Smallest PC to run XBMC

bledd · 15 Dec 2014 at 14:38

Audigex said:
The spec is much better, but it's also significantly more expensive and, when it comes down to it, still only plays the same videos.

~£60

Once you get all the bits for a Pi, the price difference is marginal..

ZXSpectrum · 15 Dec 2014 at 14:50

And after using both Its like night and day. The menus are nice and fluid even when using Aeon Nox, skipping forward and back doesn't cause the system to lock or stutter as it cant transcode quick enough.

bledd · 15 Dec 2014 at 15:26

^I was referring to the Cubix unit..

chippy08 · 15 Dec 2014 at 15:47

ZXSpectrum said:
Not as cheap but the cheapest Intel Nuc will do the job better than most and also be more versatile. They can run Windows/Linux/Android.

Are you a worker from the old shop on babington lane ?

ZXSpectrum · 16 Dec 2014 at 13:41

Nah I used to run Futureworld at the Cavendish

chippy08 · 17 Dec 2014 at 11:01

ZXSpectrum said:
Nah I used to run Futureworld at the Cavendish

Paul Lol

ZXSpectrum · 17 Dec 2014 at 11:11

Scary..

Who are ya then?

Glaucus · 17 Dec 2014 at 12:12

Good god people still recommending rPis they are terrible, underpowered and adding all the extras aren't exactly cheap.
When you can buy androind or windows pc on a stick for £30-80, which are a thousand times more powerful and flexible. Especially the atom ones which run windows.
Just look at the thread 5 posts down.

Marsman · 17 Dec 2014 at 13:06

bledd. said:
Solidrun, they make a unit called cubix.

Spec is far better than the pi and has a case and psu with it. Openelec 5 has full support for it.

I own a Pi and really want the Cubix. Better in every way.

I think you meant to put Cubox. Cubix brings up some kids toy thing.

Does look good, but it's only available in US, from what I can see. You've got to add shipping and possible customs charges which will bump up the cost. A good buy if you avoid those pesky customs officers.

meandu229 · 23 Dec 2014 at 09:20

Just found this. £63 looks perfect.
http://www.dx.com/p/guleek-i8-quad-...m_medium=albums&utm_campaign=20141223guleeki8

champ222 · 23 Dec 2014 at 13:19

ZXSpectrum said:
You can pick up the Celeron nuc for £120 and a 2gb stick of DDR3 SODIMM can be found for a fiver. You can run the OS From a USB Key.

This!

I have the raspberry pi with openelec in the bedroom and the nuc with openelec in the living room.

both are excellent value, but the NUC is the better option. I ran mine off a usb stick at first, then I put in a 2.5" SSD. to be honest, its only marginally quicker with the SSD, USB stick is fine, and is how I would do it in future.

ZXSpectrum · 24 Dec 2014 at 08:43

I found that the SSD helps a lot if you are using a theme that has a lot of elements like Aeon Nox. Makes the whole experience smoother especially the movie posters/cover art/flow.

Deep · 30 Dec 2014 at 00:48

I bought a Celeron NUC just last week.

100% would buy again, it plays 1080p uncompressed blu rays with ease.

I bought the unit, 4gb ram and a 16gb USB (which runs Open Elec). It cost around £150.
Seriously just get this and you won't need to buy anything else for years!

ZXSpectrum · 30 Dec 2014 at 13:00

Are you running openelec or windows?

GeX · 30 Dec 2014 at 14:04

Bam said:
NUC is £300, Pi is £35.

I'm interested to know in what way it wipes the floor, as I'm looking for a similar spec myself.

Cheers

Yes the Pi will run XBMC, but it's not a quick or pleasant thing to use. I have a (now quite old) AMD E350 based Zotac Zbox on the back of my TV that I use for XBMC. It is *much* smoother to use, much quicker and doesn't make me want to throw the remote at the screen like it does when running on the Pi.

The only cool thing that the pi does that my full x86 doesn't do is CEC control. But I use a Logitech Harmony remote and have an IR receiver on the PC anyway.

Craig321 · 30 Dec 2014 at 14:19

Jony27 said:
Thought about a Raspberry Pi?

This. Pi with OpenElec on it. Works perfectly with CEC / Viera Link as well so no need for another remote.

meandu229 · 5 Jan 2015 at 10:25

Cancelled my order for the meego stick in favour of
http://www.geekbuying.com/item/PIPO...l-3736F-1-8GHz-Quad-Core---Silver-339668.html

For £65~it comes with full windows 8.1 with bing, 4x USB 2.0 , 100mbps Ethernet, 32gb rom, 2gb Ram and even has a years office 365 personal subscription which I may sell to bring down the price as I already have a subscription. Super low power and looks tiny so will be great as an always on xbmc device.

neocon · 5 Jan 2015 at 13:32

Exactly how powerful is a baytrail cpu in the PIPO compared to a Celeron in a NUC?

When playing back a 1080p mkv/mp4 on the Celeron NUC, does it get maxed out?

ZXSpectrum · 5 Jan 2015 at 14:03

Be aware though that i would have thought that the sound chips on the baytrail would be just standard sound but may not be able to output DTS, DTS-HD/Master, THX etc etc.

meandu229 · 5 Jan 2015 at 14:37

neocon said:
Exactly how powerful is a baytrail cpu in the PIPO compared to a Celeron in a NUC?

When playing back a 1080p mkv/mp4 on the Celeron NUC, does it get maxed out?

Just running big buck bunny 1080p MP4 clip on my DVP8 which has a similar chipset and its hovering around 35% useage in windows media player so should have plenty of power spare. It doesnt ever force it to put boost on cpu so its staying around 1.3ghz instead of the 1.8ghz boost aswell. Total CPU usage is holding around 50-60 with background tasks.