[Soli]

you only found, excuse me, crappy old leftovers except the last one. But why do you keep beating a dead horse? (Hah) Buy the intel nuc celeron, cheap m2 ssd and 2x2gb ram, (+wifi/bt card if needed) and off you go. Surely there's a vendor who could put it together for you. It should take them about 5minutes, and if they want your money, they'll do it.

[bry]

It's one or two screws for the HDD in a nuc. Look on YouTube. It's not rocket science.

[spicewalker]

These are only suggestions and i haven't made my mind up at all - they were merely ones that I l thought would do the job and the various numbers seemed to add up so i stuck them down here. I am looking for ideas and just because i put suggestions up it doesn't mean I've made my mind up either way! Considering i barely knew any of this existed a few weeks ago (i know amaaaaazing isn't it?) and I only started to do this 2 days ago i am on a steep learning curve!
Soli - you would think that wouldn't you but it seems nuc's are only sold as barebones and as yet i haven't found a dealer that puts them together. All those vendors sell nuc's but don't assemble them for customers whch t me seems bizarre. Bry - I may well do that anyway (as indicated) but I'm just trying to find alternatives that give me the least hassle and ensures the thing works. I'm sure many on here find themselves in situations they don't know wtf they are doing and don't have confidence in - well believe it or not there are some people that are like that with computers/techincal stuff/even just screwing tiny screws in, some stupid idiots (!) are fingers and thumbs and find it difficult!
I'm also now looking at 4k tv's but I'll take care of that myself! I've not spent any money yet and I'm getting itchy..........

P.s I've also to keep it on the cheaper side (hopefully £2-250) merely because at this stage it isn't going to be the main entertainment hub but will almost certainly grow in my set up so needs to be decent.

P.p.s - just found some sellers that put nuc's together - I'll now put something together and if it isn't much more than me doing it myself I'll almost certainly go down that route - my £250 budget may well have to go though!

[Soli]

Spicewalker, don't think so much about it. Just buy the NUC, 2x2GB RAM, M2 ssd, and a wifi card. I can gurantee that you will find it easy to put together. Openelec runs amazingly well on these, and will give you the least hassle in the long run. Several devs are using the same machines (or similar).

You could go with 2x4GB ram if the price difference is negligable, but it won't matter. 512MB would be enough to run Openelec, but might give you more freedom in the future in case you want to put Windows on it or something..

If you want to go with a readybuilt machine I recommend either the Acer Revo One Celeron/i3 -- MSI Cubi -- or Gigabyte Brix. I'm sure you'll find some of these readybuilt. But the builtin IR-sensor in the NUC is nice to have.

[spicewalker]

Thnaks Soli - i've had a good look and was pretty much set on one of these i3 eggsnow as they seem to be the same specs as the nuc's for a bit less dosh. Some of the price differentials for just the barebones nuc was incredible with the same pack going for about £100 more - when memory etc were added the price difference got silly for the same thing,. The eggsnow is not much (if anything) more than it would cost (me!) to put it together myself - and a whole lot less hassle.
I'll have one final look at all those you suggested, see if they can, ahem, beat the eggsnow and go from there.If 2+2 ram is ok as opposed to 4+4 then that trims the price a bit. I've set a budget of £1k for this and the tv and have found a tv that suits me for just under £700 - it's a sony and has the android bits I won't have on openelec, there are issues with it's 'smartness' but I wasn't looking to get a smart tv anyway as I'm sorting this for that!

[Soli]

Eggsnow seems like a good choice too, and it's fanless too. I'm not too fond of its looks, but then again I'm not the one buying so..

You can also install Kodi for Android directly on the Sony TV. I can't say how it compares to Openelec, except that it's worse to a degree.

[Miguix]

@spicewalker
You seem to have concerns putting d nuc together. I appreciate that. If assembly is an issue, why not the minix x8h+?
Runs kodi out of the box for <£200

[Topken]

Whats wrong with something like the Zotac BI320 fully loaded with a 64gb ssd and Windows 8.1 with Bing?

[spicewalker]

I think I am going to go for this :


NUC i3 (5i3RYH) (nuci3)
Customizations:
CPU: Intel Core i3 5010U
Operating System: No Operating System - I will install my own
Motherboard: Intel 5i3RYH
Memory: 4GB DDR3 1600mhz Sodimm (1x4GB)
£-27.30
Hard Drive: Seagate 1TB (Hybrid 8GB SSD) 2.5"
£26.00
Wifi: Intel Dual Band AC 7260 Wifi 867Mbps + Bluetooth
Warranty: 3 Year SureCare Warranty
Subtotal:


£330.21



It's a little more than i was going to pay but I've found what looks like a decent Pana 4k tv for less than £600 (very good review in 'What hi fi' amongst others) so the total pack is still less than a grand and sod it, if i aint going to over spec now then when the hell will I ffs? I've also won another £400 today and if the Spurs score stays 2-1 or opes 2-2 then i win a couple hundred more so bullox to it!
I'm sure all the other suggestions would do fine jobs and hopefully others will find this thread useful so thanks to everyone and keep suggestions coming, until the thread dies that is!
Just a couple of quick questions - it can come installed with ubuntu so should i do that and then install openELEC or is it better to have no o.s at all and install openelec? I have looked at 'openelec wik'i etc and even found a very useful link on intel's page on how to load openelec but can i download it to usb via my mac and then boot the nuc with the usb or will it be better to download it via the nuc with ubuntu? Soz if it is a stupid question but I need to be clear before i order the thing and to prepare myself for fecking up the whole thing at least once. At least nothing can go wronga s i've got no date to lose or anything!
I am now off to sort out what the best remote control options will be........

[Soli]

No OS is OK.
With your Mac: Just download the disk image over at openelec.tv , and use "raspberry pi baker" (google it, and dont worry about the name) to clone the image over to a usb stick. Put the stick in your new machine, boot up and select install.

[spicewalker]

Cheers Soli - didn't buy it last night as the price altered for some reason to make it barely worth it (compared to assembling it) so I'm waiting to see what the vendors say today and hopefully they can do something with the price. I will sort this later as I'm going racing with my dad today which is a tiring day as he's 80. Got 3 fancies today Christchurch in 210, Parrault in 245 and Tunnel creek in 530 - if they win then sod the price!
Thanks again all.

[spicewalker]

Right then i've bought this, reduced the ram and put a full ssd in, also got wired keyboard and cables in the pack and it came to just under £390. Using the 'NUC guru' (which is very useful for anyone looking to do this!) it's about £50 less to do it myself - £50 well spent by me!
Right, shower, shave and races.......