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The Asus EEBox EB1037 and XBMC/Plex

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Heh, it's like they're reading my mind, I was thnking on building my own with this Celeron processor since they announced cheap BGA mobos with it. Now they're doing the job for me.
 
I imagine these sort of devices are the future for a lot of businesses. This hardware is more than capable enough to handle most office tasks imo. Which is great because It'd mean I'd see less of those awkwardly mounted laptops.
 
FloatingDivider said:
I imagine these sort of devices are the future for a lot of businesses. This hardware is more than capable enough to handle most office tasks imo. Which is great because It'd mean I'd see less of those awkwardly mounted laptops.
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You know a laptop and mini pc's are for different purposes. I don't see myself bringing this to conferences and to my home and office.
 
FloatingDivider said:
I imagine these sort of devices are the future for a lot of businesses. This hardware is more than capable enough to handle most office tasks imo. Which is great because It'd mean I'd see less of those awkwardly mounted laptops.
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It does seem pretty suitable as a general office machine.

I still wonder about it for my use though. With plex it would be fine as the server does the trancoding, but with xbmc the client does all that plus a heavy interface/skin all adds up. I don't know if this processor would be enough.

I also wonder, given the form factor, whether RAM is user upgradable.
 
I use an Intel NUC as an XBMC device myself. It's just as small, and pretty damned powerful. About the same price as the device in the OP too. These types of computers are definitely going to catch on in the future. There's no reason to have a massive desktop tower if you're using your computer for browsing, email, music, movies, etc.
 
harSon said:
I use an Intel NUC as an XBMC device myself. It's just as small, and pretty damned powerful. About the same price as the device in the OP too. These types of computers are definitely going to catch on in the future. There's no reason to have a massive desktop tower if you're using your computer for browsing, email, music, movies, etc.
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How is that? all I ever heard about those is overheating issue.
 
I've been thinking about a HTPC/16-bit emulation device for awhile now. I don't see a price on this page, though. Right now I've been thinking about an Ouya actually, as I don't really know of any other devices that can run XBMC and emulators for around $100.
 
TheBryanJZX90 said:
I've been thinking about a HTPC/16-bit emulation device for awhile now. I don't see a price on this page, though. Right now I've been thinking about an Ouya actually, as I don't really know of any other devices that can run XBMC and emulators for around $100.
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I found the ouya way too sluggish. Had the same issue with my second gen AppleTV. So something like this seems to be my only option if I want something more than a plain DLNA client on a xbox or playstation. Unless MS lives up to the promise with the one and we see plex/xbmc apps for the one. Certainly that would sell me on a xbone immediately.
 
Quasar said:
I found the ouya way too sluggish. Had the same issue with my second gen AppleTV. So something like this seems to be my only option if I want something more than a plain DLNA client on a xbox or playstation. Unless MS lives up to the promise with the one and we see plex/xbmc apps for the one. Certainly that would sell me on a xbone immediately.
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I was worried about that. Most of the reviews of the Ouya focused on the small amount of games released for the platform, not the actual video and emulation features I was interested in. And any time it comes up in a gaming thread there are way too many people that feel the need to chime in with "Ouya lol" such that actual opinions from people that have used it get drowned out. So, is it sluggish in the interface? Playback? Both? Does it struggle with 1080p content in general? Only specific file types or codecs?
 
Looks very nice. Nice replacement or successor to the Arctic MC001.
I presume it will do support HD-Audio decoding on the nVidia GPU too?
 
TheBryanJZX90 said:
I was worried about that. Most of the reviews of the Ouya focused on the small amount of games released for the platform, not the actual video and emulation features I was interested in. And any time it comes up in a gaming thread there are way too many people that feel the need to chime in with "Ouya lol" such that actual opinions from people that have used it get drowned out. So, is it sluggish in the interface? Playback? Both? Does it struggle with 1080p content in general? Only specific file types or codecs?
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Sluggish in the interface.

Playback worked, though there was some weirdness about what filetypes needed to be transcoded from what I recall. I think I did see it occasionally choke with BluRay rips (I guess it was during peaks).

Overall I was not happy with it, but then I purely bought it to use with plex and was hoping it would work as flawlessly as the plex client does on my iPad (3rd Gen).
 
