[aaricwon]

I recently discovered XBMC and LOVE IT. Currently I am using a crappy laptop BUT I am getting a new TV this weekend and would like to get something to be designated to run XBMC that will always be hooked up to the TV.

I can't afford a nice desktop computer but did see THIS at Best Buy today that is in my price range and has HDMI and would work but then I was browsing the net and came across the Chromebox.

Which would be best/which would you get?


Thank you!

by the way, I also was looking at these but again didn't know what would be best for making my own XBMC system..

Zotac - ZBOX Nettop Computer

Zotac - ZBOX nano Nettop Computer

[shaoranmps]

For the price it's much better than a chromebox mainly ram and storage

[Frozin]

I always recommend trying to build one yourself. I've build them for less then 200 with a 1 terabyte HD and 2 gigs of ram. But the VivoPC does look nice for the 250.

I do find myself filling up the 1tb pretty quick

[aaricwon]

I always recommend trying to build one yourself. I've build them for less then 200 with a 1 terabyte HD and 2 gigs of ram. But the VivoPC does look nice for the 250.

I do find myself filling up the 1tb pretty quick

What do you fill up your harddrive with? I was going to just use XBMC and stream everything I watch. I don't really see myself downloading much or running many applications. I just want the best performance possible. I guess I MAY use whatever I end up getting to browse the internet. I don't plan on having cable tv or anything so prob won't be watching much actual live television.

[Frozin]

if all your going to do is stream then try an android tv box. I use couchpotato sickbeard with utorrent and sabnzbd. Best automated media center.

[ahmed.]

Zotac boxes are great, whether they are full ones or the bare bones kits. The VivoPC is probably the best option if you want a good computer that is a low-medium power desktop that can run anything you want (windows/linux/openelec and more).

The thing about chromebox is that it is not the best box for the price. You can get so much more for that price (either building yourself or just a zotac box deal) so I wouldn't buy the chromebox.

Best bet (actually not even bet, it's the SURE thing) is to build your own htpc, there are a lot of builds out there using AMD chipsets and those cut down on cost a LOT, so you end up building a great machine that is able to do your xbmc but at the same time do a bunch of other things you might want to try in the future.

Here is a bare bones kit using an AMD a4-6300 with an integrated GPU that will knock the socks off of a n2820 and the celeron 2955u easily: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/S...&CatId=332

[Matt Devo]

The thing about chromebox is that it is not the best box for the price. You can get so much more for that price (either building yourself or just a zotac box deal) so I wouldn't buy the chromebox.

this is highly region-dependent. Here in the US, you can buy a ChromeBox for $135-$150, and no other x86 setup comes close to it price/performance wise. Canuckistan is probably different ;-)

[shaoranmps]

The thing about chromebox is that it is not the best box for the price. You can get so much more for that price (either building yourself or just a zotac box deal) so I wouldn't buy the chromebox.

this is highly region-dependent. Here in the US, you can buy a ChromeBox for $135-$150, and no other x86 setup comes close to it price/performance wise. Canuckistan is probably different ;-)

Yes right now Newegg and amazon got the chromebox starting at $135.00 nothing comes cheaper at price to performance

[wrxtasy]

I highly doubt as well that anything else would get anywhere near the superior Graphic performance of a Chromebox running Kodi only, at the price they are selling for in the US.

You don't need a fully fledged HTPC or NUC just to run Kodi and stream stuff.
eg. a $35 Raspberry Pi does it well on just 512MB of memory, especially when running Kodi.

[danfloss]

I highly doubt as well that anything else would get anywhere near the superior Graphic performance of a Chromebox running Kodi only

Are you saying that if you run duel boot then the graphics won't be as good?

[wrxtasy]

No, graphics will be excellent- dual, or single boot.

[rodalpho]

There really is no reason to dualboot unless you actually want chromeOS for some reason.

[christoofar]

Got my Chromebox for $114 on Black Friday. There's sure to be similar deals coming up thru this holiday season. This thing completely changed my opinion about what is needed for excellent media experience & control. This thing & a Fire TV BT remote - sweet!
My HTPC sits, gathering dust...

[shabuboy]

I always recommend trying to build one yourself. I've build them for less then 200 with a 1 terabyte HD and 2 gigs of ram. But the VivoPC does look nice for the 250.

I do find myself filling up the 1tb pretty quick

What do you fill up your harddrive with? I was going to just use XBMC and stream everything I watch. I don't really see myself downloading much or running many applications. I just want the best performance possible. I guess I MAY use whatever I end up getting to browse the internet. I don't plan on having cable tv or anything so prob won't be watching much actual live television.

If you will be streaming to the device and some browsing, the AFTV seems to be the best device right now.
I just ordered mine yesterday for $79, still on that price.

Took me long time to decide between the AFTV vs Asus Chromebox. I would had gone with the Chromebook $134, but could not pass on the price for the AFTV.

I just sold my Zotac Nano last weekend. Love those boxes. But now I have no need for a full system/HTPC. I have my media in my NAS and the rest stream from internet.

Check this post as well.