Spec Rating... (HTPC)

[McDaniel]

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor E4500 Dual Core Technology 2.2 GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800 MHz FSB

2GB DDR2 memory

500GB Hard Disk

NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600GS graphics card with HDMI connection

As the basics?

 

[BillytheImpaler]

That is more than enough for most people. You could save a fair bit if you went with a mobo with integrated graphics and HDMI out.

 

[Furton]

I would go with an ATi card, either a 3450 or 3650. What motherboard are you using?

 

[BillytheImpaler]

this is my recommendation:

It has more than enough grunt to play back Blu-Ray and 1080p files with aggressive codecs like H.264 and AAC. The integrated GPU will even perform some nice hardware acceleration for you.

 

[Lanz]

I would say that's overspecced, you could buy cheaper stuff and get identical performance with media playback. Like he said ^ or if you really wish to stay with Intel:
e.g
E2160 for the cpu.
ATI 3450 for GPU

 

[McDaniel]

Only reason i asked is cos that PC was going very very cheap at a compeitor this week and thought i might pick it up as a HTPC