I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

[superboyac]

to point out some of the curiosity and convfusion...

there's this intel nuc available for around $300, with an  i3-5010U cpu.
there's an alibaba for around the same price (it seems, hard to tell) with a i5 4258u cpu.

this site says the i5 chip is more powerful:
http://cpuboss.com/c...-Intel-Core-i3-5010U

on both, it appears you have to add the ram and/or drives yourself, fine.  the alibaba one is fanless, the intel one is not.  so these are some of the factors.  to me, i'm leaning towards alibaba...i mean, i'm very curious if their device can deliver a great performance htpc while silent. 

[wraith808]

well, it just seems like you get more bang for the buck with the alibaba options.  the NUC seem to be ok...but the alibaba items sure seem to pack a lot of power in a small, fanless unit for pretty cheap.  I'm actually a little curious how they are.  but ultimately, i'm having a hard time comparing the specs and prices of these things.  the cpus are so confusing.

-superboyac (July 31, 2015, 03:31 PM)

Not an alibaba, but my foxconn seemed the same way- to pack punch into a small package.  The power supply was where the problem was, however.  And now it won't boot at all.

[superboyac]

well, it just seems like you get more bang for the buck with the alibaba options.  the NUC seem to be ok...but the alibaba items sure seem to pack a lot of power in a small, fanless unit for pretty cheap.  I'm actually a little curious how they are.  but ultimately, i'm having a hard time comparing the specs and prices of these things.  the cpus are so confusing.

-superboyac (July 31, 2015, 03:31 PM)

Not an alibaba, but my foxconn seemed the same way- to pack punch into a small package.  The power supply was where the problem was, however.  And now it won't boot at all.

-wraith808 (July 31, 2015, 04:36 PM)

hmm...yes, that generally is the risk from these alibaba things.  the quality is going to be a gamble sometimes.  out of about 5 things I've gotten from them, one of them lasted (still there) a very long time...one was basically out of service within a month...and one was good, and then i left it plugged in for a long time while on (like a week) and then it stopped working.
so yea, there s that gamble.  not sure where i stand on it!  lol.  i've never bought anything quite this expensive or "serious".