Windows Based HTPC Configuration

[Surtsey]

I'm very interested in optimisation of a Windows based HTPC. I have an XPC with the following specifications.

Windows 7 32-bit.
Intel i5
4Gb RAM
AMD HD6450
128 Gb SSD
1Tb HD

This system is designed for low noise and low power consumption. It occurs to me that the standard configuration of Windows is unsuitable for the unit's purpose. Features such as indexing, pre-fetch, super-fetch are redundant in this set-up. The only third-party software used is Firefox and Kodi. Even the Windows swap-file is a waste of resources.

I have placed the Firefox cache on a Ram-disk to aid replaying parts of streams.

Does anybody have any ideas as to any further tweaks?

 

[Drengur]

If you are talking about the software side of things, well, the obvious suggestion would be to use a Linux-based system, as that would allow you to run only what you would like to be running. You could also take a look at Front Page | ReactOS Project, depending on the hardware and software compatibility.

Regarding the hardware you are using, there are of course more efficient processors, VGA cards etc, if your main goal is to reduce your carbon footprint (joking). You could also look into undervolting the system.

 

[gazzagazza]

Just buy JRiver Media Center, install that, and you're in business. It has the best video quality and is hugely configurable.

 

[sgrossklass]

Speaking of video quality, that HD6450 is getting a bit long in the tooth. It is certainly unsuited for 4K material.

Not sure what you would still need a 32-bit version of Windows for in this application these days. You'd gain about 300-400 megs of available RAM by using a 64-bit version in this configuration, so I'd imagine any additional RAM usage would be taken care of.

 

[Surtsey]

Speaking of video quality, that HD6450 is getting a bit long in the tooth. It is certainly unsuited for 4K material.

Not sure what you would still need a 32-bit version of Windows for in this application these days. You'd gain about 300-400 megs of available RAM by using a 64-bit version in this configuration, so I'd imagine any additional RAM usage would be taken care of.

You sound like a salesman's wet dream.



I have a 40" screen and a small apartment. I am also over 40 years-old. I couldn't see 4k if it bit me in the ***.


I have 32-bit Windows with PAE enabled and have used a few tricks map 512Mb of unaddressable RAM to another space. 64-bit Windows would save me any RAM. None of this is the point, more RAM will not improve performance.

The areas I'd seek to tweak are media read-ahead caching (which is normally controlled at the server end), and HD I/O (which governs the number of streams that maybe recorded simultaneously).