So, to make a long story short, since I just finished university, I've moved back home for the time being, which means I've brought with me terabytes of HD movies and TV shows on my PC. Once my father got a hold of all this over the network, he has seen the light and wants an HTPC for his LCD.
While we don't have a budget, the cheaper the better. I've put together a build with some new parts, and some old stuff sitting around here in the parts bin. The biggest question I have is could I downgrade a bit on the processor? Will the E5200 play 720/1080p files? Other than that I think it's pretty solid.
Case:
Nmedia HTPC-1000B
Board:
Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L
CPU:
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400
HSF:
Scythe Shuriken 3 Heatpipe Low Profile
Ram: 4 Gigs of Corsair XMS DDR2 800
Video:
ASUS Radeon HD 4670 512MB
PSU: Silverstone Element 500W
I've already got the RAM, and the PSU is coming out of my current rig, as I'm upgrading that at the same time. I realize I probably could save some money going with an AMD build, but I have zero experience with AMD, and everything else here is Intel, so to keep things consistent I'm going to shy away from AMD for now.
I've got my shopping cart all ready to go and price matched at NCIX, but I'll wait until tomorrow before pulling the trigger. Just in case I missed something, or someone here has a better idea.
Cheers!
