MBT on Intel Celeron NUC

[whitestrat13 33]

I have been using an old Xbox360 with MBC for a while, and it just red ringed and bit the dust.  I'm thinking about a small/cost effective build to run MBT.  Has anyone tried running MBT on one of Intel's Next Unit of Computing (NUC) devices?  The one I was thinking about was the Celeron model (http://tinyurl.com/lz8cwkt).  It is a little weak on CPU but it is listed as having a pretty powerful integrated gpu.  For a machine that would cost less than $300 and is the size of an apple TV, I'd love for this to be sufficient.  I'm planning to run Windows 8 or 8.1.  If this won't work, I'll probably go the roku route instead.

[Lee 210]

I'd say it would be absolutely fine. I have a previous gen celeron in my bedroom mini itx and it plays media content flawlessly.

 

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[Deihmos 154]

It is more than sufficient. My bedroom pc is a zotak with a Celeron processor from 2 years ago. I can play everything.

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

Weakness could be the wireless networking. Depends on the content being streamed.

[Lee 210]

The bay trail nuc is due soon and reportedly very cheap. Might be worth waiting.... If u can!

 

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[Lee 210]

@ that one has gigabit lan

 

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[MrFlibbles 21]

Thanks for the heads up on the bay trail NUC - that looks pretty sweet.

[whitestrat13 33]

I'd be using wired anyway.  I have gigabit available.  I might just have to go for it.  I can performance tune Win 8 if I have to to make it even lighter.  I'm just so impressed with the current build of MBT that I really want it in my living room.  Great Job everyone who has been working so hard!!!

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

@ that one has gigabit lan Sent by my HTC8X using Tapatalk

Ahhh didn't see that. Should have scrolled down more.

[trooper11 63]

I've been eyeing an NUC build for a while, but the price has kept me from just pulling the trigger.   Its a nice device though.

[bennymac 47]

Same here...We have a couple at work - they're a snappy little box. We have an i5 haswell version (D54250WYK) coming in next week. I hear they are making a larger case version, so you can fit an actual 2.5" drive in them.

 

[trooper11 63]

 

Same here...We have a couple at work - they're a snappy little box. We have an i5 haswell version (D54250WYK) coming in next week. I hear they are making a larger case version, so you can fit an actual 2.5" drive in them.

 

 

 

 

Oh really?  Hmm, I might be interested in a larger version.  Not too big though.  Big enough to allow for a little more expansion such as more ram slots on the board or even enough room for a tuner card  (something that uses a pci-e riser so that it can maximize the space in a small case)

 

Antec makes a couple of very nice small form factor cases for mini-itx boards that are maybe twice the size of the NUC case, but can accommodate a 2.5" drive.  I've actually used one for an htpc build and its great.  It's also a much cheaper build since I can use off the shelf parts unlike the NUC. 

[bennymac 47]

Yeh. I don't mind some of the aftermarket nuc cases and i'd consider one if they refresh them for the newer nuc models. I'm particularly interested on the D54250WYK nuc as it has a built-in ir receiver which will work with the media center remotes. I'm wanting to replace my 7+ yr old media center pc has it's getting buggy. I've be gravitating towards the nuc's for a while but i've not 100% sure yet.

 

But yes the nuc's aren't cheap and for the same money you can do a lot more...oh the decisions...arrhhhh!!

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

I've seen a few of the NUCs with mSATA connections. The newer ones all seem to have the IR receivers. Like this one here:

http://smile.amazon.com/Intel-D34010WYK-DisplayPort-i3-4010U-Consumer/dp/B00F3F381A/

 

Some of them are getting up there in price though. They have some models that cost more than $700.

[Lee 210]

The bay trail ones ship in the higher/larger case with a data port onboard for an ssd....

 

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[bennymac 47]

Yep. That's i3 version of the one i want. I priced the i5 haswell version one at around $700 - like you said.

 

I'm keen to see if it will double as a steam box, that way i can justify the price. It will give is a second purpose too!

Edited January 24, 2014 by bennymac

[Lee 210]

http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/311266/SYSTEMS_BAREBONE_SYSTEMS_-_INTEL/Intel/BOXDN2820FYKH0.asp

 

here it is... should hit amazon etc soon

[whitestrat13 33]

@@Lee I'm officially waiting for the 2820 nuc. Looks like a much better deal. And it has ir built in.

