[mythtv-users] Intel NUC?

[Christopher Kerr]

On Sun, Mar 24, 2013 at 2:17 PM, Matt Emmott <memmott at gmail.com> wrote:
> So, Intel has what they call a NUC, which stands for "Next Unit of
> Computing", a SFF machine stripped of all legacy parts and sold as a
> barebones PC. The latest one comes in two models, both of which appear to be
> i3 Ivy Bridges, one having Ethernet and the other a Thunderbolt Port. I
> first read about them in an Engadget article at
> http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/23/intel-nuc-review/
>
> It seemed interesting... For $299 plus some parts, you end up with a decent
> little frontend. But, I searched NewEgg for NUC and found what appears to be
> the older model at
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102004. It's the
> same form factor and similar features as the Ethernet model, but instead of
> an i3 it has an "Intel Celeron 847 1.1GHZ", and it's almost half the price
> at $165 plus shipping.
>
> At that price, one could maybe have a full 1080p FE for under $300 (or under
> $200 with one 2GB SO-DIMM and net-boot). The problem is, I can't find any
> information on what sort of video chipset (or SOC or whatever) this older
> model has. Does anybody have any experience with this Celeron SOC and what
> other video bits it supports and more importantly, if it would be a good FE?

Celeron 847 is a very cut-down Sandy Bridge based part designed to be
embedded on mini-ITX motherboards like an Atom.

As such, it's got a cut down graphics core based on Intel's HD
Graphics 2000, but with very low clockspeeds.

I have no idea if the video decoding bits needed for VDA are left
alone - http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/intel_847_nm70_review,7.html
seems to suggest that it might be doing decoding in hardware, since
CPU utilisation is pretty low and it's not a fast chip, but that's the
only test I can find for it.

The video encoding features are definitely fused off in the Pentium
and Celeron processors, but I don't think the same is true of the
decoding - I've got an Ivy based Pentium next to me at the moment, and
it will play back HD H.264 content with 1-4% CPU usage.

- Chris