The Awesome Intel NUC - get one!

My review of the Intel NUC ( Next Unit of Computing ) system I recently purchased. Just for background purposes, I did try really hard to make the latest version of Raspberry Pi with licensed codecs work for this; it was close to making the cut but just fell short.  I loaded XBMC on the Pi which worked great as long as you're streaming compressed content i.e. m4v ( I started down the Apple route first and I'm quite happy with sticking with m4v ).  The Pi falls apart once I switched over to live or recordings of MPEG 2 HD stuff. After more searching, I finally found the Intel NUC on Amazon; was thinking oh how nice it would be to have an i3 system but the price quickly steered me away and started looking at the cheaper models. Since this systems was mostly going to be for a front end system for MythTV which runs on my home server and holds all my TV recordings and ripped movies I've purchased was going for the cheapest possible way. OK, enough blabbing....

Prereq's:

• Wired Ethernet
• Compact and quiet
• Netflix ( don't care how )

Disclaimer:   I only run *nix on my home computers as the main OS.

I am currently running Ubuntu 13.10 64-bit ( will most likely go with 14.04 LTS when released ) on this system with the SSD drive listed below; for the first three weeks I was testing out with a 8 GB USB stick which did work but not ideal due to response time. XMBC and MythTV settings for audio need to be adjusted to 5.1 / 7.1 depending on your setup.  I am running through a Yamaha NS-SP1800BL receiver and although the OS mixer only shows a single pcm channel and no speaker information, the end result sound is correct.  I had issues with the X server not even giving me a useable signal on my projector with 12.04 LTS and after upgrading to 13.10 X did require some tweaking for overscan but all is good now. I am looking forward to Intel releasing some other variants and these would make great firewall/IDS systems if there were multiple NIC's.

Here is my parts list ( sorry.. I love Amazon and also a Prime member ):

Intel NUC - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B7I8HZ4
SSD Drive - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DY5C74K
Memory -  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005NU47XI/
Power cord - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000AOWXO 

Optional:
Remote -  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00224ZDFY
Keyboard/Mouse -  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004T0QLLO/
Bluetooth Adapter ( iPazzPort adapter blows ) - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004LNXO28

What is great about the system:

• First off, the power connection is the best I've seen on any system. You have to give quite a tug on the power cord for removal.
• 3 year warranty.
• Can't beat the price.
• Plays anything I've thrown at it including OTA 720P via the SiliconDust HDHomeRun.
• MythTV frontend and XBMC both run flawless.
• Netflix is possible via the Linux pipelight which is essentially running Silverlight via WINE. 
• The system is very compact and has a nice solid feel.
• Have yet to hear a fan and yet the system, by touch, has only felt a medium warmth.

My gripes:

• You have to purchase the wall to power brick cord!  come on Intel give a coupon at least but after you open the box you'll understand why the power cord is not included.