NUC recommendations

[IndyColtsFan]

I'm looking at purchasing a Silicondust HDHomeRun Prime and a cable card and hopefully at some point in the future, eliminating cable boxes and DVRs by replacing them with media center NUCs.

Has anyone done something similar and if so, what would be the best NUC model to use for this usage case? I'm hoping one of the cheaper i3 NUCs would be adequate for this usage and if at all possible, I'd like to keep the cost down to under $400 for the NUC, RAM, and mSATA SSD. For recording purposes, I would likely have network volume connected to the NUC via iSCSI.

Also for the sake of argument, let's say I'm replacing 1 DVR and 1 cable box. Let's say I just want to have 1 NUC perform the DVR function and the other NUC would function just as a cable box. Is there a recommended lower-spec (and cheaper) NUC that would work for just this functionality as well?

Also, Windows 7 MCE vs. Windows 8 MCE -- is Windows 7 MCE preferable?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Hmm, this NUC is on sale today:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._6lV04_SkS_0_0

Thoughts? Could you also stream 1080P video to this guy? I'm guessing it is adequate for encoding/decoding video, right?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Should work fine.

 

[JWade]

if you have a touchscreen I recommend windows 8, if no touch screen then I would go windows 7. tried using windows 7 on our kitchen computer (recipes and music box) and prefer windows 8 for it because of the touch screen for it. now the htpc in the living room, windows 7 is a lot nicer because the TV is not touch screen.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Do these NUCs support installing memory 1 DIMM at a time? I'm guessing yes but haven't been able to confirm it. I'd like to buy a single 8 GB DIMM now and upgrade later.

 

[UnklSnappy]

Do these NUCs support installing memory 1 DIMM at a time? I'm guessing yes but haven't been able to confirm it. I'd like to buy a single 8 GB DIMM now and upgrade later.

Yes they do. I have the i5 version of the one you linked to and have been very happy with it.

 

[Machupo]

If you end up getting the i5 one and tire with the noisy fan (I noticed a significant noise floor difference between my 4250 nuc and my 3217 nuc), akasa makes a passive case which allows you to have 2x 2.5" hdd's

 

[IndyColtsFan]

If you end up getting the i5 one and tire with the noisy fan (I noticed a significant noise floor difference between my 4250 nuc and my 3217 nuc), akasa makes a passive case which allows you to have 2x 2.5" hdd's

I missed the sale Amazon had for the i3 unit with the case which can accommodate the 2.5" drive. It went up $65 after the sale. At this point, I think I may go ahead and get the Silicondust HDHomerun Prime and a cablecard and experiment with mediacenter on another PC I have. Once I determine that it works to my satisfaction, I'll invest in the NUC. If I don't like the way it works, I'm just out the price of the Prime and can probably get most of that back by selling it on eBay.

 

[code65536]

A few years ago, my Windows 7 Media Center media recording/watching/streaming box was an Acer Revo with a single-core Atom 230. So... yea, a NUC--any NUC--would be way more than enough.

As for 7 vs. 8, while I prefer Windows 8 in general, it's more expensive than 7 for Media Center (you need the ProWMC edition, whereas Media Center is a standard part of Home Premium in 7), and because Microsoft didn't make any changes to Media Center between 7 and 8.

 

[Aikouka]

I'm pretty sure that Windows Media Center doesn't support recording to a network share. You can record to the local drive, and transfer it afterward. You could also get the bigger model and add a 1.5TB HDD (I don't believe the 2TB model will fit height-wise).

I use two Haswell i3 NUCs for HTPCs, and they work fine. Although, I don't do any recording with them as that's handled by my larger, passively-cooled, i3-3225-based HTPC.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I'm pretty sure that Windows Media Center doesn't support recording to a network share. You can record to the local drive, and transfer it afterward. You could also get the bigger model and add a 1.5TB HDD (I don't believe the 2TB model will fit height-wise).

iSCSI isn't the same as a network share. The operating system sees the drive as a local drive and not a network drive. I'm assuming (perhaps incorrectly) that WMC could not tell the difference.

I use two Haswell i3 NUCs for HTPCs, and they work fine. Although, I don't do any recording with them as that's handled by my larger, passively-cooled, i3-3225-based HTPC.

I won't implement anything larger than a NUC. I'm an HTPCer from the old days and finally gave my HTPC up 2 or 3 years ago and instead, focused on a large backend server with small, cheap devices (Rokus) as the players at each PC. The NUCs are small and pretty unobtrusive (aka, they would have a high WAF -- Wife Acceptance Factor) so if my tests are successful, I think I can make a case to get rid of our cable boxes and DVR and replace them with NUCs. I'm really wondering how the $150 Celeron NUC would perform as simply a cable box replacement with no DVR functionality.

A few years ago, my Windows 7 Media Center media recording/watching/streaming box was an Acer Revo with a single-core Atom 230. So... yea, a NUC--any NUC--would be way more than enough.

As for 7 vs. 8, while I prefer Windows 8 in general, it's more expensive than 7 for Media Center (you need the ProWMC edition, whereas Media Center is a standard part of Home Premium in 7), and because Microsoft didn't make any changes to Media Center between 7 and 8.

Good info. Thanks.