I've been out of the game for sometime now. Need some recommendation for a mini PC that'll be attached to a 30" TV set for watching movies and soap operas (not by me). Requirements:
1. has to perform well at 1080p so I'd prefer at least an i3
2. has to be able to house a single 2.5in SATA disk (don't want to buy mSATA drives with several disks laying around)
3. USB 3.0 would be nice
4. good wifi setup
5. proper hdmi connector
6. runs W7 well
7. ideally under $350 as a barebone (have disk and RAM already)
I've been looking at a few machines: NUC was out because of the idiotic mini-HDMI port. I also think newer models don't have 2.5in drive capability anymore, right? Gigabyte Brix has lousy wifi on some models but that's addressable. But the mSATA-only was a deal killer. Zbox was out because people kept complaining in reviews about lag on cheaper models.
Right now I'm leaning towards a used 2011-vintage Mac Mini. OS X is absolutely redundant here and I'm a little reluctant to buy a 3 year old system so I'm still very open to suggestions. Thanks.