What do you guys recommend? I have the Kindle Fire/Fire TV bundle and I'm not happy with it at all. I have until August 11 to return it for a full refund. I was looking for something to replace the Fire TV with. My budget is $249-$299 USD. Looking around I found two items that look like they fit the bill. 1) The Asus VivoPC-VM40B-02. I love the size of it's HD, love the fact that it's full Windows, love the 4GB of RAM (upgradable to 16). The only downside is the CPU/GPU. I read they are a little underpowered. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._re=PPSSAKEQMCVZXJ-_-83-220-628-_-Product#top 2) The Asus Chromebox-M004U. It has the newer CPU/GPU. But I have everything else about it. The size of the SSD is only 16GBs. It only has 2GBs of RAM (upgradeable to 8?). It's running ChromeOS and you can't put Windows on it, the best you can do is a Linux distro (meaning no Windows only games like Hearthstone). http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=83-220-572 I want this thing for movie viewing and EXTREMELY light gaming. By EXTREMELY light gaming, I mean the only things that will be played on it (if they can be) are things like Hearthstone and Minecraft. What to do? As of now, I'm leaning heavily toward the Asus VivoPC. It's only downside is the slightly slower CPU/GPU (as compared to the Chromebox). It's also 70 dollars more expensive than the Chromebox (249 vs 179). Do you guys know of any better devices that do what I want it to do and fit my budget?
What about either of these Zotac ZBOX nano: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883218035 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883218043 The Intel version is probably better even for graphics.
Interesting suggestions but unless I'm reading their descriptions wrong, neither of them come with a HD, RAM or an OS?
Oops must have missed that. If you cannot increase your budget, maybe you can get a used PC from eBay or similar.
I found this : http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-Thin...1132797368?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item2ed472edb8 It seems to be a nettop/mini pc like the Asus'. The CPU seems to be much more powerful (according to passmark score) but the "GPU" seems horrific (Intel HD 2500).
Is important to be that small, because if I were you I would build something with a HTPC case like Cooler Master 110/120/130.
Yeah it has to fit in a little area currently occupied by the Fire TV. I went ahead and ordered that one from my Ebay link. Yeah the "GPU" is a little underpowered, but everything else was awesome for the price. I got it for $210. Thanks to WSFuser for that advice Now I have another question. I can get Windows 8.1 dirt cheap because of a student discount thing, how would I go about installing it on this mini pc? There's no cd/dvd rom drive.
If you have the ISO file for Windows, you can use the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool to make bootable USB drive. If you don't but have the product key, then first follow these instructions for downloading the ISO.