As a general point i would say that if your budget is a factor then i wouldn't worry about a lot of the higher end boxes that cost more as most of the hardware features that drive those box prices up aren't really worth the extra money as there are still some key pieces of user space and other code to enable and take advantage of those features, people are working on them but theres no guarantee's of if and when, so those boxes are working but being done in various manners that negate the real hardware benefits of those boxes. Basically i am talking about the S912's.
I would suggest at least 2 gig of ram and 16gig flash as a starting point and let the price point dictate. You cant' go wrong with more Sram and Flash.
The S912's still are not a bad deal tho if you can find a good deal. just understand you will be waiting for the pieces that will really make the fly.
I would stay away from any of the new 2nd generation of S9xx boxes that are starting to appear. the older units are still playing catch-up so the newer 2nd gen boxes will probably be further back in the support chain.
If higher end performance is your wants then hopefully some of the others will post with actual experiences on a particular brand or model.
Also my comments are strictly based on running something like LibreELEC (linux) as you won't find Android or any remnants of it on any of the dozen or more boxes i have running here at any given point in time. Android based comments i will leave to others.
Also the newer Rockchip boxes appear to have a real bright future and i am sure theres some here that can make a solid recommendation on which particular one. I'm currently looking at the RK3399 boxes as well.