I'm planning on upgrading my trusty Xbox based XBMC with a HTPC running XBMC Live.
I'm debating whether to install it to a USB drive, or a laptop HDD.
For people directly booting into Live, can you post your bootup times from when you hit the power button (I know that would include BIOS POST times, that's fine). Also, can you include whether you're booting from USB flash drive or internal HDD?
Coming from an Xbox, I'm really used to powering up and playing a movie in a few seconds and a faster boot time would help in the WAF!
to give an idea from pressing powerbutton to static XBMC screen
Windows XP SP3 200 GB HD
to windows bootscreen 30 seconds
to static XBMC screen 1:35
idioteque Wrote:to give an idea from pressing powerbutton to static XBMC screen
Windows XP SP3 200 GB HD
to windows bootscreen 30 seconds
to static XBMC screen 1:35
Are you running XBMC for windows or did you just post the windows time for comparison?
idioteque Wrote:to give an idea from pressing powerbutton to static XBMC screen
Windows XP SP3 200 GB HD
to windows bootscreen 30 seconds
to static XBMC screen 1:35
eamiryar Wrote:Are you running XBMC for windows or did you just post the windows time for comparison?
I'd like to know too. I'm guessing that your 1:35 time is loading XP first, then loading XBMC from within XP.
Do you have a Live only time too?
My system config is in my .sig. Time to XBMC main screen 1m20s.
This boot time includes a 3-5 second delay (I didn't notice exactly when it started) while my system tells me I have a CPU fan error (because it's disconnected). It also assumes I hit Enter twice, once after it detects my DVRW and once after it detects the USB flash drive. Both will time out on their own after 5 seconds if I ignore them, so a hands-off boot time would be 1m30s.
Haven't explored any standby/hibernate options. I'm leaning towards just leaving it powered up full-time anyway. My mail server is now 6 years old, running 24x7, with 4-year-old dual raided 120GB hard drives and the original fans, cpu, and RAM. I don't think it would hurt it, and i'm sure i'm not drawing more than 100W at idle.
Snowflake Wrote:This boot time includes a 3-5 second delay (I didn't notice exactly when it started) while my system tells me I have a CPU fan error (because it's disconnected).
You should put the CPU fan sensor to ignored in the BIOS (Hardware monitor).
Snowflake Wrote:My system config is in my .sig. Time to XBMC main screen 1m20s.
This boot time includes a 3-5 second delay (I didn't notice exactly when it started) while my system tells me I have a CPU fan error (because it's disconnected). It also assumes I hit Enter twice, once after it detects my DVRW and once after it detects the USB flash drive. Both will time out on their own after 5 seconds if I ignore them, so a hands-off boot time would be 1m30s.
Haven't explored any standby/hibernate options. I'm leaning towards just leaving it powered up full-time anyway. My mail server is now 6 years old, running 24x7, with 4-year-old dual raided 120GB hard drives and the original fans, cpu, and RAM. I don't think it would hurt it, and i'm sure i'm not drawing more than 100W at idle.
Great post, TY.
I hadn't thought about standby / hibernate as a faster way to power on. When I get my system built I will have to test that as an option. Is it easy to setup on the Live version? Or is it more of a BIOS function?
I'm not planning on having a DVD drive in my HTPC, so hopefully that will speed up BIOS POST time too.
This will be my first foray into a Linux based PC. I've never touched it before, so I hope the Live install will be kind to me.
olympia Wrote:You should put the CPU fan sensor to ignored in the BIOS (Hardware monitor).
I will, but not until i'm happy with the fan not being there. I need to get my CPU temperatures displaying in XBMC (currently i only see question marks) so I can see how hot things are getting while playing back video. Right now I can run a high-bandwidth stream, but I have to reboot and check the temps in the BIOS settings to see how hot things are. Or pull the cover and put my hand on the heatsinks.
So far everything is running nice and cool, but i'd like a more "live" temperature readout before I commit 100% to running without the fan. It should be fine, as one of the case fans is right on the other side of the heatsink, and pulling the air in the same direction, so I think I still have good cooling. Just want to be sure.
BritBloke Wrote:I hadn't thought about standby / hibernate as a faster way to power on. When I get my system built I will have to test that as an option. Is it easy to setup on the Live version? Or is it more of a BIOS function?
As I say, I haven't tried it yet. I think it's more of a Live function, the BIOS has to support it but I think the OS takes care of it.
Quote:I'm not planning on having a DVD drive in my HTPC, so hopefully that will speed up BIOS POST time too.
Probably. I could probably turn off the checks there as well, but haven't looked into it. This is the first PC i've owned where powerup time has been a consideration... All my other PC's (except my laptop) stay on 24x7.
Quote:This will be my first foray into a Linux based PC. I've never touched it before, so I hope the Live install will be kind to me.
xbmc won't be much of an introduction to Linux... At least not one that will leave a good taste in your mouth if it is. If your xbmc install works out-of-the-box, all you'll ever see is the xbmc menus and it'll be pretty simple to use. If you need to get into the underlying OS to make some tweaks to get things running, it'll be pretty down-and-dirty command-line work, and you'll eventually mess something up that will leave you hung, frustrated, and starting from scratch.
Neither experience will really showcase how far Linux itself has come in the last 15 years. I run Ubuntu (one of the Linux distributions) on my two desktop machines, but i've been running Linux in one form or another since about 1990. If you'd like to see what Linux is like, download an Ubuntu Live disk and give that a try. You can play around to your heart's content without touching your current OS.
Snowflake Wrote:I will, but not until i'm happy with the fan not being there. I need to get my CPU temperatures displaying in XBMC
Mate, you can turn off the "CPU Fan Speed" independently in the third line of the hardware monitor. It is nothing to do with the CPU temp sensor...
Anyway 55sec is the boot time in my case
BritBloke Wrote:Great post, TY.
I hadn't thought about standby / hibernate as a faster way to power on. When I get my system built I will have to test that as an option. Is it easy to setup on the Live version? Or is it more of a BIOS function?
I'm not planning on having a DVD drive in my HTPC, so hopefully that will speed up BIOS POST time too.
This will be my first foray into a Linux based PC. I've never touched it before, so I hope the Live install will be kind to me.
You're doing things backwards. With linux you're better off finding hardware that works out of the box and buying that than picking hardware and hoping you can make it work. Especially the case for S3/S4 states being supported.
35s from power on to xbmc interface using xbmc live HDD install.
AMD 5000 black edition
Asus m2n-sli deluxe
2gig ram
Seagate 750G ES drive (Enterprise)
39s from power on until ready to play movies. Bios post took about 10s.
C2D E8400
Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H
Seagate 2.5" sata
about 15 seconds, hdd install on an ssd, disabled all unnecessary bios checks and such, bios is about a 1 second flash on the screen, then to linux stuff.