I've been keeping an eye out for something like this to potentially replace my Boxee Box. My requirements have been:

  • Very quiet (fanless would be ideal)
  • Fairly cheap ($400 max, preferably $200-$300)
  • Can run Linux + XBMC with full HD audio bitstreaming support

If the driver support is there for the last one, this looks good.
 
Quasar said:
How is that? all I ever heard about those is overheating issue.
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It's pretty awesome. I know they had earlier overheating issues, but were able to solve it with a thermal pad in newer models and a BIOS update. There's also alternative cases you can buy like http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=437 which are much more efficient at cooling the NUC. It's got Windows 8 and an SSD, so it boots up in like 7-8 seconds, and it's powerful enough to run anything I've thrown at it thus far. I got the Celeron model, so it probably can't run 4k or anything, but anything else is gravy. I'm sure the i3 or i5's would fare better if you needed 4k for whatever reason.

It's been a godsend though. Was absolutely getting destroyed by electricity costs. I had two of these work statations (http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12849_na/12849_na.pdf) that were given to me by my dad. One was being used as a PC/HTPC and the other a server, and the things cost about $20-40 each per month to run depending on how much I ran them - which was often. I've switched to an Intel NUC as an HTPC and a Raspberry Pi w/ external HD's attached as a small footprint NAS and the difference is pretty damned noteworthy.
 
nullref said:
I've been keeping an eye out for something like this to potentially replace my Boxee Box. My requirements have been:

  • Very quiet (fanless would be ideal)
  • Fairly cheap ($400 max, preferably $200-$300)
  • Can run Linux + XBMC with full HD audio bitstreaming support

If the driver support is there for the last one, this looks good.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I guess Linux drivers might be an issue with this a new gpu and all. I didn't even know XBMC Linux supported HD audio, I thought that was still limited to the windows version.
 
harSon said:
It's pretty awesome. I know they had earlier overheating issues, but were able to solve it with a thermal pad in newer models and a BIOS update. There's also alternative cases you can buy like http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=437 which are much more efficient at cooling the NUC. It's got Windows 8 and an SSD, so it boots up in like 7-8 seconds, and it's powerful enough to run anything I've thrown at it thus far. I got the Celeron model, so it probably can't run 4k or anything, but anything else is gravy. I'm sure the i3 or i5's would fare better if you needed 4k for whatever reason.

It's been a godsend though. Was absolutely getting destroyed by electricity costs. I had two of these work statations (http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12849_na/12849_na.pdf) that were given to me by my dad. One was being used as a PC/HTPC and the other a server, and the things cost about $20-40 each per month to run depending on how much I ran them - which was often. I've switched to an Intel NUC as an HTPC and a Raspberry Pi w/ external HD's attached as a small footprint NAS and the difference is pretty damned noteworthy.
Click to expand...

That's good to hear. So this that seems like another option. How does it handle HD audio?
 
Awaiting reviews on this unit.

Need a small factor for HTPC only. Intels newest Baytrail unit seems to have alot of issues. Passing on that for the moment.

Asus one looks interesting. Using Nvidia for Hardware Acceleration Video is a plus.
 
Rabid Wolverine said:
Awaiting reviews on this unit.

Need a small factor for HTPC only. Intels newest Baytrail unit seems to have alot of issues. Passing on that for the moment.

Asus one looks interesting. Using Nvidia for Hardware Acceleration Video is a plus.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Are there any specialist HTPC sites that do reviews of stuff like this? Or are we stuck with just generalist sites?
 
The i3 Intel Nuc is on sell at overstock for $168: http://www.overstock.com/Electronic...85850&SID=ZyP3wI3bEeO5abrDV8mQ4w0_8AGx3_0_0_0 and Newegg for $179: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...02001&ef_id=UuaHxgAAAT9i1hUF:20140204203648:s

It's usually $250+, for example, it's $267.99 at Amazon right now: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0093LINVK/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Be aware that Intel NUC's are sold as barebones units. You have to add Ram and an MSATA SSD HD to get it up and running. Also, this unit has no ethernet, so a wireless USB or internal wireless card will have to be added as well.
 
Too bad that's not the Haswell variant. Waiting for the 4250U version to drop in price. 350 or less and I'm in.
 
