[voip-ninja]

why did you get an i3 instead of an i5? I want to buy another nuc, what is the i5 getting me if i do not use the nuc for anything except watching movies (full bitrate blu-ray disc rips) and live tv in WMC?

I got an i3 because I wanted a pure XBMC box that is only for watching tv/movies so that's all I needed. I have other PC/servers for things like gaming, torrents, sickbeard, video editing, TV backend, a NAS for file storage etc. I have one i3 and 2 celeron NUCs and all of them do a good job. I dont see any reason to pay more on a more powerful i5 when that power is not required for the tasks you need it for

Is the motherboard the same, except for the two cpus? I need it to do the following (which the i5 already does):

Turn on the nuc from s5 state from both WOL and ir command.
Bitstream hd audio and 24p (but you all already confirmed it does this)
Have a msata and sata port (i want to put a large hdd in the sata port to use as a dvr)

So between the two, the specs are identical except the cpu?

The SATA port is on the motherboard, not sure how you would break it out of the chassis since there is no power provided for running a full size HD... you'd probably have an easier time using a USB 3 enclosure and plugging it into the NUC that way.

Yes, otherwise, as far as I know they are identical aside from the CPU.

i5 is overkill for an XBMC box... not sure though if the i5 CPU would provide some kind of benefit for handling interlaced content that you record from a cable tuner.

Again, NUC is not expandable really.. beyond a couple of USB ports. You put in your RAM and your MSATA (or if you get the Celeron based NUC your 2.5" SSD) and you turn it on.