[loot87]

I'm using an older XP box (Athlon FX-53) for my media server to stream video to my XBMC boxes. I'm getting frequent stuttering in HD and SD videos and I believe that this box is my issue. My max bandwidth is 50mbps. I use SMB.


This could be a switch or cabling issue. But assuming that it's the XP box, what can I do to improve it? I have minimal processes running.


1) Switch to some Linux version?

2) Use XBMS instead of SMB, or something else

3) Tweak something in NT?


I'm not interested in NAS or RAID solutions. I just want to be able to read a single stream closer to the 100Mbps limit.


Thanks.

 

[jtnfoley]

Are you seing the single-disk limit (i.e. is your bottleneck the IDE controller?) RAID is not just for redundency!

One relatively simple thing you can do is drop your data disk on a separate controller. This MAY help, you'll be better served to upgrade to a SATA capable host and disk.

 

[loot87]

Thanks. I am using SATA for all drives except for the OS.

 

[Shai-Tan]

It's definitely not the disk. Even a crappy USB disk that can only do 15 MB/s is faster than 100mbps ethernet.

 

[Shai-Tan]

btw, I only have 100mbps in my house and the speeds can vary widely especially if it goes through more than on switch and cables that aren't that great. Like upstairs where it goes through two switches and long cables I'll get between 6.25 and 8 Mb/s (sometimes lower) but to devices plugged directly into the same switch I can get the higher end although with windows involved you never know. Maybe try using something other than SMB as there are a lot of problems with throughput over SMB with XP.

 

[sean_w_smith]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Shai-Tan /forum/post/18149147


btw, I only have 100mbps in my house and the speeds can vary widely especially if it goes through more than on switch and cables that aren't that great. Like upstairs where it goes through two switches and long cables I'll get between 6.25 and 8 Mb/s (sometimes lower) but to devices plugged directly into the same switch I can get the higher although with windows involved you never know

reformat the box and install a clean windows install. install minimum other stuff. have seen many XP boxes get slow over time. never could figure why? fresh image of windows solved that problem.


Sean

 

[daskino]

you could try to use NFS fileshareing for windows. hanewin makes a program called nfs server. you get higher network transfer speeds with NFS over SMB.

 

[loot87]

Thanks Sean. It is a clean install. The only thing extraneous going is AVG Free.


I will try NFS. Thanks for the tip.


I've got it running about 65mbps after finding a wiring issue that was sucking off about 20mbps (brown and brown/white were flipped). I would like to see it higher though.