...Now, I did try and run a PVR off one of these boxes and it choked...
That's the point. If you try to do anything at all on these boxes they choke. I like to have a little headroom on any system I buy because, sooner or later, something will come up, and the system won't be able to handle it.
For instance, our display units started out pretty static, throw up a few slides and run through them. All of a sudden somebody wants video. The Atom based eebox could not handle even simple video decoding. Need to remote in to look at something? Forget it. The Atom has nothing left in the tank. for processing.
Things change over time and the demand for processing power just keeps going up. It has ever since my first computer way back in the early '80s.
