HTPC

I agree.

You'll need a good deal more cash to account for a Bluray drive and freeview/freesat cards - especially if you want the ability to view and record multiple channels at the same time.

For the BR drive and a couple of suitable cards you'll be batting around £80 - £100 for starters. Add a reasonable spec PC to that with sufficient storage capacity and processing ability to cope with HD content and you'll be looking at £130-150 for board, cpu, ram and hdd(s). If you want a GPU it may be a touch more.

Not sure about cases... if you're ok with a standard case then it's quite affordable but HTPC's tend to cost a bit more. That said, OCUK's Aphrodite Media case (with PSU as well!) is quite nicely priced: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-020-OP&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=505

gt
 
I do have a few spare components lying around.
1gb ddr2 800mhz
8800gts 512mb
spare socket 775 motherboard

Zotac ZBOX ION2 Intel Atom Mini PC < what about this?
 
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That's a very good start then. Is the mobo ATX or MATX?

Only need a chip, hdd, BR drive, tv cards and a case (with PSU).

If you can get some of those components 2nd hand then you'd almost certainly do it within budget. :)

gt

EDIT: The Zotac's probably pretty good - i've used their older Series 1 ION based MAG system in the past. Probably the only limitation might be that BBC iplayer's hardware acceleration doesn't seem to function (it did used to for a while?!?) at the moment so some SD and most HD stuff may stutter. This may of course be rectified by the BBC in the future but i've not seen any mention of it on the site.
 
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Yeah, still plenty of choices both on the board and case front in that respect.

TBH if you found a reasonable ATX case it may well be worth sticking with the 775 board you already have to save some cash.

Where will the system be going? Is there space for a full ATX case.

gt
 
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