Upgrade from Raspberry Pi to better hardware?

northpole · October 9, 2016 at 7:02 AM

TL;DR
What hardware/board do you guys recommend to upgrade from RPi?

I have been running XBMC/Kodi on RPi for pretty long. Used openelec initially and now thankfully got to install LibreElec and happy with it!
Have fiddled with my RPis for years, though the foundation is releasing new boards regularly, now I want to move to a better hardware. It's fun to tinker around this, I want a stable hardware.

**Klojum** · October 9, 2016 at 8:47 AM Official Post

Quote from northpole

I want a stable hardware.

Yes, don't we all?

Stable better hardware? What is your definition of 'better'? What are your other wishes in terms of video and audio? 4K, Dolby-ATMOS? And what is your financial budget?

**escalade** · October 9, 2016 at 1:03 PM

I recommend Intel hardware, it just runs circles around ARM hardware when it comes to Kodi performance and Linux support in general. I've had an i5 NUC for the last three years and it's still my main HTPC. I find other uses for it as well, like Plex with transcoding, emulator gaming (even runs some Wii/Gamecube games good), playing Youtube/Netflix with a browser etc.

johnmerrill · October 9, 2016 at 2:47 PM

Asus Chromebox is great. MrChromebox.tech

northpole · October 11, 2016 at 8:25 AM

Thanks @Klojum.
RPi has been great, but I don't want to continue to use uSD cards and all other tiny issues. mSata storage, optical audio, 4K, (netflix, may be), little faster CPU/mem? There's never a hardware that fits our needs and budget right? So my 'better features' and 'budget' are not rigid.

@escalade right, a HTPC is always better. But am still wary of running a full blown PC for home theater.

@johnmerrill, ASUS chromebox is good, but no less than a HTPC.

Cubox sounds good, but I don't see any further development. Any similar hardware?

silashack · October 11, 2016 at 12:49 PM

I agree with escalade I have a few boxes, but for the best results I use the NUC's, the others I see as 'testers' and not finished, and although the NUC is expensive, I feel it does the job I need it to.

trent · October 11, 2016 at 6:11 PM

I would look at an Intel NUC personally, although maybe wait for the new Apollo Lake ones which (I believe) have HEVC Main 10 decoding.