[ikecomp]

Hi all,

I've recently purchased a Dn2820 and am not very happy with the unit. Xbmc menu navigation is quite sluggish, and not all 1080p files play without issue (jerking, tearing, slowdown, etc). I've unloaded it onto a family member that doesn't go past 720p, so that's ok.

I'm now considering an i3 D34010WYK with a 30gb msata drive + 2gb ram to run openelec, possibly i5.

1. Will this play all 1080p (12-15gb files) without issue?
2. What is menu navigation and general xbmc usage like? I'm currently running xbmc on a quad core i7 Mac mini, and it is smoother than butter - I love it.
3. Can the i3 handle heavy skins with ease, or is there noticeable slowness of any sort? I'm pretty picky about this stuff.

The other option is the i5 which i believe will be fine, and run xbmc interface with heavy skins (ala aeOn nox ). . I have no interest in 4k video at this time.

i3 or i5 ultimately. What do you guys think?

I currently have the i3 using windows 8.1 and an 80 GB mechanical drive (I have the i3 with the additional space for a 2.5" drive). I'm able to play the 120 megabit jellyfish bitrate test files without issue so you should be fine. There one issue that pretty much all nucs share is hardware decoding of VC-1 based files. However, I have a rule setup play files of this type in Media Player Classic and they play fine their.

Cheers,
bc.

I currently have the i3 using windows 8.1 and an 80 GB mechanical drive (I have the i3 with the additional space for a 2.5" drive). I'm able to play the 120 megabit jellyfish bitrate test files without issue so you should be fine. There is one issue that pretty much all nucs share which is hardware decoding of VC-1 based files. These will have to be played using software decoding. Menu navigation should also be fine on i3 especially using openelec since it's not a resource intensive OS.