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Are these good systems for a HTPC?

D

Dave3000

Golden Member
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-ins...&skuId=5859005

http://www.frys.com/product/7974830?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

I'm considering buying a pre-built system to use as a HTPC with Kodi (former XBMC) installed. I need a system powerful enough to play my blu-ray 1080p MKV uncompressed rips with lossless audio without dropping frames. It also must be quiet and not bulky. I'm leaning towards the 2nd option because it's smaller and I think it will fit on the bottom shelf of my TV stand while with the 1st option it would not fit on the bottom shelf and I would have to place it next to my tower speaker and I don't feel comfortable placing a PC next to a tower speaker (magnetic fields destroying data on hard drives).
 
The first one is about as big as some of the larger Silverstone HTPC cases. Although, I prefer SSDs in my HTPCs to expedite any boot-ups, etc.
 
Why not a chromebox? If your goal is ONLY to run Kodi, you'd be crazy to consider anything else.
 
under $500 is true; you can do it for $350 depending on what you want. Heck if you shop around for a nuc i3 (on sale) the total cost will be around $400 (ram+ssd). The chromebox is not bad - I have one with 4GB running linux; it does have its limit (slow processor) but the config I have made the whole thing cost around $230. Also it has full size hdmi/display port and sd slot (unlike the nuc that require mini-hdmi/display and no sd slot).
 
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