build a better mac mini - Page 2

You would set that up in your settings. Most likely in the OS and playback software. I have a reciever that predates HDMI and HD audio. I told windows to use a digital audio drivers which handles sounds for in the OS and web videos through a browser. Had to tell Media Center and Plex the kind of audio setup I had.

Transcoding can be intensive, but unless you're doing video, your most likely fine if it's just the audio. And you're probably fine even with the video unless it's a really high bit rate video and HD audio. I've played full 1080p HD audio MKV rips from MakeMKV ok; some buffer at the beginning of the movie, but played fine the rest of the time, at least through Plex. I found it improved when I told Plex to play through HDMI, yet I have no HDMI audio nor does the late 2009 mini even have the hardware to support HDMI audio. I think it's just playing the core 5.1 DD or DTS track.

Straight from Intel. Their next NUC product is going to be an Ivy Bridge Celeron unit and that comes out in the next few months. A Haswell NUC will come after the Haswell release in the Summer, most likely in the Fall.

would the celeron be worse then current Ivy bridge i3 they are using now?

I would say yes since it is a Celeron and not a full-blown CPU like the one in the current NUCs, but they have not released any specs for it, so we do not know what the exact CPU is or what connectivity options the Celeron NUC has in comparison to the first two NUC models. Since it is a Celeron-based NUC, I'm thinking it will have a single HDMI, 3 USB 2.0 ports, Gig Ethernet, and perhaps a single memory slot. It's probably just the cheapest NUC they could come up with.

Looks like Velocity Micro is about to launch their customized Intel NUC product line at CES. The one and only picture released so far shows a Velocity Micro-branded Intel-based NUC product that looks exactly like the black Intel NUC with two HDMI outputs that we've already seen, so I would wager that's exactly what it is, only they obviously put it together with parts you select and install Windows on it for you with a VM logo on the front.
Edited by LexInVA - 1/3/13 at 9:27pm

So far everything I have read about the NUC is great, and it is playing everything back.

i5 NUC coming soon. Straight from the mouth of Intel.

where did you read that about the i5 NUC

From Intel PR. i5 NUC is definitely a game-changer, especially if it's quad-core.

Gigabyte is showing off a NUC prototype at CES that can take i5 or i7 and it has more airflow than the Intel reference design. It also has USB 3.0 instead of 2.0. Dual HDMI, Ethernet, and WiFi are all unchanged from Intel's reference design. Should ship in April.

hmm.... Looks like I am playing the waiting game. Price will Determine what I get. I don't need overkill.

Frankly, I'm hoping for a quad-core Haswell NUC with the GT3 graphics. Anandtech just put up an article about Intel's GT3 demo at CES and it looks like a potent leap forward for Intel.