How much memory is really needed?

[Dekard]

How much memory are you using in your HTPC and are you satisfied with it.

I'm building a new client and trying to guage how much memory I need to put in it. Thanks for your responses.

[Jere_Jones]

2 gig in my server and 1 gig in my client.

Jere

[jominor]

Originally Posted by Jere_Jones

2 gig in my server and 1 gig in my client.

Jere

I've got 1gig in my server and 512m in my clients.

[Endymion]

What, no option for 1 gig? I use my HTPC for other things as well as Sage (ShowAnalyzer, ZoomPlayer, Orb, OpenSSH, etc), but it does extremely well with 1 gig, no matter what I throw at it. The limiting factor for me is the 2 GHz P4... I can get some serious slowdowns when Sage is doing an EPG update.

[stanger89]

I wouldn't go under 512 in any box these days. For a dedicated HTPC, 512 is also enough. I'd go a gig for anything more general purpose though.

[stevech]

1G in mine

[Opus4]

Personally, I prefer 1 GB for a base system now & 2GB+ for my work system, but since you asked what is really needed... I would agree that 512 would be fine. While the system requirements page lists 256, I think 512 allows for less paging/better performance. And, it isn't that much more expensive, especially if you get it on sale. Edit: I noticed a large improvement on my old p2-400 when I went from 256MB to 384MB.

Oh - and I see a 1 GB poll option for some reason.

- Andy

[Menehune]

Darn, can I change my vote? I clicked 512 before there was the 1G option.

I have 1GB in my server. There was only $30 difference between 512 and 1G when I built my server.

[phenixdragon]

My new server I am only dropping in 512 as I have at the most ran 512 on a dedicated HTPC and it runs perfectly fine. I think it's Windows that is what needs the memory because I am sure I can do a lot less with the Linux version of Sage.

But I did see on a website for two 1 gig sticks gonig for $100 but I missed the sale so I just picked up a 512 stick from someone who lives locally.

[Dekard]

Well, thanks to your input I'll start my HTPC with 512 ram and my server with 512 also. As soon as my budget allows I'll go to 2 gigs on the server. Thanks!

[DFranch]

I only have 512 in my sage box, it has 3 tuners and works fine.

[Dekard]

Shesh! 3 tuners... What kind of hard drive space do you have to suppor that?

[JUC]

1 gig in my server and i had 512mb in my client until i replaced it with an MVP. Seemed to be plenty.
JUC

[Dekard]

Originally Posted by JUC

1 gig in my server and i had 512mb in my client until i replaced it with an MVP. Seemed to be plenty.
JUC

What do you think of your MVP? I'm thinking it makes a dang good secondary box.

[DFranch]

Originally Posted by Dekard

Shesh! 3 tuners... What kind of hard drive space do you have to suppor that?

Up until this Christmas I only had 160GB, but I just got a 300GB to add to it (460GB total).

[Dekard]

Originally Posted by DFranch

Up until this Christmas I only had 160GB, but I just got a 300GB to add to it (460GB total).

It looks like I'll be able to run with a 200g to start. If I need to I can add another drive to the server down the road. How many hours could you get on the 160 gi drive?

[TakeFlight]

If you are talking strictly a SageTV client then 512MB is more than enough. I don't think my client has even hit 400MB usage.

However, if you are doing more than just SageTV (depending on what that is) then you might want to go 1GB or higher. My SageTV server (which is what I call my HTPC) has 1GB and a few times it has reach 1GB of usage. But, I use this computer for DVD playback (TheaterTek) as well as some gaming (which is when it hit 1GB in usage).

[malore]

My SageTV machine only has 256MB installed and it works OK, however I don't run it as a service, so I think I'm saving some memory usage.

[thatdude90210]

I ran my sage tv server/myhd 130 player on 256MB for a year with no issues. I was upgrading another machine and had 512MB extra so I added it to the Sage machine for a total of 768. The only difference is apps open and close faster with more memory.

[DFranch]

Originally Posted by Dekard

It looks like I'll be able to run with a 200g to start. If I need to I can add another drive to the server down the road. How many hours could you get on the 160 gi drive?

I record mostly at 2GB/Hour, some fast motion things like sports/action shows I record at 3GB/hour, and some slow moving shows like talk shows, news I record at like 1.4 GB/hour. I would guestimate 60-70 hours would be the max, but I record about 30+ hours a week, and I never got the HDD much more than half full.