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iRAM, is it worth it?

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TheGeek
Ok, so im building my Media PC for my TV so that i can record my shows when im not home so that my shows dont dictate my life anymore.

Im getting:
AMD Sempron 64 754 2600+ 256KB L2 (1.6Ghz)
MSI K8MM-V Socket 754 mATX
512MB Corsair Value Select PC3200
120GB Maxtor HDD
Aspire Q-Pack Case w/ 420Watt PSU
LiteOn CD/DVD R/RW Combo Drive
Hauppauge WINTV401 TV/FM Tuner PCI card (I've read it works well with linux)

in total the thing costs about 380USD with shipping

I will be running Mandrake 10.1 Linux on it and loading Freevo Media Center Software on it to give it media center capabilities (Im using Mandrake for the ease at which you can download and install freevo onto it, not because its the best).

My question is, since i am running linux on it and as such will not be rebooting or shutting it down very frequently, do you think that it would be worth the investment to get a PCI iRAM card and put about 2GB of RAM on it in order to have my OS loaded to RAM? It will cost almost 200USD to add this piece to it with 2GB of PC3200.

What are you thoughts?
orno
im no expert on HTPC systems or linux for that matter but from what i've read
1) MythTV is where its at
2) www.htpcforums.com

good luck
TheGeek
Hm, thanks for that, ill look into it, im always looking to alternatives to Freevo since I've heard that it doesnt like some of the newer versions of different linux distros. Ill look into this MythTV thing and see how it is and let you all know. Again thanks for the advice and just to let you all know iv decided to go with Ubuntu instead of Mandrake since Ubuntu has the same features and then some along with from what iv heard better HTPC success.
xbcd
TheGeek wrote:
Hm, thanks for that, ill look into it, im always looking to alternatives to Freevo since I've heard that it doesnt like some of the newer versions of different linux distros. Ill look into this MythTV thing and see how it is and let you all know. Again thanks for the advice and just to let you all know iv decided to go with Ubuntu instead of Mandrake since Ubuntu has the same features and then some along with from what iv heard better HTPC success.

Have you looked a geexbox. I love it and it is under 7 megs download. It is a live cd and can also be installed. I has hardware acceleration and junk loads of hardware support. Also old hardware is more than enough powerful. Now you said you would look into MythTv cause you want to record but if you have linux skills you can integrate this Freevo option into geexbox freevo 2.0 beta release. Also regular geexbox supports that tv card just not recording but check their forums since someone must have got it. I use it as a divx stream box for my house and am currently recompiling my kernel to allow faster boots. Current boot time is 25 seconds off a 256 mb 4x cf to ide converter and 128 megs ram. 866mhz proc and it has a ati graphics card with vidix (video acc.) the website is:
http://geexbox.org
this is a well maintained OS for HTPC and i think you should at least take a look at it.

P.S. over 1 gig is just a waste as i read for MythTv and Freevo. So just buy another 512 module. Plus i use suse 10.2 and my entire system with thunderbird, banshee, opera, firefox, couple Konsoles and Freevo 1.7 load into ram with no paging what soever. 128 k page file but that is really just a bare minimum that is there at all times since i have 90 megs of ram free. Instead of 2 gigs invest in another tv card so you can record 2 shows at once as long as they have built in encoders.
psycosquirrel
Don't bother with iRAM, it is a waste. Just get a HDD like normal people Laughing
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