[cpeters1965]

Good day unto all!
Currently running Kodi and Plex on a very old dell optiplex and the processor is slowly going :-(. Started looking at mini-pc's to replace and came across this one
Mini PC TV BOX Intel Quad Core. My question is, is this a good choice to run both Kodi and Plex?

[PatK]

This is a great post http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=94268 and there's always new boxes coming about, it's pretty hard to keep on top. But I'm not impressed with Celeron chips, having the gfx share in my mind makes for a bad combination and then the gfx output is VGA (yesterdays standard) where is the 4K or even 1080p HDMI? I would not say this is a TV box. If you're after a minimal configuration, check out a Chromebox running OpenELEC.

[noggin]

This is a great post http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=94268 and there's always new boxes coming about, it's pretty hard to keep on top. But I'm not impressed with Celeron chips, having the gfx share in my mind makes for a bad combination and then the gfx output is VGA (yesterdays standard) where is the 4K or even 1080p HDMI?

Not all Celerons are equal - and even Core i7 Quad cores now share CPU and GPUs on the same die.

The J1900 is a Baytrail Celeron - which is effectively a rebadged Atom range CPU with a puny GPU.

However the 2955U/2957U Haswell Celerons are a very different prospect and are based on the Core i-series CPU+GPUs with a much better spec GPU. The Celeron 2955/2957Us will do 4K 2160/24-30p H264 with no major issues with VAAPI decoding. That's why so many of us are fans of the Chromeboxes, Zotac BI320s and are looking in the UK at the HP260 G1s.

Still a Celeron - but a totally different beast.

I would not say this is a TV box. If you're after a minimal configuration, check out a Chromebox running OpenELEC.

Which is also Celeron based with a shared CPU+GPU!

To answer the OP's question - I think it would depend whether you are talking about it being a Plex client or server, and if a server whether it needs to transcode. Also if you watch a lot of SD content then the J1900 may not upscale brilliantly, and I'm not sure where deinterlacing is these days (though if you don't watch interlaced content that won't be an issue)

[cpeters1965]

Thank you all for the replies!
I am looking at it as a plex server as well as kodi. Also cost is a significant factor and the unit I listed is in that range. I would prefer a windows box at this time.

[wrxtasy]

There have been some users getting bargain Intel i3 Chromeboxes lately when they are on sale, I'm sure that would be enough for Plex transcoding. It would be way way better than the Celeron you are considering.

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2026921

[Ned Scott]

Well, in theory, some of the Celeron Chromeboxes sound like they might support QuickSync (the ones that use the Intel 2957U CPU), but I don't know if Plex uses hardware encoding at all. If more programs used hardware encoding then we could think of it the same way that we think of hardware decoding, and just get the cheapest boxes available instead of something in the $300 USD + range.

[cpeters1965]

Thank you all agin for your reples. From suggestions here I am currently looking at this unit:
ZBOX-BI320-U-W2

[noggin]

That's a very similar device to the Asus Chromebox and HP 260 G1. Very good CPU/GPU combo for Kodi, can't comment on CPU power for Plex transcoding as it isn't something I do.

(If Plex uses hardware encoding, as the Intel Quicksync on the 2957U supports, then that would be great. Not sure the 2955U in the Chromebox has Quicksync hardware encoding, only hardware decoding. That was one of the listed differences between the 2955U and 2957U ISTR. At one point Quicksync was used by Intel to describe both decoding and encoding which didn't help avoid confusion...)

[noggin]

BTW - the box linked to in the OP's post may have just got a lot better as a Kodi platform. fritsch and co have just released some experimental stuff that allows Lanczos3 scaling from SD to HD and Motion Adaptive hardware De-interlacing on the platform used in the original box quoted. They've also avoided the requirement for Limited->Full->Limited conversion for VAAPI rendering (and thus hardware deinterlacing) by changing the way the rendering stuff works.

It's still not as powerful as a Haswell Celeron, but for those who have the Baytrail stuff this is great news.