Which Compute Stick should you buy? Best Practices?

We get a lot of questions about the Compute Sticks from our clients, so here's a quick summary of our Best Practices: 

1. Make sure you get the original Intel Compute Stick - we see users asking shops for Compute Sticks and instead of the Intel one the shops will sell you whatever clone they might have in stock. The clones might work just fine, but some don't have autostart on power-loss for example. So our recommendation is that you get the original Intel one, there's little reason to by any of the others.
2. You probably should make sure you get the 2016 version and not the 2015 one - and also make sure it has Windows, not Android as the model names vary only slightly. The exact model number you're looking for is model number you're looking for is STK1AW32SC. The 2016 version has a slightly quicker processor, 14nm vs 22nm chip AND dual USB ports which is handy when connecting a mouse and keyboard. However, if you get a good deal on the 2015 versions, they still do the job nicely though. So get the 2015's if you really want to save as much as possible, but the 2016 is usually worth the extra cost.  
3. It's usually a smart thing to buy a 16GB MicroSD memory card (less than $10!) and insert it in the stick before you ship it. These sticks come with only 32 GB storage (limitation for free Windows license set by Microsoft), and an extra 16GBs will help a lot with future Windows updates etc if you download a lot of content on the device. Could save you a lot of hassle a couple of months/years up the road.