Barnaby W. Füi
Elite Member
I recently started a topic about building an HTPC, but my requirements have changed (I just got a hand-me-down HDTV to replace the old SDTV), and so now I need some totally different opinions, as s-video out is no longer needed.
First: D945GCLF2 vs. MSI Wind. They're both pretty much the same price (when a cheap case is added to the D945GCLF2) and seem to have very similar specs. Does power consumption differ much? Are there any other important differences? The Wind's use of laptop ram is not really a plus or a minus, and its compact flash slot is interesting, which leads me to the next question...
Is flash storage really reliable enough to use as the main filesystem for an HTPC? CF and most USB Flash drives have controllers which do wear-leveling, but people still seem paranoid about using them as system drives. I'll be running Linux and can turn off swap, access time updates, and probably most logging, but will that be enough? Is it going to die on me in a few months or a year?
I could always go with a cheap hard drive, but that uses more power, puts out more heat, and is more fragile (there is a 3 year old in the house). I don't need much space (8GB should be plenty), as I'm keeping all of the media on a 1TB NAS.
And if I do go the flash route, is there any benefit to using CF over USB, or vice versa? USB seems to be a bit cheaper; I guess because CF has fallen out of favor somewhat. Other than that, it's not clear if either is more reliable or has better performance.
First: D945GCLF2 vs. MSI Wind. They're both pretty much the same price (when a cheap case is added to the D945GCLF2) and seem to have very similar specs. Does power consumption differ much? Are there any other important differences? The Wind's use of laptop ram is not really a plus or a minus, and its compact flash slot is interesting, which leads me to the next question...
Is flash storage really reliable enough to use as the main filesystem for an HTPC? CF and most USB Flash drives have controllers which do wear-leveling, but people still seem paranoid about using them as system drives. I'll be running Linux and can turn off swap, access time updates, and probably most logging, but will that be enough? Is it going to die on me in a few months or a year?
I could always go with a cheap hard drive, but that uses more power, puts out more heat, and is more fragile (there is a 3 year old in the house). I don't need much space (8GB should be plenty), as I'm keeping all of the media on a 1TB NAS.
And if I do go the flash route, is there any benefit to using CF over USB, or vice versa? USB seems to be a bit cheaper; I guess because CF has fallen out of favor somewhat. Other than that, it's not clear if either is more reliable or has better performance.
