Can a years old 8th gen Intel CPU keep up with the latest 12th gen options? Surprisingly yes so long as you don't plan on running anything graphics intensive. Its retail price of under $300 USD is hard to pass up for many HTPC setups.https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i5-8260U-debut-BMAX-B5-Pro-G7H8-mini-PC-review.668208.0.html
Allen,
I greatly appreciated this review and just ordered the BMAX on Amazon (incl. tax ~$300). This is the perfect replacement for my ancient desktop. During the day it will be a working machine and at night I will schedule transcode with TDARR (Quicksync HEVC), which I currently run on one of my servers via NVENC. I am even considering hosting plex on it, due to no transcode limitations on Quicksync (vs 3 on NVENC).
I was considering for quite a while to upgrade one of my servers and/or get a Mac Mini. This is a more cost effective solution.
@DaDude How much are do they pay you for promoting their terrible products?