[movie78]

@movie78 - ah, yes... that probably would have been relevant info to include. ;-)

Mostly, I'm looking to upgrade from my current chromebox because it won't do 2k HEVC. I plan to run some flavor of linux. I don't currently own a 4k t.v., but it would be nice to future-proof to the extent that I could grab 4k 10-bit HEVC versions of content when it's available, and not have to re-acquire in the future. I also find a lot of anime in hi-10 (10bit h264), but my understanding is that any i3/i5 machine will be capable of decoding hi-10 in software.

Given the above, I'm pretty sure any of the kaby lake options will be fine. So I was really hoping for a summary of the reasons to choose one over another. (I've read in various places about issues like HDMI version, fan noise, space for a 2.5" drive, etc. - but nothing that gathers all the info together.)

If you are going to be Linux platform then any of the Kaby Lake and Apollo Lake hardware should work.