I should be getting a nice overtime payment at the end of this week, so I've decided to finally take the plunge and build myself the HTPC I've been promising myself for the last year.
I've been reading around for a while now, but I've never actually built a system myself, so would appreciate any comments on the proposed spec below (budget around the £500 quid mark).
Main purpose is solely as a media centre type thing.
Ability to play some games would be nice, but I don't expect a fantastic gaming rig.
Case: Silverstone SST-LC11
Looks quite good, it's smallish, without being too teeny tiny inside, and seems relatively quiet.
Motherboard: MSI K8MM-V (s754)
The case is quite limiting, as it need a micro ATX board, with the graphics card and PCI sockets to be in exactly the right place. Hopefully this should do the job?
CPU: AMD Sempron 2800+ S754 64bit
Hopefully should give a good power to cash ratio. Should be more than adequate for most of the things likely to be thrown at it.
AGP: Sapphire Radeon 9600 AGP x8 128MB
Again mainly chosen on weighing up performance against cash outlay. Also no space for a double height card, and this has passive cooling to mimise noise.
Memory: Corsair Value Select 2x512MB PC3200
Hard Drive: 200Gb Western Digital WD2000JD Caviar SE (7200rpm,8MB) - SATA
Anyone know what the noise output is like on these?
TV card: 2x Compro VideoMate DVB-T200
No-one seems to do a card with twin DVB-T tuners on it. In the intrests of keeping costs down, this is the cheapest I could find which supports Microsoft BDA drivers (so software compatability shouldn't be an issue), plus each also comes with a remote control, so I'll have a spare.
DVD: LiteOn SHW-1635S-05C DVD±RW 16x16x Black + S/W
Software: MediaPortal / GB-PVR
Not sure which of these I prefer, probably give them both a spin and see which works best.
Wireless: MSI US54G USB2 54Mbps Wireless Adaptor
Those TV cards gobbled up all the PCI slots
Keyboard / Mouse: Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 110/EN 110key USB PS2
Throw in a copy of XP SP2 home and by my reckoning you're looking at about £525.
Now can anyone tell me if I've made any stupid mistakes?
Is any of this kit going to incompatible?
Also I've kind of reached the ceiling of my budget here, so I'd rather you didn't suggest more expensive kit without a damn good reason (although I'm sure none of you would do that).
More cash = more overtime + more nagging from the girlfriend
Thanks