Just wondering if having more RAM really makes any difference? Will CE utilise anything over 2GB to enhance usability or is it pointless having more than 2GB for running CE?
This has been answered before. Please try to use the search function before opening topics. Otherwise we will have hundreds of topics with only one reply pointing somewhere else. Or we need a topic like “Ask a question, get an answer” for general questions.
I did read that the general opinion is that 2GB is fine but it still seems a grey area! Does CE have the ability to utilise extra RAM or is it simply not needed?
Utilise how? One tries to be memory efficient and not to waste it. If you could allocate more memory for the mediacenter won’t give you any benefits in video quality. You need more RAM for background stuff you run on your device.
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Yes I get that, and excuse no being very techie, but if extra RAM is detected on boot is there more stuff that can be loaded into RAM to speed the general experience up? So, as said, I get that video processing is one thing but are there no benefits to more ram? Perhaps the answer is no which is fine but I’m just trying to get clarity as I’ve ordered a 4GB Odroid N2 CoreElec box and I’m wondering why they sell them as a CoreElec unit if there’s no benefit in having more RAM?
I figure it’s a fair question?
Ok. You can use the full 4GB with CoreELEC. Running a normal mediacenter with standard skin and no additional addons will probably never use the full 4G. That’s why even the 2GB Version is more than enough. But here is the “but”. You can do more with it. For instance running several dockers to host servers and stuff. Some people also use tvheadend server to provide live tv at home through streaming and centralized recordings.
So again you can use either of them and it’s just a question your usecase needs more than 2GB of RAM.
Thanks Ray that does go someway to clarifying the situation. So the 4GB would be useful under certain situations i.e. Advanced use of whatever type.
Do Yo remember Bill Gates:
“640K ought to be enough for anyone”
07/22/2020
2GB ought to be enough for anyone running CE
07/22/2022
4GB ought to be enough for anyone running CE
to be continued …
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LOL I get your point but it’s breaking my heart parting with £120!! I could get 4 crappy boxes for that price, Yes I know with patchy performance and no support or real guarantee etc.
For peeps with expensive TV’s they should buy a decent unit. Who in their right mind would plug iffy cheap stuff into an expensive TV?
Sorry, don´t want break Your heart.
My TV - 55" OLED 4K HDR Ambilight was about 2.000€
My AVR - Denon X3300 was about 700€
My Loadspeakers - Bower & Wilkins was about 3.000€
My N2 running CE was about 110€ - runnig stable
Why should I buy a cheap and crappy box ?
Wise man. Only an idiot would have your setup and plug in cheap crap. Yes I’m very jealous but my 37" LG LED in the living room is fine for regular viewing and the Panasonic 42" plasma in the bedroom is still very good.
Are we dick measuring?!!
YMMD
Don´t want to to this
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That’s always the problem that people expect every cheap (sometimes with fake ram) to just work with their more expensive setup (even the cheapest 4K TV is still more expensive).
But you got your answer @PatrickJB. We are not trying to sell anything. If I were selling these I would maybe try to convince you to buy 4GB because I can maybe make a little bit more profit but the answer is as simple as this: 2GB is more than enough for a “normal” CE usage. I have also 2 N2’s with 4G and I use one as a NAS with Armbian and the other one with CE. I also have them with 64G emmc each.
64GB emmc for CE is also overkill but I like to load test and sample videos users send because of issues onto the emmc.
I don’t think I had ever issues with memory. My N2 normally stays at about 1-1.5G when watching something over ethernet. But I also used to use a more drastic mediacenter kodi caching which uses more RAM.
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Hmm caching yes I didn’t think about that but then again I’ve moved to using local storage as it’s just less things to worry about. The question of 2GB or 4GB will depend on whether the N2 can be used with a Linux desktop or not. If it’s going to be a stand alone media centre then 2GB does seem ample. Back in the LE dayz 1GB was often sited as being ample, even with heavy caching, and there were many boxes with fake RAM around then, as there are now.
Anyway I’m glad you’re all using N2’s as it gives me confidence that I’m making the right decision. I think we all like things to do what they ‘say-on-the-tin’ and if that means splashing the cash then so be it!
Why ?
The N2 is not a personal computer.
It´s a good choice to run a small Linux server - no GUI - only command line
It would be useful to be able to use a browser and YouTube.
Not sure how useful it is without X Server. But I have not tried. Video Playback in Desktop might not be good.
You can use AndroidTV for that, but YouTube runs perfect on CE, 8k/4k video with multi channel audio…