£400 HTPC spec?

Here's a spec to start you off (way out of the loop components wise though so there may be better options around)

captured.png


Slightly over but you could probably get a more basic MB and the case is a Lian-li.

If you are getting an OS you may as well get Vista HP, the media centre in it is much better than XP, or for free stick 7 on there until it comes out?
 
you could source your case some another site but i still have my doubts about that motherboard but should be sufficient to run HD content:D

edit: Kenny and Haj where are you!!!
 
Considered using linux as the operating system? You could put the cost of XP towards better components, and since you'd almost exclusively be using a program within the OS whatever you choose, it wouldn't make much difference. Firefox in case you fancy some internet, Myth for the media centre (or one of the several others). All 100% free

Then you can get a nice video card, run it's fan on low and you're saving the CPU noise you'd get from decoding blu-ray on a cheap processor.
 
Antec NSK 2480 Desktop Case - Black/Silver (380W Earth Watts PSU)
Sony BDU-X10S Blu-Ray Reader Serial-ATA Drive - Retail
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail
Asus P5Q-EM Intel G45 Micro-ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
OCZ Platinum Revision 2 XTC 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Series (OCZ2P800R22GK)
Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM

Total : £375.75 (inc £11.75 for shipping)

This is the same spec as mine apart from I didn't get a bluray drive, and I got 2x2GB of corsair instead.
 
Back
Top Bottom