Cheap NUC clones
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2013-09-04, 10:44 PM
A post on the xbmc forums linked to this interesting Celeron based PC http://www.aliexpress.com/store/group/In...18487.html Apparently it is better than an Atom so for some it might make a good basic Windows client. It is interesting to me since it does highlight the "Windows tax", you double the price just for Win 7/8 and the required the 64GB SSD.
Martin
2013-09-05, 04:22 PM
Interesting boxes! And certainly far less expensive than the official Intel NUC's.
Did they really label the power switch on the front as SWITCH?  Sometimes made-in-China stuff makes me laugh. 
i3-3570k, 8GB RAM, Win10 Pro, Nvidia GT710, HDHomeRun (OTA), NPVR 6.x
On a clear disk, you can seek forever...
2013-09-05, 04:33 PM
The trouble with Celeron devices is its far from clear if the "Intel HD Graphics" support H264 hardware acceleration. Some people complain that it doesn’t but others say it does! The more powerful "i" series Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors definitely support Hardware Video Acceleration I think through the "Clear Video HD technology" but the bottom of the range Celeron processors do not support this feature.
It is also odd that INTEL don’t seem to recognise the C1037U processor used in some of the cheaper boxes and the only references Google finds seem to be related to these devices!
2013-09-05, 04:51 PM
Clearly it is not going to be the best NextPVR client you can buy The Gigabyte Brix is probably the cheapest i3 NUC but it is twice the price, and I wouldn't buy one because I expect Haswell's are just around the corner.
I found the CPU here http://ark.intel.com/products/71995/Inte...e-1_80-GHz and here's one on a motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813176015 There are some comments on it here http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=171705 and it does sound like in plays BluRay spec 1080p. The motherboard spec said 2160p Martin
2013-09-05, 07:01 PM
This isn't really so cheap. I put together a "real" system with parts off of Amazon:
Celeron G540 $42, MB $50, Case + PS $42, 4G DRAM $32, plus a hard drive I had laying around, $166. Don't need HW accel as the CPU is way powerful enough.
2013-09-05, 10:02 PM
I wasn't talking cheap, there are plenty of good $120-150 refurb PC with Win7 locally that could work, but I am talking extenders that are small, nearly silent, have wifi and that run cool.
Martin
2013-09-05, 10:38 PM
mvallevand Wrote:I wasn't talking cheap, there are plenty of good $120-150 refurb PC with Win7 locally that could work, but I am talking extenders that are small, nearly silent, have wifi and that run cool.And hopefully, don't involve fiddling about with decoders, filters, etc... Alex
2013-09-06, 12:12 AM
(This post was last modified: 2013-09-06, 12:24 AM by ga_mueller.)
I would certainly snap up an npvr/xbmc capable, used, mini-itx form factor, low power PC, running Win7 for $120, in an instant... I wish we had deals like that in Silicon Valley!
2013-09-06, 12:42 AM
ga_mueller Wrote:I would certainly snap up an npvr/xbmc capable, used, mini-itx form factor, low power PC, running Win7 for $120, in an instant... I wish we had deals like that in Silicon Valley!I really like playing about with new kit as much as anyone, but for what I call the 'infrastructure TVs' in the lounge, kitchen and bedroom (AKA - the ones used by Mrs ACTCMS), I need an extender which is as reliable and simple to maintain as Martin's mvpmcx2 running on my NMTs. Alex
2013-09-06, 12:59 AM
I guess its simple vs flexibility. I'm now watching a replay of the Murray/Wawrinka match on said system, streaming HD via the xbmc ESPN addon (video coming from the ESPN3 website). I'm willing to put up with some codec fiddling for this result... YMMV.
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