Suggest me a box

[ruicosta]

Hi guys! My first post here, first of all let me start by telling you that I am thrilled to find this forum. Awesome info can be picked up here, thanks.

I have ordered a box for myself - MX III G from Gearbest for $60 and it will be shipped in 7-15 days.

Impatient as I am, I'd like to order another one from EU warehouse and play around with it until my main one gets here. One that I am looking for now will go to my mother's place then.

She will use it for streaming FHD movies from home server and she will use Kodi and Popcorn time to stream movies directly from internet. That is probably it, no gaming or surfing whatsoever.

I'm looking for a cheaper (yet capable) box that would do all that stuff. As I have read, S805 chipset should suffice.

My main concern is whether 1gb of ram will be enough or should I just skip the impatient thing and order one more MX III G?

So far, I've narrowed it down to these:

http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box/pp_183121.html?wid=3

http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_191834.html?wid=3

http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box/pp_94470.html?wid=3

Thanks a lot in advance

[mcque]

I would recommend th Minix Neo X8-H Plus great box and has everything you need, but you want cheaper and its for your moms place, get an Amazon Fire TV Stick, has everything you would be talking about and it is easy to use and they only run $40, just a thought.

[ruicosta]

Thanks for the input. I forgot to mention that wifi isn't quite stable at my mum's place and I'd prefer to have an ethernet port, which sticks do not have.

[RISCy Dude]

There are threads covering the three boxes you listed and the box you bought already, so you can get an idea about their quality/performance before you buy again. Some have OpenELEC running on their S805 devices.
An impatient nature can get you bit in the TV Box world. Please have a look at the first four posts in this thread.
FYI Geekbuying is selling the MXV for $29.99 for a few more hours. Gearbest ran that box on sale for $29.99 too, but their sale ended already.
Keep in mind that Amlogic has released two new SoCs, the S905 and the S912, so prices on S805, S802 and S812 may come down a bit, but that is just speculation.
Good hunting.
BTW From what I have read, steer clear of the all black MXQ. If you go with an MXQ, make sure it has the red stripe.

[ruicosta]

Thanks a lot for the tip. Box looks pretty decent for the price. I'll browse around for some reviews and probably go ahead and order one. Although, maybe I'll take one from gearbest as they have it in EU warehouse (still waitng for their response wheter they ship to Croatia from there)

[ultimatexbmc]

M8S - enough said for the price

[ruicosta]

M8S with S802 chipset? or S812? Sorry, I got confused among all these devices

[Lurker]

I would just go with the 1GB MXIII-G as you suggested above - S812, Lollipop, Gigabit ethernet. It should handle Kodi and PopcornTime a lot better than the S805 machines.

http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_202595.html

[itsmeedoofer]

Hi,

I've just got one of these:-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00OQ35BPG?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

The stock firmware was PANTS but I stuck, this on

http://freaktab.com/forum/tv-player-support/amlogic-based-tv-players/beelink-aml-devices-s82-m8-round-mxiii-etc/508127-rom-remix-115k4

and it transformed it into a decent little player....

[ruicosta]

I would just go with the 1GB MXIII-G as you suggested above - S812, Lollipop, Gigabit ethernet. It should handle Kodi and PopcornTime a lot better than the S805 machines.

http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_202595.html

Thank mate, looks like I'll go with this one. Or should I just get another 2gb ram edition, does it make a difference and justifies extra $10?

[mo123]

Thank mate, looks like I'll go with this one. Or should I just get another 2gb ram edition, does it make a difference and justifies extra $10?

Better to get 2GB RAM.
Can use it for caching videos in Kodi or running more apps.

[bluesmanuk]

Better to get 2GB RAM.
Can use it for caching videos in Kodi or running more apps.

+1

[Lurker]

@ruicosta: As mentioned 2GB Ram will improve performance in some situations. It depends on how much you are willing to spend.

I would strongly recommend that you also purchase an air mouse or air mouse/mini keyboard combination as this will improve the user experience dramatically. The bundled IR can be slow and frustrating to use in certain apps like Netflix, Hulu etc. I would personally choose an AF106 air mouse as it works extremely well, is nicely balanced and very reasonably priced. There are several other technical reasons I can go into if you are interested in this option.

http://www.gearbest.com/mice-keyboards/pp_152937.html