I just bought a Mele Quieter 2 which is fanless, has a Celeron J4125 Processor, and has a Passmark score around 3000. I'm using it as a HTPC. My principal apps are Netflix desktop, Qobuz, Amazon Prime, Vudu, and Kodi. My player is JRiver. I've been able to set up my apps to run WASAPI Exclusive to JRiver MC28. I've set up the Windows 11 sound card for 5.1 Audio, and set up video for 1080p with a 120hz refresh rate. The Mele does not support 4k or HDR 10 or Dolby Vision, which is its principal shortcoming.
All pc audio is routed to JRiver on the sound card, and two zones have been set up there: One configured for 2 channel playback, and the other one for 5.1 channel playback. Both zones have PEQ for my Ls 50's and LS 50 Metas. The 5.1 zone has a crossover to the sub, and bass management, as well as mulichannel Dirac Live room correction. It outputs 5.1 to my Octo DAC 8 via its ASIO driver. The two channel stereo zone is almost identical except it employs a freeware Linkwitz Riley software based crossover called Dephonica before sending the crossed over high/low passed signal to my 2.1 set up. Dirac Live sees this as a 2.0 set up, and corrects accordingly.
Everything seems to work fine. Picture is great (I was able to set it up to a 120 refresh rate to my LG C1), likewise the sound both for Stereo and home theater. I stream everything, and the Quieter 2 works quietly and perfectly. No stuttering, after some lip sync correction in JRiver, everything is in sync. I also run my Internet via Ethernet connection and regularly get 200 Mbps download speeds. which helps as well. I'm am supposed to be able to run Netflix in theater mode within JRiver, but i can't get it to work in Windows 11, so I've given up for the time being, but everything looks and sounds great as a desktop app.
My biggest complaint, beside no 4K or HDR/DolbyVision support, is Windows related: It incessantly pops up a blurb telling me how wonderful Windows Teams are, and urging me to get started and install the app. After going around the internet for two solid days, I've concluded there's no way to supress this random but incessant pop up. Needless to say, I'm not a Team player.
For right now, this PC is ok. I can run a 5.1 channel home theater for streaming apps. I don't want to mess with physical media anymore, so this fits even though those apps don't offer the highest quality codecs (limited to Dolby Digital Plus, no Dobly True HD for streaming!) Even so it sounds fine.
Ultimately, I might want to switch for a faster computer. I have my eye on a Mac Mini M1, because of the speed, quiet operation, and reasonable price. At this point I'm not sure what it supports: Dolby Vision to external TVs and monitors via HDMI? Don't know. I understand there isn't even a Netflix desktop app. There is a way to kludge a synthetic desktop app to run out of the dock, but will it support 5.1 multichannel and Dolby Vision/HDR 10? Again, dunno.
I am also investigating if there's is any software player which will decode the Netflix Dolby Atmos in either a Windows or an Apple OS. Yes, I know NVidia Shield, Roku, and ATV4K will all send Atmos audio via HDMI bitstream to an ATMOS certified home theater receiver. Don't want any part of that. I want to decode the Dolby Digital bitstream right on the PC (Apple or Windows), apply any PEQ, crossover, bass management right in the player software (a la Roon or JRiver), do a Dirac Live correction of the multichannel stream and send the LPCM via asio driver to my multichannel DAC. Seems like a cheaper, almost as good (maybe better in some respects) version of the Trinov or Storm processors. Just need a piece of software that decodes ATMOS and exports the sound via USB to a dac, and I can make the rest happen.