Since I became able to stream on-line video, I have been working to improve the quality I can get. My RBI download speed is now up to at least 25 Mbps and it often reaches 50 Mbps. My main streaming computer is a Pipo X7, which caused me a lot of grief in the beginning but now usually works fairly well since I added heat sinks and a fan to it.
I want to replace the Pipo though. It just isn’t up to the job with only 2 GB of RAM and the fan I had to add is noisy. HD video is also sometimes choppy and blocky.
I think the cpu just can’t process it fast enough, even though it is quad-core.
Budget is a big problem for me. I just can’t afford the computer I would like to have, such as a NUC. I see a number of Chinese i5 mini-PCs on Aliexpress for around $400 or so with RAM and SSD. I could just manage that but naturally I wonder about the quality of these boxes. I also have no idea how any of the i5 processors would actually compare in practice to the Pipo’s Atom Baytrail, though I would hope for and expect a major improvement.
Can anyone help me with this? I can’t really afford to experiment so I need some certainty that one of these computers would actually be a step up. Here is a link to one I am considering, with 4 GB of RAM and the i5 5250U processor bundle:
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Fanless-i5-Mini-PC-Windows-Barebone-PC-Broadwell-Intell-Core-i5-5200U-2-7GHz-4K-HTPC/217312_32366202925.html?spm=2114.10010108.100007.7.BZdaiE