[ahmed.]

I saw this intel NUC on amazon and can't tell if they are selling the barebone kit or what:

http://www.amazon.ca/Intel-Next-Computin...DCCP847DYE

[Ned Scott]

It is barebones + case (you can buy NUCs without cases). However, I would suggest this one instead: http://amzn.com/B00HVKLSVC

Looks like the price went up a bit, because it's normally $135.

Just add RAM and USB drive and you are good to go.

[ahmed.]

Okay, why do you recommend that one? I am having trouble finding RAM that can be bought from the same place. Also what do you mean by USB drive? I was planning on putting in a 2.5" inch hard drive, wouldn't that be good enough?

[bnevets27]

Well from the looks of it the one you picked doesn't support a 2.5 hard drive. Also off the top of my head I think its the older version and also lacks wifi.

He said a USB because that's all you need to install xbmc to if your going to be streaming your content. You don't need the capacity of a hdd

[ahmed.]

I see, I am not very familiar with these kinds of computers. Most of the product pages don't include full details so it is a bit hard to understand if everything is included.

I have seen this product as well: http://www.solid-run.com/products/cubox-...fications/

It seems that it is also capable of running XBMC smoothly, I saw video on youtube earlier today.

Is cubox better than raspberry pi? I have raspberry pi and it is terribly slow compared to a lot of other boxes I have tried to run XBMC with.

[noggin]

Okay, why do you recommend that one? I am having trouble finding RAM that can be bought from the same place. Also what do you mean by USB drive? I was planning on putting in a 2.5" inch hard drive, wouldn't that be good enough?

The NUC you mentioned here : http://www.amazon.ca/Intel-Next-Computin...DCCP847DYE doesn't have a SATA port so you can't add a 2.5" HDD. If you scroll to the specs you'll see this : "Supports new Mobile SATA (SSD) card via full-length PCIe Mini Card" This means that you need to use an mSATA SSD (which is a small mini PCIe sized flash solid state drive that mounts on the NUCs PCB) For suitable memory, have a look here : http://www.intel.com/support/motherboard...033952.htm This lists the specs you need, and also some compatible models, though other modules are likely to be compatible too. If you want WiFi and/or Bluetooth you'll need to add a Wifi/Bluetooth Mini PCI-e card as well - as the Celeron 847 NUCs don't come with one (they are also USB2.0 only)

The Celeron 847 is a very old model now though - the newer N2820 here : http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HVKLSVC/ref=cm_sw_su_dp as mentioned by Ned Scott is a much better bet. It takes a 2.5" SATA drive, and has an integrated WiFi/Bluetooth card as standard.

---

I see, I am not very familiar with these kinds of computers. Most of the product pages don't include full details so it is a bit hard to understand if everything is included.

I have seen this product as well: http://www.solid-run.com/products/cubox-...fications/

It seems that it is also capable of running XBMC smoothly, I saw video on youtube earlier today.

Is cubox better than raspberry pi? I have raspberry pi and it is terribly slow compared to a lot of other boxes I have tried to run XBMC with.

The Solid Run Cubox-i is a bit of an ARM development machine at the moment. If you're not a bit of a hacker or enthusiast, I'd stick to platforms that are simple and well supported (i.e. x86 rather than ARM) The current NUCs are good. If you are happy to do a bit of unscrewing (still a bit hackery) then the Chromebox is also worth a look as long as you are confident to follow Matt Devo's excellent installation details TO THE LETTER.

[techmd]

My search for an xbmc client started with the 847 NUC you linked in the OP, then progressed to the N2820 NUC, and then landed on Asus Chromebox mentioned in the previous post. I followed the xbmc wiki's instructions to get it to the point to where I could run the script and follow Matt Devo's instructions and everything worked perfect. I'm very happy with it so far and think it's the best mix of price and capabilities available for an xbmc client at the moment.
relevant links:

http://kodi.wiki/view/ASUS_Chromebox
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=194362

[ahmed.]

The chromebox's design is good and the fact that it is already ready to go out of the box is neat, but it seems like the NUC is worth it in the long run. At least with the NUC, I can upgrade the RAM eventually and swap hard drives. Plus the biggest thing with it is that I can install any OS I want.

I looked up videos that show windows on chromebox, but I could not find any that showed how to get windows 7 on it. Also I am not sure if there would be any problems in getting windows on it in the first place.

I am getting the NUC and the RAM itself from tigerdirect.ca and a $20 generic hard drive from amazon.ca, I wish I could save more money by buying a 2GB RAM instead of 4GB, but I don't want to order the wrong one and end up returning it since it might not be compatible.

[Topken]

You can upgrade both the Ram and SSD on the ASUS Chromebox quite easily so no problem there.

[techmd]

I agree that if I was wanting it to be able to run windows then the NUC is the route I would go. I'm in the market for a simple server as a WMC backend and am not considering a chromebox for that task.