Intel Compute Stick CS125 Computer with Intel Atom x5 processor and Windows 10 (BOXSTK1AW32SC)

Note: This review is for the NEW IMPROVED 2016 Intel Compute Stick.You might want to avoid last year's model after reading their reviews.I have been using android Tablet , phones and TV Sticks for years. As an early adopter of the TV Stick hardware platform for viewing streaming media on my HDTV, I have enjoyed the evolution of the android platform as well as the frustrations of not getting all of my streaming content to display properly with android. I even like the Google Chromecast but it has difficulty with XBMC, now KODI, and connecting in a hotel. Then along comes the Microsoft Surface line of "Tablet/Convertibles" and I bought the Surface3 with Windows10. Finally I was able to run all of my favorite streaming programs and services with ease. Netfix, HULU, KODI, SMB, Nest, network streaming, Remote Desktop all work just like my desktop. I love my Surface 3!With it's minimum 2mb of RAM and 32gb of storage I was still able to easily upgrade to Win10 PRO 32bit enabling RDT and other functions not in Home version.Plugged it into my a/v receiver selected source and plugged in power. Setup started immediately and took about 10 minutes to complete registration. My desktop just like my Surface 3 desktop soon appeared (you must register with same email address with all windows devices to provide syncing). Over the next few hours it completed upgrading in the background. Best to wait for updates to complete before using.I plugged in an old USB IR receiver I had laying around into the standard 2.0 port, saving the blue 3.0 for my ext. drive. I used an old Windows Media Center remote and a Zagg Bluetooth keyboard (easy) to easily control. Most of the buttons on the WMC remote worked.When I wanted to TWEEK it to enable auto login (for TV) and other features it was easy to search web for windows 10 help for solution.I was concerned the minimum RAM and storage would limit the ICS but after 1 week of using I can say I am really happy with Intel's new version for 2016 ICS. It runs everything I try without issue. Little or no lag and after installing my usual 30 apps and win PRO upgrade I still have 14gb of the original 32gb left.I installed a 64gb SD card as drive D and put my photos and music and some movies there. I adjusted Windows to save downloads to my SD card and included my folders in D drive in the library so default programs can find them.Having come from being a Windows Fan for 30 years and having used Android exclusively for my TV for the last 4 years, I am somewhat of an expert on OS for TV. I even attended, 2 years ago, a dinner where I sat next to the Intel VP going to China to work with Rockchip, the Chinese maker of the chips in Android sticks.It took Intel a second try to make the BEST TV Stick on the Market today. If you come from Windows you will find a familiar and easy to use product to use.For what I paid ($129) you will simply get the most capable Smart TV experience available today.I highly recommend!Joe

This thing is amazing! Out of the box I had no problem at all. First before I powered it up I plugged in a GOOD Logitech USB/Keyboard combination dongle into one of the USB ports on the side... Not sure if it was the 2.0 port or 3.0 port but I don't actually care it's just a keyboard and I'm not planning on plugging anything else in. I used the little HDMI dongle to plug it into my projector mounted on my ceiling. I had to use the included dongle extension because I already had an HDMI cable plugged into HDMI1 plug on my projector and there was not enough clearance to plug this in also... if I didn't have the other HDMI in there it probably would fit and not need the extender. Once every thing was plugged in I made sure the projector was selected for HDMI2 and then plugged in the power supply. The picture came right up and listed a couple of function keys I could press to get into the bios or whatever. I just let it go and didn't press anything... after a few seconds it began to boot windows 10 with what looked like the first install screen you get with a fresh boot of windows.... "Welcome, getting things ready, etc.. whats your wifi and password, etc.." In no time at all it connected to my wifi fine and then went through the standard "we need to apply some fresh updates blah blah" I just let it go. A few minutes went by and I think an auto reboot after the updates and after a few more "first time booting your new windows question" the familiar windows 10 desktop on a PC came up. That was it... by default it uses "Edge" which I don't like but it was easy enough to turn that off and get things set back to internet explorer like I like. A few more tweaks and this was shared on my home network, had my wifi printer up and working, adode reader installed and changed over so pdf's open with it instead of the default "Edge" Played a couple videos, streamed a few tv shows from xfinity live tv viewer, Netflix, amazon prime video and everything worked perfectly and no lag. Picture looks amazing on my optoma 1080p projector.I'm sitting here writing this review using this device right now. All of this is in my living room including my wifi router which is probably about 20' from the device and my keyboard/mouse combination is maybe 15' from the device and I have NO issues with range, connectivity, signal strength from either wifi or keyboard/mouse. I have 5 bars, the max, indicated on my wifi signal strength. Why on earth I just bought a $1500 dell laptop now is beyond me. This has everything I need and want to be able to do with a PC connected to my projector and none of the bulk or wiring needed to do that with a desktop or laptop. I know there are similar micro desktops out there probably a little faster but phooey on those at double/triple/quadruple the price!For the sound right now it is coming our of my projector which has a speaker in it and works pretty good. I certainly can turn up the volume so I can clearly hear anything just as good as any tv speaker could. the sound is coming into the projector via the HDMI plug so no wires or anything just plug and play to the projector via the HDMI. Ultimately I want the sound to come out of my surround sound speaker system that all my other components plugged into my projector do. To accomplish this my projector has an "audio out" jack on it which is the 1/8 plug type. I have an extra audio wiring schema run from my stereo to the projector I am not currently using should be easy enough to use that and get the sound from the audio out on the projector back to the stereo. I just need to get a really short 1/8 stereo wire so I don't have wires hanging all over the place from my ceiling as everything is hidden with wires I already ran from the stereo to the projector.As far as overfilling the screen goes a good tv/projector like mine allow me to adjust the image size to fit just like xbox games when you first play them sometimes have you adjust the screen size to fill the screen. Also out of the box my stick computer/windows 10 text/app size was set to 150% and was "recommended" I set that to 100% percent to take full advantage of the full screen size but that displays everything to small and so I set it back to 150%. There is no reason you should have to scale this back to a smaller resolution it's all in the settings.Update: Ran the audio out of my projector to my stereo via some wires that were already in my ceiling that were not being used and now I have complete setup to stream video, etc.. it worked perfeclty. Also I've read some others said "not good for gaming" I installed STEAM on this last night and it worked and looked fantastic on my projector.