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i guess I could always try both ways.
i understand that booting from an SSD is significantly quicker, does anybody have figures for how much quicker? also, if it boots XBMC directly off the SSD, and doesn't have to boot Win7, then XBMC as an application, i would imagine it'd be much quicker.
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Oh, I assumed you meant SD card, not SSD.
In terms of speed, I cut a minute off my boot times on my desktop computer, Win7 x64. If you're talking staying with Win7, then a SSD will be quicker for sure. XBMC Live or OpenELEC i can't really vouch for.
If you don't need Windows though, I know I'm booting OpenELEC off a USB thumbdrive in about 18 seconds. I'm not sure if I would invest in a SSD to improve that.
In my "tests" with and without a SSD in the same computer, a SSD based machine was generally quicker on a number of fronts. Boot times, menu responsiveness, etc. Movies/Audio won't really play any better...
I've got three HTPCs in my house. The snappiest of the three is the OpenELEC build running off the USB thumbdrive. It's also one of the slowest in terms of power (Atom/ION 1.6G dual core). Next is my main machine running Win7 (Quad Core w/ 8G of memory) off a SSD, third is another Atom/ION running off a 2.5" laptop drive (for now).
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haha. i want this:
XBMC + USENET + sabnzbd + sickbeard +couchpotato = Really Happy wife
she's tired of me trying to get this thing up and running.
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Then a SSD really helps. When the power goes off for a second in my neighborhood (and slams my XBMC box off) the faster it can boot back to Desperate Housewives the better.
Also don't forget the Harmony. That is a WAF centerpiece.