Memory for a HTPC?

[HannibalX]

I am putting together a cheapo HTPC and am wondering about memory... is 512 MB enough? I mean how much could it need to play DVDs and record TV shows?

 

[Late4Dinner]

If using 2000 or lower, it should be OK (though not ideal). If using XP or higher, you will need 1GB or more.

 

[Ausm]

I have 1 gig in my XP HTPC and it is not enough imo. In fact, I am going to soon bump it up to 2 gig.


Ausm

 

[TheRyuu]

Even if your using XP, I think it "should" be ok.

You could always just try it out and if the computer doesn't feel fast enough just throw in another 512mb of ram.

Edit:
Ok, maybe you might just need 1gb+
Don't know that much about HTPC's.

 

[natto fire]

Originally posted by: Late4Dinner
If using 2000 or lower, it should be OK (though not ideal). If using XP or higher, you will need 1GB or more.

This is just plain wrong. I have installed XP on a PIII with 256MB of RAM and it worked just fine, as long as I didn't go crazy with the multi-tasking.

OP: I would say to go for it. What media player are you planning on using? While I did not use the PIII I mentioned above to play movies, it did play music just fine in Winamp 2.8, but Windows Media Player can really suck down the RAM. Actually, it just plain sucks. As Wizboy said, you can always add more RAM later, but it really should be fine, XP is pretty good about using the pagefile in a somewhat logical fashion.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Depending on how many encoders are attached and usage, 256mb is plenty for MythTV.

I don't know about using windows as an HTPC though as there is no windows software available that can currently compete with MythTV.

 

[RyanM]

The HTPC I set up for my brother is strictly for playback of DivX and MP3 files onto his 42" LCD TV. Since he doesn't do ripping, transcoding, TV tuning, or anything along those lines, he was able to get away with an Athlon 2000+ with 256MB of PC3200 on WinXP. YMMV, but he can play back h.264 720p Quicktime movie trailers with no lag and they look slick as owl sh!t.

 

[Tegeril]

I don't know wtf these people are thinking. Ran a 2200+ 2x256 PC2100 DDR ram, Hauppauge PVR-350 system with MCE 2005 for 2 years. It runs just fine. For standard def. content, this is more than enough.

 

[HannibalX]

Thats what I was thinking also. I am planning just to get over-air HDTV channels and play DVDs, nothing fancy.

 

[SpeedEng66]

it really depends on what you want to do..

play movies back / media center
no problem

encode, rip, and play movies (all at the same time) umm not only do you need more alittle memory. you would also need a cpu with some umph..

currently my system in my sig is my htpc
I can do standard def encodin , burn a dvd and surf the web. but any more task and it starts to lag..

 

[Captante]

XP will work for somthing like an HTPC with as little as 256mb's, however its far from an ideal solution because the OS by itself will often take more the 200mb's of your available RAM which won't leave much to work with before you hit the paging file on the HD.

512mb's should really be the minimum for XP, even for a relatively undemanding use like home-theater... go ahead & set the machine up as it is & give it a try, if things bog down add another 512mb's to bring it up to a gb... 2 gb's however is not required in this case.

 

[weeber]

Depends on how much you want to do. I have an HTPC running on an old Athlon T-bird 1.4 with 256MB of PC133 RAM. It does fine for my playback of SDTV and some XVid files. I'm running WinXP with Sage as my interface. I think it you don't do much multi-tasking and are just asking for SDTV playback then you should be fine. It's the Hi-def stuff that really asks a lot of your computer.

I will say that I have to reboot my HTPC at least once every couple of weeks to clean out the memory or I notice some stuttering, but for an old setup, it's not too bad.

 

[yh125d]

I dunno how much ram recording programs use, but my version of XP pro uses about 200mb, so you oughta be fine

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: Tegeril
I don't know wtf these people are thinking. Ran a 2200+ 2x256 PC2100 DDR ram, Hauppauge PVR-350 system with MCE 2005 for 2 years. It runs just fine. For standard def. content, this is more than enough.

That must ran like a dog. I use SageTV on my Rig and 1 gig BARELY cuts it.


Ausm

 

[HannibalX]

This is going to be strictly a HTPC - nothing else will run on it, no AOL, no folding, no AV, nothing. It won't even have an internet connection.

