Hi Guys,
I'll take this opportunity to say hello as I'm new to the forum.
I'm looking at buying a device to use as a pretty much dedicated Kodi box, however, I'm torn between non-Intel/Android and Intel/Windows..
Basically, I'm after an objective opinion on performance of these two devices:
Android
Brand: MXQ
CPU: Amalogic S805 QC
RAM: 1GB
Storage: 8GB
Price: £37.00
Windows
Brand: MeLe
CPU: Intel Atom Z3735F
RAM: 2GB
Storage: 32 GB
Price: £112.00
The prices above include keyboards etc.
I've read a few posts about these type devices, but I've not encountered any that directly compare these models.
I will mostly use the device for streaming up to 1080p over the internet, however, it will be occasionally used to play back MKV's from USB/Network (Windows shares) locations which won't usually exceed 720p.
On top of that, perhaps a bit of web browsing.
The Windows box is just slightly more than I was looking at paying, but if it is the better choice, I don't have a problem with that.
So objectively, which one should I buy?
Thanks for your help
Generally Kodi runs a lot worse on android than any other platform. Unless you can install openelec on that I wouldn't bother. I've not much experience with openelec but i'm told intel x86 still outperform's other's by a large degree.
I'm looking myself and was considering an atom device but after looking up on here it appears a celeron outperforms them by a large amount.
This is a good thread as a starting point:
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=94268
If it help's i've narrowed my list of upgrades to:
- Zotac ZBOX BI320, about £125 with 2-4GB ram and a 60GB SSD
- Asus Chromebox, about £155-£165, 4GB and 16GB SSD (might not be enough ram for windows)
- Wetek openelec, £72, runs android + openelec + has 2x TV Tuners (i'm getting one just as a TV server)
(2015-09-04, 16:21)colinr Wrote: [ -> ]Hi Guys,
I'll take this opportunity to say hello as I'm new to the forum.
I'm looking at buying a device to use as a pretty much dedicated Kodi box, however, I'm torn between non-Intel/Android and Intel/Windows..
Basically, I'm after an objective opinion on performance of these two devices:
Android
Brand: MXQ
CPU: Amalogic S805 QC
RAM: 1GB
Storage: 8GB
Price: £37.00
Windows
Brand: MeLe
CPU: Intel Atom Z3735F
RAM: 2GB
Storage: 32 GB
Price: £112.00
The prices above include keyboards etc.
I've read a few posts about these type devices, but I've not encountered any that directly compare these models.
I will mostly use the device for streaming up to 1080p over the internet, however, it will be occasionally used to play back MKV's from USB/Network (Windows shares) locations which won't usually exceed 720p.
On top of that, perhaps a bit of web browsing.
The Windows box is just slightly more than I was looking at paying, but if it is the better choice, I don't have a problem with that.
So objectively, which one should I buy?
Thanks for your help
Go with the window's device, me myself i have the Hp stream mini pc. 2gb. Ram 32gb. Storage. Use it just for Kodi and performance is awesome. I had an android box that was just an awful experience.
Thanks ianuk2005,
I was hoping to stay away from full blown desktop spec PC's, long gone have the days of spending £100's on dedicated Windows Media Centre style PC's!
A friend of mine has one of the MX boxes and swears by it, I am a little bit skeptical about them, I was more tempted by the Atom solution as I own one of the cheap Chinese Chuwi VI8 tablets which is basically of a very similar spec to the MeLe model that I'm looking at, I've installed Kodi on this tablet and it seems to perform fine, however, I've not had the time to conduct in depth testing. Furthermore, these Windows devices provide a very good free upgrade path (at the moment) to Windows 10.
Whichever device I choose has to be wife friendly too!
(2015-09-04, 16:53)colinr Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks ianuk2005,
I was hoping to stay away from full blown desktop spec PC's, long gone have the days of spending £100's on dedicated Windows Media Centre style PC's!
A friend of mine has one of the MX boxes and swears by it, I am a little bit skeptical about them, I was more tempted by the Atom solution as I own one of the cheap Chinese Chuwi VI8 tablets which is basically of a very similar spec to the MeLe model that I'm looking at, I've installed Kodi on this tablet and it seems to perform fine, however, I've not had the time to conduct in depth testing. Furthermore, these Windows devices provide a very good free upgrade path (at the moment) to Windows 10.
Whichever device I choose has to be wife friendly too!
I originally went down the android route and got a cheap box a couple years ago, it was bordering unusable for me. I also have a fire tv stick for the bedroom, while it's slow but usable I would only recommend it as a secondary device. Super low Waf factor, wife won't even use the fire tv stick.
I've currently got a hp n54L which is decent but wanted something smaller and up to date. I think the atom's will be decent for playback and general Kodi usage, I think with heavy skin's and large libraries though the haswell/broadwell celerons will make a noticeable difference and seem to be really the favoured cheap, low power, good performance option.
I guess it's going to come down to your usage as well, if your using it for the majority of your viewing (live tv, movies, tv catchup) you'll want something snappy.
