I personally think ES is a "brown bag special". Sometimes you'll get lucky and get a great overclocker. Sometimes you'll get a chip that isn't spec'd like the retail version. An example, I was reading on the Xeon X58 thread on OCN and a guy picked up an ES X5660 that showed in CPU-Z to be a 4...
I personally have been wanting a Swiftech for my main rig, but their lack of a distribution stateside make's me a little uneasy for warranty purposes. Definitely watching to see what people think of the EK Predator.
I'm on ProjectFi and just recently received my update on an unlocked Nexus 6. I believe one of the radio frequencies may have had a problem with Marshmallow. Google sent out an email acknowledging this to ProjectFi customers.
Another benefit to Kodi on the Nexus Player is that it updates automatically since it's located on the Google Play store now... Of course, Plex does this as well.
I've got a Synology NAS for media storage and 4 Nexus Players with Kodi throughout the house that I stream content to. I'm definitely partial to Kodi for myself, but setup more novice family members with Plex.
I can't confirm this but some people have reported using H.265 With a Nexus Player through Kodi. Would that be an option? I personally run my movies off a Synology NAS with 4 Nexus Players through out the house all with Kodi. I'm interested to hear how it works as well as I'm running out of...