Instant (or nearly instant) start-up times

**99bravada** · 12-14-2003, 02:43 AM

I'm researching a touchscreen PC for my truck but am concerned with how long it would take to load windows as soon as I start the vehicle. I've read how a lot of people are using the VIA EPIA small form factor computer as an in-dash solution; however, I've been researching some biscuit PCs fromAdvantech and some of these have the capability of loading from compact flash or other mediums... My question is... how long would an average boot time be for the EPIA via hard drive and how long would it be if I used the EPIA and an IDE flash drive, such as the Simple Tech? Also, if anyone knows of the best affordable solution to the start-up times please let me know...

As of now I've got my eye on this setup:

VIA EPIA PC
Simple Tech flash drive (for Windows)
TM-710VGT 7 " Lilliput LCD display
and for software: Windows XP with Media Engine front end

**NightHunter** · 12-14-2003, 03:25 AM

This seems like a very interesting idea. It is pretty expensive though for just using as a mp3/gps system. But if I had the money for this I think this is the way to go. If you can load windows from a flash memmory card, I am sure you can yeild some outstanding boot and shutdown times. I achieved 17 seconds from power on to usable menus now using XP pro with carbox as my front end. That is using a standard laptop hard drive which runs only at 5400 rpms.

**midnightrat** · 12-14-2003, 03:31 AM

17s, damn that's pretty good, did you do anything special to xp? or is that from hibernate?

Originally Posted by NightHunter

I achieved 17 seconds from power on to usable menus now using XP pro with carbox as my front end. That is using a standard laptop hard drive which runs only at 5400 rpms.

**supralightning** · 12-14-2003, 03:38 AM

I dont know which flash card, and which hard drive you are comparing to....but i chose a western drive (120gb) and the simple tech flash drive (1gb).

and the 8mbps (flash) compared to the 100mbps (HDD), seems like it make a diff? would this be safe to say?

and idk the size needed for booting...like if it will need a ton more than 8mb to load (im imagining it does).

-J

**frodobaggins** · 12-14-2003, 04:00 AM

Originally Posted by 99bravada

how long would an average boot time be for the EPIA via hard drive and how long would it be if I used the EPIA and an IDE flash drive, such as the Simple Tech? Also, if anyone knows of the best affordable solution to the start-up times please let me know...

Your boot time will be LONGER with the flash card, by a large margin.

**Seraph** · 12-14-2003, 10:24 AM

What you want is regular HDD with XPe. We have discussed this many times before though.

:Þ

**99bravada** · 12-15-2003, 12:03 PM

Thanks...

**phreakness** · 12-16-2003, 11:48 AM

I've got several SBC's and I can tell you with all certainty that it will take longer to boot for either a microdrive or a flashdisk. sorry

**eugenen** · 12-16-2003, 09:28 PM

To give some numbers.
Intel FlexATX board with Celeron 500, 128M ram, XP, 3G laptop drive Resume from hibernation 30seconds, cold boot about 1 minute
VIA Mini-itx, 500MHz, same 128M ram, same hdd, resume from hibernation 1 minute, cold boot a bit over 2 minutes.
VIA mini-itx, 500Mhz, same ram, 128M Simple tech CF, slackware 9.1, cold boot about 40 seconds.

These were all setup about about the same with a basic OS install and auto starting and playing winamp or mpg123 with just what is needed to make it work, i.e. auto logon but no real tweaking for speed.

If you want fast and have the space add a second battery under the hood with an isolator and just use suspend, my laptop resumes in less than 2 seconds.

**NJay** · 12-17-2003, 11:22 AM

Hmm, not a completely fair comparision (i.e implies CF is quicker) as the 1st two using a HDD are XP whereas the last one is Linux which is quicker anyway