To Use A Memory Stick or not …

[Kato]

Hello All,

I’ve purchased a Linksys NSLU2 (Slug) and am awaiting it’s arrival.

I’m trying to decide whether to run a memory stick in Port 1 and HHD in Port 2 or just the HDD in port 1.

Upon searching the archives I got the impression that the stick can slow down Firefly when it comes to sorting and browsing a large number of music files.

My present setup is Firefly running on a Windows XP machine, P4 HT 2.6GHz, 1 meg ram. My network is fully wired. I have 6400 mp3’s and if I browse artists, etc. on my two Soundbridges it takes less than 1 second to sort through the information. It also takes this much time to assimilate all of the info in all 6400 mp3’s.

What kind of performance difference should I expect from what I have now?

Cheers,
Kato

[rpedde]

@Kato wrote:

Hello All,

I’ve purchased a Linksys NSLU2 (Slug) and am awaiting it’s arrival.

I’m trying to decide whether to run a memory stick in Port 1 and HHD in Port 2 or just the HDD in port 1.

Upon searching the archives I got the impression that the stick can slow down Firefly when it comes to sorting and browsing a large number of music files.

My present setup is Firefly running on a Windows XP machine, P4 HT 2.6GHz, 1 meg ram. My network is fully wired. I have 6400 mp3’s and if I browse artists, etc. on my two Soundbridges it takes less than 1 second to sort through the information. It also takes this much time to assimilate all of the info in all 6400 mp3’s.

What kind of performance difference should I expect from what I have now?

Cheers,
Kato

I haven’t seen one, but then I keep the database on the hard drive, not on the stick. I only keep the OS on the stick, that way I can spin down the hard drive.

If you were to keep the database on the stick, I’d guess performance would be bad, plus, you’d probably kill the stick pretty quickly.

I’ve had decent luck with mine on a stick, though. I think I’ve been running it that way for six months or so, and nary a problem.

— Ron

[fizze]

So did I, but as I ran lots of other things on the slug my stick just was too small.
I then re-slinged to a harddrive and am now happy with tons of applications available and running on the slug.

Anyway, I too had the library on the hard drive, and the database on the stick. Worked pretty decent, but the wear-and-tear on the stick is hard, no doubt about that.

I wouldn’t be concerned about the hard drive failing so much, but for power consumption and heat dissipation. An idle harddrive that spins basically doesnt wear.

[Kato]

@fizze wrote:

So did I, but as I ran lots of other things on the slug my stick just was too small.
I then re-slinged to a harddrive and am now happy with tons of applications available and running on the slug.

Anyway, I too had the library on the hard drive, and the database on the stick. Worked pretty decent, but the wear-and-tear on the stick is hard, no doubt about that.

I wouldn’t be concerned about the hard drive failing so much, but for power consumption and heat dissipation. An idle harddrive that spins basically doesnt wear.

Ok … Perhaps since I’m new at this I’ll just use the HDD. I’m not sure if I can get it to spin down anyway.

Re: power consumption and heat dissipation – these are the only cons of running the HDD continuously? Otherwise a constantly runing HDD is no problem? (Sorry, just to be clear)

[fizze]

Yes, thats what I was trying to say. 🙂

I’ve had a Seagate HDD in a MacPower enclosure running for almost 2 years 24/7 now. Without spin-down or anything, and it works fine, fine, fine…. 🙂

[sansp00]

Tried the stick and reverted back to HDD only. Stick can cause very weird issues which end up in frustrations and headaches. Unless you are lucky, have patience, time and know how, I would tend to stay away from them. The KISS principle applies very well, Keep It Simple & Stupid 🙂
Patrick S.

[gurgel2]

If you remove a couple of cron jobs, you can keep the HD idle most of the day (if it supports spindown that is) and you dont have apps that spams the log files (those can be mounted in ram to).

[Author]

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