[Dougie Fresh]

Atom, Celeron and Pentium are brand names. They are not architectures. The architecture is called Silvermont. Silvermont is broken up into four families. Each family has some combination of Atom, Celeron or Pentium branded processors. Articles calling the new architecture "Atom" were using the brand name incorrectly.

This article explains which processors belong to which brand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvermont (though it too makes the "Atom" mistake).

Pentium: J2xxx, N35xx
Celeron: J1xxx, N28xx
Atom: C2xxx, E38xx, Z3xxx

At least I got something half right in this thread! :p

I think the "Atom" thing is more like how some brand names become the name for a whole class of products e.g. some people might call all soda/pop "Coke" or all acetaminophen/paracetamol "Tylenol".

[pjtpjt]

Atom, Celeron and Pentium are brand names. They are not architectures. The architecture is called Silvermont. Silvermont is broken up into four families. Each family has some combination of Atom, Celeron or Pentium branded processors. Articles calling the new architecture "Atom" were using the brand name incorrectly.

This article explains which processors belong to which brand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvermont (though it too makes the "Atom" mistake).

Pentium: J2xxx, N35xx
Celeron: J1xxx, N28xx
Atom: C2xxx, E38xx, Z3xxx

At least I got something half right in this thread! :p

I think the "Atom" thing is more like how some brand names become the name for a whole class of products e.g. some people might call all soda/pop "Coke" or all acetaminophen/paracetamol "Tylenol".

The N2820 has out-of-order execution so it starts to look like a real processor.
It's good for a lot of things, like running XBMC, it can run Portal 2 in a sensible resolution even on Linux. I've even built an OpenELEC on it. It took the whole night, but it did it.

[Jeroen]

I stand corrected! But it's all Google and I'm not a fan of the stuff!

And if you're going to run something else on it, this matters why exactly ?

[jammyb]

I stand corrected! But it's all Google and I'm not a fan of the stuff!

And if you're going to run something else on it, this matters why exactly ?

Thats very true, but As I said in an earlier post. The chromebox can't solely run XBMC. Can only dual boot. Thst can be an issue and cause problems. Read the thread I linked to. It's not a simple process to do either.

[hdmkv]

I thought Chromebox could solely run XBMC if you opted for standalone OpenELEC. I'm looking at the 'Create OpenELEC USB/SD Installer (standalone)' section here.

[juramusger]

I stand corrected! But it's all Google and I'm not a fan of the stuff!

And if you're going to run something else on it, this matters why exactly ?

Thats very true, but As I said in an earlier post. The chromebox can't solely run XBMC. Can only dual boot. Thst can be an issue and cause problems. Read the thread I linked to. It's not a simple process to do either.

The way I see it (in the linked thread as well as the wiki) there are ways to only boot a Linux of the preferred flavour on the Chromebox.
The Atom naming scheme has also been elaborated and we could learn something. Yeah!

They are both priced around the same one you add cheap ram/storage to NUC. They both run OpenElec. NUC has built in IR, but Chromebox has a real Haswell Celeron vs older Atom, and thus a better gpu which should make it more capable? Power consumption is slightly lower on the DN2820 but not significantly so.

Is there a clear winner between these two?

But still the OP and me too would like to know whether there's a "clear winner". Ease of installation does enter into the consideration, but the question as it was phrased as well as mine concerned more the hardware capabilities. On these I am still not so sure.
The 2955U seems to be considerably more potent than the N2820. I didn't find very precise infos on the iGPU, but as I understand it the Chromebox is clearly ahead in this regard too.
The question remains: by how much? And how much will it matter in a system dedicated to XBMC and maybe some duties on the side. I specifically asked for its usage as a NAS/backup server, maybe someone can share their knowledge on this.
In the Baytrail NUC thread people seem to be fairly contend with its power. But then again in the Baytrail SoC thread there is some of bashing of the very weak GPU. I know that these are slightly different processors but I'm not sure how much they really differ.

As they are very comparable in size and price I think that many people would appreciate some words concerning their relative capabilities. It is of course possible that noone owns both devices, but maybe someone can contribute some clarity just from looking at the theoretical side.