Also another interesting box i'm currently considering:
-MSI Cubi- £99.99, Ram+SSD bring's it up to about £150
I used to use a n40L as a media server and XBMC box, as it was always on, I found it to be very much a dust magnet.
I ended up building my own server from the following components:
Intel Xeon E3-1240V2
16GB RAM
Asus server board
Fractal Design Black Pearl case
Dell PERC H700 RAID card
Really awesome server, it runs 4 VM's under Hyper-V core (SBS 2011, SVR 2008R2 + TMG, SVR 2008R2 as a media host and SVR 2012 for testing)
Our Samsung series 5 TV did quite a good job of connecting to the server, and playing back content over the network, hence no need for an XBMC box anymore, however, since moving house, I have not yet had the chance to hard-wire Cat6 around the house, furthermore, now I've discovered streaming, XBMC is now an attractive option again
(2015-09-04, 18:04)colinr Wrote: [ -> ]I used to use a n40L as a media server and XBMC box, as it was always on, I found it to be very much a dust magnet.
I ended up building my own server from the following components:
Intel Xeon E3-1240V2
16GB RAM
Asus server board
Fractal Design Black Pearl case
Dell PERC H700 RAID card
Really awesome server, it runs 4 VM's under Hyper-V core (SBS 2011, SVR 2008R2 + TMG, SVR 2008R2 as a media host and SVR 2012 for testing)
Our Samsung series 5 TV did quite a good job of connecting to the server, and playing back content over the network, hence no need for an XBMC box anymore, however, since moving house, I have not yet had the chance to hard-wire Cat6 around the house, furthermore, now I've discovered streaming, XBMC is now an attractive option again
It's not a bad machine price wise but it does get clogged up quite easy. I never ended up using the HDD bays as i've leant more towards streaming everything now as there's plenty of 1080p content that doesn't buffer so it seems a bit pointless going to the trouble maintaining my own library.
It's a decent machine but it's just overkill for space with these newer small boxes that outperform it in speed, power usage and noise. The only real advantage i'm getting out of it can house an internal dual DVB-S2 tuner bbut i'm just going to get a wetek play for that.
I've just been looking at a second hand HP Chromebox, the model is CB1-020NA which has the following specs:
Intel Celeron 2955u
4 GB RAM
16 GB SSD
Is this model any good, and can OpenElec be installed on it.
My last question is, if it is any good, would it outperform the Atom Z3735F CPU
Thanks
(2015-09-04, 16:35)ianuk2005 Wrote: [ -> ]Generally Kodi runs a lot worse on android than any other platform. Unless you can install openelec on that I wouldn't bother. I've not much experience with openelec but i'm told intel x86 still outperform's other's by a large degree.
There are OpenELEC builds floating
around for the MXQ but they're not official. No idea what features are supported etc but new builds are out very frequently.
That chrome box is what you are looking for, yes you can install OpenElec on it, there is a wiki on how to do it. I would outperform any atom CPU I would think. If you get a used PS3 remote you can use it to easily navigate Kodi on that chrome box, they are awesome.
@
ashman70,
Do you know where the Wiki is, I've had a look and there is lots of mentions of chromeboxes, but I can't see one for that model, and does the PS3 remote work out of the box or is there extra stuff to do?
Thanks,
(2015-09-06, 01:34)colinr Wrote: [ -> ]@ashman70,
Do you know where the Wiki is, I've had a look and there is lots of mentions of chromeboxes, but I can't see one for that model, and does the PS3 remote work out of the box or is there extra stuff to do?
Thanks,
it's literally the 2nd result if you google 'Chromebox wiki' -
http://kodi.wiki/view/Chromebox
OK, thanks, I have seen that guide but I dismissed it as the HP model I'm looking at was not listed there.
I'm sure openelec can be installed on all chromeboxes. It should massively outperform the atom, over 2x performance CPU wise not sure about the onboard GPU but I imagine it's also significant. I'd be a little wary of the HP chromebox vs the Asus, I did read of some noise issues compared to the asus which is an important factor for me.
I'm still looking (I'm very indecisive/picky) but so far I think i'm settling with the MSI Cubi at £99 or less barebones. It has the broadwell architecture so should run slightly cooler/quieter with a moderate improvement on CPU/GPU performance, also has ac wireless which is a nice touch. All in sub £150 with 60gb + 4gb ram and apparently runs windows flawlessly unlike the chromeboxes if you want boot options.
(2015-09-06, 01:21)PANiCnz Wrote: [ -> ] (2015-09-04, 16:35)ianuk2005 Wrote: [ -> ]Generally Kodi runs a lot worse on android than any other platform. Unless you can install openelec on that I wouldn't bother. I've not much experience with openelec but i'm told intel x86 still outperform's other's by a large degree.
There are OpenELEC builds floating around for the MXQ but they're not official. No idea what features are supported etc but new builds are out very frequently.
I'm not massively up to date on android boxes but it seem's to be in general that most devices don't receive the same amount of focus as x86. Even with excellent support they seem to be outperformed for general kodi use (non playback) by x86 devices.