Right, I'm just speccing up a HTPC for someone and although I have built machines in the past, they have always been built for gamers so I am not sure of what sort of components will perform best.
My first choice is between the Intel PentiumD 930 (2x3.0GHz cores) or the AMD64 3500+. Is dual core (and increadably hot) intel proc likely to offer smoother and better video playback/recording over the generally faster (and cheaper) single cored athlon, or should I stick with AMD?
Next, is 1GB RAM about right?