[Mydriaze]

I have 2 Celeron 2820 and 1 i3 4010 and both models are capable of everything you say. The Celeron perhaps a bit more sluggish navigating menus whilst a library update is running in the background etc but still very reasonable overall and a fair bit cheaper. In all 3 of my NUCs im running 4GB RAM and SSD and Windows 8.1 so I cant directly give you feedback on OpenElec. In my configuration they are extremely quick to boot and resume/sleep, and they also play anything I throw at them so far, though I don't have a wide range of demanding video files I have to admit. I would say go with your budget - if you can afford to get the i3 do it, otherwise the Celeron is still very good and significantly cheaper.

Well, this is my first message, I hope you'll understand cause i'm not english fluent.
I'm looking to quickly buy a NUC. 2820 has good reviews everywhere, but perhaps lack of power for what I want to do: emulators and XBMC.

I'm looking of course to use XBMC on the NUC, but I would like to do some retrogaming. Currently, i'm using Hyperspin, with 16bits and 8 bits system and Arcade system (mame, Sega genesis, super nintendo etc...).
I have some heavy Bluray rip: 25 or 50 go m2TS file. Does the 2820 handle this without any stutter? My WDTV live currently stutter is I try to play this heavy file...
the i3 Nuc is twice the price of the 2820, so I don't know exactly what to do... any advice or feedback is welcome!