[Aussiedroid 56]

For what its worth, I used one of the i5 NUCs (first generation ones) with MBC for quite some time and worked well. Unit is now happily in use as my sisters media center. 

 

The Wi-Fi although listed as 'n' did have some troubles streaming some of the larger files sizes and that was with the unit only 4mtrs from the router! Not an issue playing a 30gb HD file locally though. I think this may be a little weak due to the built in antenna as part of the case and the unit I had didnt have an option to have an external antenna.

 

Also be aware that they run very hot under load and would recommend good ventilation otherwise you might start to notice the fan spinning too high all the time. They are designed to run hot as the case is a heat sink but still I found the fan noise noticable unless I had the volume up more on the TV.

[swhitmore 781]

I'm thinking of picking up one of the lower powered Celeron NUCs DN2820FYKH. Should be able to get the whole kit for around $300 in Australia. I'll be interested to see how WMC and MBT perform on it.

[Lee 210]

For what its worth, I used one of the i5 NUCs (first generation ones) with MBC for quite some time and worked well. Unit is now happily in use as my sisters media center.

 

The Wi-Fi although listed as 'n' did have some troubles streaming some of the larger files sizes and that was with the unit only 4mtrs from the router! Not an issue playing a 30gb HD file locally though. I think this may be a little weak due to the built in antenna as part of the case and the unit I had didnt have an option to have an external antenna.

 

Also be aware that they run very hot under load and would recommend good ventilation otherwise you might start to notice the fan spinning too high all the time. They are designed to run hot as the case is a heat sink but still I found the fan noise noticable unless I had the volume up more on the TV.

 

 

I'd assume the bay trail nucs won't run as hot as that cpu is going in tablets...

Should be improvements with haswell too due to architecture size reduction?

Anyway I'm skint and can't afford either!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

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[trooper11 63]

I was pretty excited to hear impressions about the new Celeron based NUCs, but it looks like there may be some bad news:

 

http://www.missingremote.com/news/2014-01-30/baytrail-dn2820fykh-no-intel-clear-video-hd-support

 

here is the intel spec page that is referenced in the post:

 

http://ark.intel.com/products/79052/Intel-Celeron-Processor-N2820-1M-Cache-up-to-2_39-GHz

 

If this is true, it kills my interest entirely.  I'm interested in the smallest box that can still play 1080p/possibly 3D content natively.  Without basic decoding support, this can't do it.

[AdrianW 1054]

 I'm interested in the smallest box that can still play 1080p/possibly 3D content natively.  Without basic decoding support, this can't do it.

 

So, what's wrong with the D54250WYK NUC? Won't that do everything you want? Although at a higher price than the celeron version.

 

I'm thinking of one of these for my next HTPC with MBC and/or MBT.

[Lee 210]

My celeron itx doesn't have this but plays hd flawlessly? Isn't this just for encoding quicker???

 

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[trooper11 63]

So, what's wrong with the D54250WYK NUC? Won't that do everything you want? Although at a higher price than the celeron version.

 

I'm thinking of one of these for my next HTPC with MBC and/or MBT.

 

There is nothing wrong with that one.  It will do everything I want and it had been the model I was considering until word of this Celeron model was released.  It would have saved me money and it would have been the cheapest option yet to build a very compact htpc. 

 

I'm just disappointed this one wont work for my needs.

 

 

 

My celeron itx doesn't have this but plays hd flawlessly? Isn't this just for encoding quicker???

 

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I think your confusing the features.

 

There are two features that are not supported by this cpu:

 

Quick Sync Video - this is the solution that leverages the gpu to make things like video encoding perform much better

 

Clear Video HD - this is the solution that leverages the gpu to handle all things related to video processing (decoding, scaling, deinterlacing)

 

Losing Quick Sync isn't a big deal to me, but losing Clear Video means that the cpu has to handle all the video processing tasks.  Its possible the system might be able to barely handle my media needs thanks to it having a dual core cpu, but I was really hoping that Intel would bring those features to this cpu since they are doing that with the Atom Baytrail cpus.