Tablo said:
Too bad that's not the Haswell variant. Waiting for the 4250U version to drop in price. 350 or less and I'm in.
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Is it really needed though? Hell, I have the Celeron NUC and it can run 1080p, HD Audio, 1080P 3D, etc. with relative ease. It doesn't get too hot either. What would be the benefit of a Haswell chip? I'm generally curious, cause I'm out of loop with technology in general.

dIEHARD said:
Chromebrook with decent hardware starting at $179. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7735/...well-in-a-nuclike-form-factor-starting-at-179

Just put a useful OS on it and it would be a great deal.
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I'd be down, but for my needs, I really need Windows. Linux can run XBMC, but I'm also launching Netflix through Windows Media Center, the Hulu application and the DirecTV2PC application. I wish I could go the Linux route because it's infinitely cheaper.
 
At this price point (~350), why not just buy a cheap laptop? Plenty to choose from with similar spec but with a monitor and k/m. Unless those slim box computers drop down to 100-150 level, I don't see their appeals over laptops.
 
I think if you want to run a media center, why not a nice NAS with Plex? You can get transcoding and storage in one box.
 
AlexMogil said:
I think if you want to run a media center, why not a nice NAS with Plex? You can get transcoding and storage in one box.
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I'm using a Raspberry Pi with External Hard Drives attached as a NAS/Media Server. Not the most elegant solution, but it works.
 
dIEHARD said:
Chromebrook with decent hardware starting at $179. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7735/...well-in-a-nuclike-form-factor-starting-at-179

Just put a useful OS on it and it would be a great deal.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this looks very appealing (cheap + fanless), and I'd be surprised if it's impossible to get another OS on it.

luoapp said:
At this price point (~350), why not just buy a cheap laptop? Plenty to choose from with similar spec but with a monitor and k/m. Unless those slim box computers drop down to 100-150 level, I don't see their appeals over laptops.
Click to expand...

It seems pretty clear from this thread that most people are interested in them as HTPCs.
 
luoapp said:
Only that's not the case. You can find laptop with very similar or identical cpu and still in the same price range.
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The fact that it's a laptop is worth nothing to me if it's too cheap and crappy for me to ever bother using it as such. :) I'm also not sure I'd trust the cooling in a cheap laptop to be designed for always-on closed operation, but maybe that's a baseless suspicion.

But sure, for some people, you probably have a valid point.
 
luoapp said:
Only that's not the case. You can find laptop with very similar or identical cpu and still in the same price range.
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I'm going to have to agree with the other person. As someone who already has a laptop, and is just looking for a dedicated HTPC, there's no point in getting a laptop considering I will never be using it as such. I'd rather just go with the form factor of a NUC like PC, considering that in this particular scenario, an impressively small form factor is something beneficial to me, while laptop capabilities are not.
 
nullref said:
The fact that it's a laptop is worth nothing to me if it's too cheap and crappy for me to ever bother using it as such. :) I'm also not sure I'd trust the cooling in a cheap laptop to be designed for always-on closed operation, but maybe that's a baseless suspicion.
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For one thing, having a monitor and k/m ready when you need troubleshooting is very, very convenient.
 
luoapp said:
ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable
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Lol.

We're using the damned thing as an HTPC. It's hooked up to a television. I have one of these laying around as well: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005DKZTMG/?tag=neogaf0e-20

In the off chance that I can't SSH into it, then I'll just use the damned television screen as a monitor. If you're unable to access the device over your network then it's either a driver issue, a hardware failure or there's something up with your local network/router. But this is getting ridiculous now. You're coming up with off-beat scenarios at this point.
 
nullref said:
No thanks. I'd rather the cost of the screen, battery, etc. go into hardware I'll actually use.
Click to expand...

And I want something quiet.

Though its an interesting idea. I have an old MacBook here that I guess I could use that for. Though I'm not sure I could run it with the lid shut or what damage that would do due to the heat hitting the screen.
 
AlexMogil said:
Is that thing strong enough to transcode? Or does it just serve up the files?
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I doubt it's enough to transcode, but I'm not entirely sure. The HTPCs that are pulling media from it are XBMC machines, so there's no transcoding going on since there's native support.
 
harSon said:
I doubt it's enough to transcode, but I'm not entirely sure. The HTPCs that are pulling media from it are XBMC machines, so there's no transcoding going on since there's native support.
Click to expand...

Or in the case of Plex, the server does all the transcoding and spits the correct format out to the device. Though with it running windows/linux there's unlikely to be codec holes like there is with consumer media devices.
 
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