The system will have a 500GB HD, DVDRW, TV-Tuner card and XP MCE 2005 - thats it. I can't image that needing more than 1GB of ram.

 

[Tegeril]

Originally posted by: Ausm

Originally posted by: Tegeril
I don't know wtf these people are thinking. Ran a 2200+ 2x256 PC2100 DDR ram, Hauppauge PVR-350 system with MCE 2005 for 2 years. It runs just fine. For standard def. content, this is more than enough.

That must ran like a dog. I use SageTV on my Rig and 1 gig BARELY cuts it.


Ausm

If by dog, you mean greyhound, then yes. All it did was run Speedfan and MCE 2005. No sluggishness, no delays, fast boots, it was perfect. Maybe SageTV is to blame, MCE 2005 was smooth.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Originally posted by: Tegeril

Originally posted by: Ausm

Originally posted by: Tegeril
I don't know wtf these people are thinking. Ran a 2200+ 2x256 PC2100 DDR ram, Hauppauge PVR-350 system with MCE 2005 for 2 years. It runs just fine. For standard def. content, this is more than enough.

That must ran like a dog. I use SageTV on my Rig and 1 gig BARELY cuts it.


Ausm

If by dog, you mean greyhound, then yes. All it did was run Speedfan and MCE 2005. No sluggishness, no delays, fast boots, it was perfect. Maybe SageTV is to blame, MCE 2005 was smooth.

with a PVR 350 you could run like ... a p3 and it would still decode mpeg2 really smoothly .... drool ...

 

[Late4Dinner]

Originally posted by: Captain Howdy

Originally posted by: Late4Dinner
If using 2000 or lower, it should be OK (though not ideal). If using XP or higher, you will need 1GB or more.

This is just plain wrong. I have installed XP on a PIII with 256MB of RAM and it worked just fine, as long as I didn't go crazy with the multi-tasking.

OP: I would say to go for it. What media player are you planning on using? While I did not use the PIII I mentioned above to play movies, it did play music just fine in Winamp 2.8, but Windows Media Player can really suck down the RAM. Actually, it just plain sucks. As Wizboy said, you can always add more RAM later, but it really should be fine, XP is pretty good about using the pagefile in a somewhat logical fashion.

Uh, why would you proclaim me wrong out of hand, then explain how you have no experience with the given application? Isn't that counter-productive?

Based on my experience with my HTPC (w/XP64), 1GB is barely enough. When I do a little web browsing during commercials, there is an occasional stutter in the TV during direct-view (recording is even more demanding) which gets worse with more ActiveX-laiden web pages.

Now, Pale Rider, you say you won't do anything with the HTPC other than the intended applications, but haven't we all made that promise to ourselves? Does it ever really work out that way? Either way, it's entirely likely that eventually you will find yourself watching a movie when the DVR is programmed to record a show. Now you're multi-tasking with two fairly memory and CPU-heavy apps., especially the recording.

You also mentioned that the HTPC won't even have an internet connection. This can be very beneficial because 1) you won't be tempted to web-browse (among other things) like I do, and 2) you won't need all the security apps. that are typically prudent to run. The flip side of that coin is 1) you won't be able to take advantage of the web-based TV listings that most tuner apps. use, and 2) you would be unable to directly access any HTPC appropriate software and files that might be on the web. Just something to think about.

In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention that my tuner card isn't very powerful and I'm running a fairly slow single-core A64. More powerful hardware might reduce memory demand. Also, as others have stated, you can start with 512MB and add more if needed, but you will certainly want to run it dual-channel.

 

[Slugbait]

Been running 512 PC2700 on my MCE2K5 machine for over 18 months now. It's primarily used for recording and watching live TV and DVD viewing. Not a single blip...I've never even considered doubling the memory.

Note that I also have it set up to auto-reboot once every three days. And I have a permanent swap file of 1G. My card is a PVR-250MCE. The proc is a Northwood 3.06 (stock speed). So I suppose if you have a weak system, more RAM would be beneficial.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: Pale Rider
I am putting together a cheapo HTPC and am wondering about memory... is 512 MB enough? I mean how much could it need to play DVDs and record TV shows?

If you're using an Intel 815E based MB, 512MB is all you can use.
If it's not based on the 815E, I would use 1GB for any "XP" version OS.