Though both are now marketed as Celerons, the Bay Trail is very much "Atom" in inheritance, whilst the 2955U (used in the Chromebox) is very much a Haswell chip (with the benefits of that)

If I had to chose I'd definitely go for the 2955U. The GPU will allow for better quality scaling and the CPU will allow for YADIF 2x de-interlacing of 1080i. The Bay Trail is stuck with lower quality scaling (because it has a lower power GPU) and Bob de-interlacing of 1080i (because the CPU isn't powerful enough)

Thank you very much! That is a helpful reply. Still hoping some others can chime in to elaborate further on this.

Thanks

[MrCrispy]

They are both x86 pc's, the only difference is NUC comes with a standard UEFI bios, Chromebox doesn't and has Coreboot instead. So it needs some workarounds but it can boot to OpenElec directly.

The Haswell Chromebox should be more powerful than the N2820, how exactly to quantify that I'm not sure. e.g. is it noticeably faster with complex skins, can it run background tasks like transcoding?

[Matt Devo]

Thats very true, but As I said in an earlier post. The chromebox can't solely run XBMC. Can only dual boot. Thst can be an issue and cause problems. Read the thread I linked to. It's not a simple process to do either.

The Asus ChromeBox can easily be a dedicated XBMC platform via OpenELEC. The process to set it up in either a dual boot or standalone setup has been greatly simplified since people started hacking on the ChromeBox, barely two months ago. It's now fairly mature and easy for most anyone who is somewhat technically inclined. It's not idiot-proof, though, and likely never will be.

Also, with any of the threads on here, especially for new hardware, you're going to find an array of experiences in getting things set up until all the kinks have been ironed out. The things you read on the first few pages are not likely to reflect the current state of affairs.

[Johnhnhn]

1.4 GHz Celeron 2955U vs Celeron N2820.

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-N2820-vs-I...eron-2955U

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/569/Int...N2820.html

Both CPU comparison sites give the edge to the N2820.

[cheaterguy]

1.4 GHz Celeron 2955U vs Celeron N2820.

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-N2820-vs-I...eron-2955U

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/569/Int...N2820.html

Both CPU comparison sites give the edge to the N2820.

"I was also shocked at the Passmark scores for these chips. I am doing a comparison of the Intel NUC (DN2820FYKH) and the Asus Chromebox (M004U) for use as a dedicated HTPC client (OpenELEC).

On paper, the NUC (N2820) looks like a clear winner over the Chromebox (2955U). However, the Passmark scores are 1046 for the NUC and 1543 for the Chromebox.

In addition, the N2820 is limited to DDR3L-1066 memory, while the 2955U is good all the way up to LPDDR3-1600. That alone might make a significant difference considering that systems built around these chips will likely be using the on-board graphics with shared memory. "

A comment directly from the second link.

[Johnhnhn]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/345150...rk-results

"The best way to interpret PassMark results is to ignore them. Synthetic benchmarks have a tendency to be inaccuracy... and that's on a good day. On a bad day, they are grossly incorrect.

The best way to find out how well CPUs performs against one another is to read reviews and look at the various benchmarks. Anandtech has a quick benchmark database, just select the two CPUs that you are interested in."

[cheaterguy]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/345150...rk-results

"The best way to interpret PassMark results is to ignore them. Synthetic benchmarks have a tendency to be inaccuracy... and that's on a good day. On a bad day, they are grossly incorrect.

The best way to find out how well CPUs performs against one another is to read reviews and look at the various benchmarks. Anandtech has a quick benchmark database, just select the two CPUs that you are interested in."

I stand corrected. I thought PassMark was a reputable source for benchmarks.

[Johnhnhn]

It is reputable. But so are CPU boss & CPU world. The above answer to ignore PassMark was chosen as the "best answer" on a Tom's hardware forum. (Another reliable source). I think that the point is to look at all aspects of performance-not just one (IEassMark).
At best one could say that it is still debatable as to which is the better CPU.

[ertman]

Passmark is a synthetic benchmarking tool, and like all synthetic benchmarks it has it's limitations and drawbacks. It's fine to reference and use it as a quick comparison, but its not by anymeans definitive.

[MrCrispy]

I'm confused now. I realize that synthetic benchmark scores are just that (e.g. the much beloved Antutu Android benchmarks) and don't always translate to real world performance. On the other hand. the 2955U is a newer gen (Haswell) chip. I found this post in another thread here -

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.

I found this link to compare mobile cpu's - http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Proc...436.0.html

Its still benchmarks, but the 2955U beats the 2820 handily on every test. The 2955U is being used in a lot of Chromebooks all of which have pretty good reviews. Plus it has clearly superior gpu with 10 EU's vs 4 in the 2820.