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Gigabyte Brix looks like a winner
Has anyone compared the Asus Chromebox i3 against the NUC or Brix...I think the Chromebox is the hands down winner, it's fanless and an i3 with 4GB of RAM and 16GB SSD HD for about $399...
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Chromebox is the winner, but not because the i3 is $399, because the celeron chromebox (which is a full haswell chip, not an atom) is $169, if you can find one.
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Honestly though...is that good enough? I have a pi and an old zotac and I wonder if there isn't enough grunt sometimes.
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Oh yes, even the new atoms (the NUC 2820) are more than fast enough for XBMC-- they are much faster than the old atom in your zotac and downright ridiculously faster than the piddling SoC in the rpi. You can think of the new atoms as being roughly equivalent to mobile core2duos from 2009ish.

The haswell celeron in the chromebox is much faster than that. It has enough power to transcode video or run other servers in the background. The chromebox is an outstanding value.

People tend to overbuy on their HTPCs. You don't need an i3.
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Sold. Thanks!!
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Cool, be sure to read the wiki page-- even if you use openELEC, you need to open up the chromebox and remove a screw and run some commands first.

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=ASUS_Chromebox
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Legend. Thanks!!
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I bought an asus chromebox, it is awesome for $179. It is now my platform of choice. Please note, fix the quick boot flag settings before installing replacement OS, otherwise you need to restore chrome OS to fix boot needs.

Update: Here is a link to my guide, almost a carbon copy of the wiki, but specifically made for replacing chrome OS

http://geekfreely.blogspot.com/2014/04/o...mebox.html
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I can't get resume from USB device to work on my brix. Anyone here that has it working?

It sleeps fine, but it doesn't wake when I press keys on for example a USB keyboard. Only the power button on the brix itself can wake it up. I have tried with both Ubuntu and OpenELEC.

I have GB-XM12-3227 (rev. 1.0).
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(2014-04-21, 23:08)rodalpho Wrote: Chromebox is the winner, but not because the i3 is $399, because the celeron chromebox (which is a full haswell chip, not an atom) is $169, if you can find one.

The currently cheapest model of the gigabyte brix uses the same celeron processor. Buying this + a 16gb msata ssd and 4gb of ram lands you roughly on the same price (In my configuration it was 175) Although I went with a more expensive 120gb msata. Both are great buys just a mather of preference for the casing.

I do strongly agree on people overbuying on their HTPC. I had an overclocked 1ghz pi streaming 1080 directly from the web and when I asked htpc advice on a gaming forum people told me I needed atleast an i3/i5 to stream HD from a networked disc!! It's crazy. Just bought this one so I can also use it as a file server and other things while watching content.
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(2014-09-04, 19:23)edujackass Wrote: The currently cheapest model of the gigabyte brix uses the same celeron processor.
Uh... The HP or Asus Chromebox has a Celeron 2955U (Haswell) and has 2GB of RAM and a 16GB SSD and costs $150-160. The Gigabyte Brix with the same CPU is $180 and has no RAM or SSD. The cheapest Brix has a Celeron N2807 (Bay Trail-M) and has no SSD or RAM and costs ~$125.
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I'm really hoping that Gigabyte are going to put out a FX-7600P based BRIX, hopefully costing around the same as the i3.
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(2014-09-04, 21:04)Stereodude Wrote:
(2014-09-04, 19:23)edujackass Wrote: The currently cheapest model of the gigabyte brix uses the same celeron processor.
Uh... The HP or Asus Chromebox has a Celeron 2955U (Haswell) and has 2GB of RAM and a 16GB SSD and costs $150-160. The Gigabyte Brix with the same CPU is $180 and has no RAM or SSD. The cheapest Brix has a Celeron N2807 (Bay Trail-M) and has no SSD or RAM and costs ~$125.

Ah, here the cheapest is the 2955u haswell. for 129 euros.
Image
add a 24 euros msata 16gb ssd
http://i.imgur.com/UuEaDnY.png
and a 2gb ram stick for 19
http://i.imgur.com/OxUoE25.png
And you have a 2955u SFF haswell mediacentre with almost identical specs as the chromebox for 172 euros.
(chromebox is priced a lot more expensive here btw :| )
asus chromebox is 199 or more:
http://i.imgur.com/QizEdtw.png
HP chromebox is 189 or more:
http://i.imgur.com/bv2LtNs.png

i did manage to find the cheaper brix btw, took me some searching as it was not displayed among the other models
http://i.imgur.com/4hRAjoW.png
115 euros for that big thing.

however, if you do live in europe check the prices on the gigabyte 2955u. Chances are it's cheaper than the chromebox.
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Where can I find the Broadwell model for sale in the US, because I haven't been able to find it on Amazon, or Newegg yet.
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