[DannyH17]

Now the only thing that I'm confused about is that many people are saying to install Openelec on the NUC which I think is a just an XBMC program but I think Im going to instal WIndows 8.1 64bit just because I'll have an open platform to work with. Also my parents and younger siblings will be using this box for their mainstream daily tasks as well. Is there a major difference between Openelec on the NUC as opposed to running windows with Kodi installed on it? Does Openelec work faster or something?

OpenElec is a cut-down Linux distro optimised for use with Kodi and includes a Kodi build it boots in to. It's designed to run as an appliance, which means it is robust, has a read only file system for much of the system (with RW areas for user storage) and is optimised for a lot of HTPC hardware (remote controls, sound cards, GPUs etc.) Usually "It just works".

Because it is a very lightweight distro, it also has very low overheads, so requires less memory and consumes less CPU than a bigger OS like Windows. So yes - it usually runs faster - or uses less CPU.

Playing back 1080i high bitrate H264 content in Kodi under Windows takes around 10% more CPU on the same PC in Windows than it does in OpenElec in a recent test I did on a Celeron 2957U platform.

Windows allows you to do more things - but also brings with it more possible interruptions like System Updates, Anti Virus Scans, other bits of software popping up to interrupt your viewing etc. With OpenElec you don't get this stuff - it's optimised for Kodi.

They are for two very different use cases. If you just want a box to run Kodi, then OpenElec is often the best choice. If you want to run Kodi but also run games, Netflix, do a bit of e-mail or word processing then Windows (or a more general Linux solution) may be better. If you need your box to do more than just Kodi, then OpenElec probably isn't the best fit for you.

(You can Web browse in the Intel x86 Kodi builds by adding an unofficial Chromium Browser add-on - though this doesn't, I believe, support Netflix and Amazon Video in-browser as it is missing the DRM components required for this?)

Oh well that makes a lot of sense when you put it that way. I can see why users with the chromeboxes that have Celeron CPUs would choose to use open elec since it uses less resources. However since the 5i5ryk has a much more beefier and powerful CPU I think Windows 8.1 would be the best choice IMO.