[theballboy]

Hi all, just joined the forum. Im based in Northern Ireland
Bottom line is Im looking for a cheap power friendly way to run XBMC to connect to my NAS

Background
Ive been researching, buying, tweaking media players for the last 10 years. My first was the NMT popcorn hour with attached external drive. Always been looking for the ultimate setup
Ive since bought a Qnap NAS which holds all the movies etc and am looking to update again from my WDTV
Ive tinkered with the raspberry pi with Raspmc installed which isn't so bad but still lags a bit
Ive purchased one of the new quad core android boxes int he hope that a linux build will be made available soon on which to run xbmc

Obviously XBMC is where its at and thats what Im looking to adopt. There seems to be lots of nagging issues around the android boxes such as getting a linux build etc. maybe someone can correct me here

But it seems that for an extra £70 will resolve this issue if you buy a small form factor PC or NUC
I see core i3 models out there but Im wondering if the most basic of celeron or atom based machines will do the job

Whats the least power / cheapest NUC I can get away with for a relatively fast and stable set up?

Thanks in advance

[CaptainPsycho]

The celeron will play anything except 3D.
The i3 will support 3D.
Atom based only if they have an extra GPU f.e. Geforce 610/620.

[theballboy]

Thanks for the reply

Dont need 3d so thats good

Found a couple of atom based mo board and cpu on ebay for very cheap - might try a wee build if it works out cheaper
Best i can find in the celeron is £135 - Surely if i can pick up an atom cpu (1.6) with mo board for £20 I can build thew lot including graphics card for less than £80

---

also not looking to play 1080p - 720 at very most- will the onboard graphics of atom not cope with this?

[CaptainPsycho]

Do you have a link to the board?

[theballboy]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/iEi-KINO-945GS...1c36e34cbc

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Asus-Eee-PC-90...19e27bea4f

Maybe they are not mini itx - i must check but this one is

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-ITX-Intel...2c732053b2

[CaptainPsycho]

Be aware that you'll ned an pci grapic card no pci-e on the cheap atom boards.

f.e. the Zotac nVidia Geforce GT610 PCI for round about 50 EUR.

afaik with this youl'll be able to watch 3d as well.

[theballboy]

so really its gonna have to be celeron based unless I find something atom based with either geforce installed or a pci-e slot available?

[ktjensen]

You can buy an old APPLE TV 1 for around $50 us. That has everything.

[jammyb]

The celeron will play anything except 3D.
The i3 will support 3D.
Atom based only if they have an extra GPU f.e. Geforce 610/620.

Celeron plays SBS 3D fine. But can struggle with frame packed "full 3D" which the i3 can do fine.

Read the NUC wiki link in my sig, there are also massive threads on the NUC. Both mk1 and the unreleased mk2 models.

[theballboy]

http://www.ebuyer.com/525946-zotac-zbox-...box-id18-b
or
http://www.ebuyer.com/447255-mb-boxdccp8...dccp847dye?

[jammyb]

NUC everytime.

[bilbonvidia]

Why is that. Is the 867 better than the 1007c processor?

[theballboy]

Yeah thought too that e newer celeron 1007 with ivy bridge would be superior