC 17, SSD's, and page file
Post by: yugnat on February 15, 2012, 10:51:56 am: Quote from: Matt on February 15, 2012, 06:20:04 am
You can configure most file placement in Options > File Location.

Thumbnails, which could be a GB or more with a large library, go to the AppData folder.

I would leave as much of the Media Center stuff on the SSD as possible.

In particular, keeping the library and thumbnails on an SSD will improve performance.

Thanks Matt, what's your opinion on keeping the page file? Do you think disabling it will cause problems? I'll keep most if not all of MC on the SSD, the primary function of this new computer is music and photos so not many other programs will be installed and taking up space.

Thanks for the other feedback everyone, I'll take it all into consideration.
Title: Re: MC 17, SSD's, and page file
Post by: yugnat on February 17, 2012, 10:17:18 am: Anybody else on whether or not to keep the page file with a SSD and MC17?

Thanks!
Title: Re: MC 17, SSD's, and page file
Post by: AoXoMoXoA on February 17, 2012, 11:20:35 am: After reading a few articles on the subject I find that Windows 7 can run fine without a page file IF you have adequate RAM installed (adequate being determined by quantity vs usage), and have seen this to be true on my laptop with 8gb installed RAM.

However, it seems there is little to be gained in performance as benchmarks demonstrate in one article I read (unfortunately I did not note the site or bookmark it for reference). The only significant improvement was in shut-down time vs with a page file. Other tests showed improvements in performance, but the amount was miniscule and thus insignificant.

The most commonly accepted recommendation I saw was to set the page file size manually with both values the same so that the disk space reserved remains steady.

I did not seek info specifically regarding SSD drives so I cannot comment on how the page file affects it's life span.

Personally I saw no discernible reduction in drive activity or performance improvement running without and have returned to using a static sized page file.
Title: Re: MC 17, SSD's, and page file
Post by: Hendrik on February 17, 2012, 12:21:07 pm: Its recommended to keep at least a small Pagefile, because some applications rely on it. There is really no advantage in turning it off, if there is enough RAM Windows won't start using it for no reason.
Title: Re: MC 17, SSD's, and page file
Post by: FastKayak on February 17, 2012, 01:47:53 pm: I found this series of articles a big help. You can probably skip part 1 but take a close look at parts 2 & 3, especially the very last portion of part 3. I configured my SSD and Windows per his recommendations and have had good results.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/windows-7-and-ssds-just-how-fast-are-they/2902?tag=content;siu-container (http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/windows-7-and-ssds-just-how-fast-are-they/2902?tag=content;siu-container)

FastKayak / Larry