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JackalHeadGod · 2014-11-08, 04:59

I'm looking at replacing an old Alienware X51 that I used to use for TV and gaming with something small for TV only.

I'd like something small and quiet. Storage is irrelevant as I have a big old synology nas holding all my stuff. It will also be wired gigabit not wifi so that's not important. Either is IR as I tend to use the mobile app for most stuff these days. Will be connected directly to TV via HDMI.

I'd like to keep the price down to something reasonably priced but I don't really want to skip on performance and end up with a laggy UI or problems decoding content.

From what I can see I've two options around the £400 mark:

Mac Mini 2014 (i3 1.4 GHz, intel 5000 graphics , 4Gb RAM, 500GB disk)
Build a NUC and use OpenELEC (I was just going to go with the mac but reading these forums has got me to the point of considering the NUC)

In terms of the NUC I was thinking:

That gives me an i3 1.7GHz, intel 4400 graphics, 8GB RAM, 60GB HD costing £360 (£370 delivered).

Basically the very slightly cheaper price for a faster processor and more ram but slightly worse graphics and far less storage (but if I'm running OpenELEC with all content on nas that should be enough I think).

It's a while since I've built my own computers and I'm not familiar with what hardware XBMC needs to do things well (generally been using it on completely over-powered gaming rigs) so I've some questions I'm hoping people can help with:

Is the i3 and 8GB RAM powerful enough (1080p h264 with 5.1 aac audio is probably as far up the quality scale as I go but I'd like it to have some room for growth, not interested in 4K though)
Has anyone used that case before? I like the idea of fanless but I'm a bit worried that it could overheat when stressed. I could get the standard intel case kit (cheaper but some reviews have it being quite noisy)
Have I missed anything (I know there's no wifi card, I'll be using wired, but is there anything else missing)?

Any input gratefully received.

Thanks!

gixie · 2014-11-08, 06:48

Your config is a total overkill.
Go the Asus Chromebox route with either dual boot ChromeOS and OpenELEC or dedicate the machine to OpenElec alone...
There are guides here and in the wiki...

tree_and_kite · 2014-11-08, 09:20

4gb RAM is more than enough for openelec. You can get a 32gb mSATA which again is more than enough for openelec

z31fanatic · 2014-11-09, 00:28

If I had your budget, I would go for the i5 NUC and use a 30GB mSata and 4GB RAM. No need for 8GB RAM, fanless case. or for a new power adapter.

nickr · 2014-11-09, 00:47

I run openelec on an 8gb mSata. I am told by experts that I might run out of room for thumbnails if my library gets very big, but its a long way off that point.

2G ram is sufficient, but 4G is probably a worthwhile upgrade.

The 2820 nuc is powerful enough unless you want to try h265 and/or 4k video.

I haven't seen many complaints about noise from nucs, so the fanless case may be overkill.

ahmed. · 2014-11-09, 01:58

For $700 you can get a prebuilt Zotac mini pc that is much better than the build you posted or at least similar specs. The main thing with the zotac box would be that it is prebuilt, so you don't have to spend time building it and it is fanless, so don't push it too hard. Those higher priced zotac boxes are supposed to play 4k video and they play normal HD video easily.

nickr · 2014-11-09, 03:28

$700? Way OTT on price!

ahmed. · 2014-11-09, 19:24

(2014-11-09, 03:28)nickr Wrote: $700? Way OTT on price!

He said 400 euros or sterling and that makes $700 canadian.

wrxtasy · (This post was last modified: 2014-11-10, 03:36 by wrxtasy.)

Recommendation - the basic US$140 - Chromebox running Openelec, it will play anything you throw at it apart from HVEC video. Pretty much instant turn on with SSD performance. Fast GUI. Even 4GB of RAM will be overkill.
You already have a NAS - why pay good coin for extra storage space in a streaming box ?

Grunty GPU's in these Chromeboxes for the price. Don't be seduced by the CPU spec if all your watching is mainstream video from the couch. H264 high bitrate video and the thing will barely break a sweat. Plus proper on the fly 24, 50, 60 Hz video switching for perfect playback.

As an example, my ancient Apple TV1 with a CrystalHD card can happily stream over NFS and decode and play a 60Mbps MPEG-4 Jellyfish video file with no dropped frames. BluRay 1:1 iso rips rarely stream over 30Mbps.
CPU Spec - a 1 GHz Pentium M, 256Mb of RAM.

