HTPC Spec - any comments?

[aspirins]

Hi guys,

A friend is looking into getting a relatively cheap HTPC set-up to run media center for the lounge. He was looking at the Dell Zino HD - any good? I suggested a similar/better pc could be built for a similar price. Price mark is around £300..

I'm not a fan of the ion's ive tried in the past so i just scanned the small motherboard/cases on the website and have the below.. i know ive not added memory yet. Any good? Assume this will play HD stuff fine. If you can come up with cheaper, thats good for me! Storage will be elsewhere so only added small hdd.

Zotac H55-ITX WiFi Intel H55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Mini-ITX Motherboard £108.99

Intel Core i3 530 2.93GHz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £82.24

In-Win BM639 Mini-ITX Case - Black (120W PSU) £50.98

Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD3200AAKS) £38.99

OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.98

Thanks

 

[aspirins]

I bought an ASRock ion330, and it just seemed really sluggish.

Maybe I was doing something wrong. What would you suggest?

 

[aspirins]

Are these ion computers capable of playing flash yet?

 

[aspirins]

The atom motherboards, do they play flash?

This needs to be able to play iplayer, youtube, itvplayer etc. The OS will be Windows 7, he already has this so doesnt come into the cost.

 

[aspirins]

Ok, so whats the thoughts on this? Comes in at around £250

Zotac IONITX-F-E, NVIDIA ION, Intel Atom N330, DDR2 667/800

Inwin BP655, Mini-ITX Case, Black, with 200W PSU

2GB Corsair XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18

500GB Samsung Spinpoint F3

Thanks for your help.

 

[aspirins]

anyone able to comment before i buy it?