[mythtv-users] Intel NUC?

[Nick Rout]

On Sun, Mar 24, 2013 at 6:10 PM, Christopher Kerr <mythtv at theseekerr.com> wrote:
> 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.

There are positive reports for the NUC in the xbmc forums, but then
again I have found that some people there have lower expectations than
us myth users - and ofte they are gearing for "ripped" video as
opposed to recorded TV with the need for deinterlacing.