The Intel NUC has been around for a while and considered as one of the best kit to build an HTPC. Before models with Brasswell and Sky Lake chipsets however, I always considered it as a big investment because you would need to grab one with i3, i5, or i7 processors to be sure it would be able to handle all media formats. Plus you probably need to make some additional spending on Windows 8/10 for the operating system.

That perception have now changed with the HEVC hardware accelerated encoding support in the newer chipset generations. Plus the release of Plex Media Player* last year with Embedded Platform app.