A low cost Chromebox will tie you over until cheap HVEC decoder boxes come out that support this type of decoding in Hardware. You can then hand the Chromebox on as it will happily run Windows as well.

nickr · 2014-11-10, 01:31

(2014-11-09, 19:24)ahmed. Wrote:
(2014-11-09, 03:28)nickr Wrote: $700? Way OTT on price!

He said 400 euros or sterling and that makes $700 canadian.

I see, although I am not even sure why we are talking in Canadian Dollars when the conversation started in Sterling LOL.

Anyway there are cheaper options that will do the job, as pointed out by wrxtasy and others.

JackalHeadGod · 2014-11-11, 01:15

Thanks for all these responses, greatly appreciated. I've a habit of over speccing things, as perhaps is clear from above.

I'd not heard of the Zotac before but a quick look on amazon doesn't show prebuilts, and the barebones are a bit on the dear side. Guess the price doesn't translate well to the UK (hardly surprising it usually doesn't Smile

).

Are the default NUC cases that quiet? I'm always worried about small fans as often they have to spin fast and thus are a bit whiny? Anyone who's got one tell me if there audible in a quiet room from across the room?

If I want with a straight i3 NUC with 32GB Storage and 8Gb (I paranoid about ram so thats the one thing I'd rather over-spec on) that would drop the price to £315. £282 if I just put a single 4GB chip in, could always add a second chip later if I'm feeling like I need it.

I'm a little iffy about a chrome box because of the firmware hacking, I see theres some scripts released to make it easier but I'll admit I worry it will become more hassle than it's worth to keep up to date. I'll have another look in to that, thanks, see if it looks simpler than an initial read made it appear.

Are the celeron nuc/chromebox capable enough for Kodi? I'm not a fan of them normally so I'd kinda ruled them out without really thinking about it too much.

Matt Devo · 2014-11-11, 01:21

(2014-11-11, 01:15)JackalHeadGod Wrote: I'm a little iffy about a chrome box because of the firmware hacking, I see theres some scripts released to make it easier but I'll admit I worry it will become more hassle than it's worth to keep up to date. I'll have another look in to that, thanks, see if it looks simpler than an initial read made it appear.

Are the celeron nuc/chromebox capable enough for Kodi? I'm not a fan of them normally so I'd kinda ruled them out without really thinking about it too much.

after the initial firmware flash, updates are handled by whatever OS you have installed (eg, OpenELEC). The celeron 2955u ChromeBox can handle everything you throw at it, save for HEVC/H.265, and it's more capable than a N2830 NUC by far (esp for deinterlacing). The difference between the 2955u and the i3-4010u NUC is pretty minimal, esp for XBMC/Kodi. Check the wiki link in my sig for more info.

JackalHeadGod · 2014-11-11, 02:30

(2014-11-11, 01:21)Matt Devo Wrote: after the initial firmware flash, updates are handled by whatever OS you have installed (eg, OpenELEC).

So you don't need to re-run the script with updates and such? That's good to know. Will give that a bit more thought, thanks.

The ASUS M031U (celeron 2955U) sits around £210. Reading these posts and more reading around the forums makes me a bit more happy the chrome box will have enough power so I may well go with that. There's a cheaper HP chromebox at £150 that looks the same specs, can't work out why its so much cheaper than the ASUS one though.

nickr · 2014-11-11, 06:51

The HP one is cheaper in the UK I think, but MAtt Devo will tell you that the ASUS is superior as it has two ram slots and is quieter.

wrxtasy · (This post was last modified: 2014-11-11, 07:26 by wrxtasy.)

JHG if you want a good explanation about 3D and the Chromebox have a read of this post onwards >

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid1773961

Running XBMC Openelec on one of these will be dead simple after the initial setup. Most USB dongles are autodetected and just configured from within Openelec.
And yes as mentioned the Autoupdate, Backup, and Restore of XBMC/Kodi from within Openelec is as easy as it gets. You can even backup/clone your Openelec setup.

The only thing really missing is HDMI CEC support. But a NUC does not have that either. Disappointingly. For that you can get a Pulse Eight USB CEC adapter. Expensive for what is is IMHO, especially when you get HDMI CEC support built into a RPI A+ for $20.
Details here:

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid1749008
http://www.pulse-eight.com/store/product...apter.aspx