mcinroy.org

I’ve decided that to pair with my 32″ Hannspree HD TV I would build myself a HTPC.

The PC has a few requirements:

• Must be able to play all formats(mkv, avi, mpeg, wmv etc…) at at least 720p, or 1080i.
• Be able to upscale DVDs.
• Near silent operation.
• Look good next to my TV.
• Complete for less than £400 for hardware, £100 for extra accessories.
• Connect to my HDTV as the primary display.
• Allow for upgrades such as TV Tuner, BlueRay Drive or PCI-Express Graphics Card as required.

To be able to provide these requirements for such a small budget the PC will not be a powerhouse, but will provide at least the minimum specification for these requirements.

The hardware I have chosen is:

• Case: Antec Fusion V2 Black, 430w PSU (£113)
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H (£45)
• CPU: AMD Athlon 64 5000+ Black Edition, 2.6GHz (£65)
• CPU Heatsink/Fan: Scythe Mini Ninja (£28)
• RAM: 2GB Corsair TwinX DDR2 PC2-6400 (800Mhz), 4-4-4-12 (£38)
• HDD 1: 80GBMaxtor IDE (£0) //Have lying around
• HDD 2: 500 GB SATA2 Samsung Spinpoint (£61)
• DVD-RW: Pioneer 10 (£0) // Have lying around
• WIFI Card: Asus WL-138g 54G Wireless PCI Adaptor (£13)
• DVI to HDMI Cable: 3m Scan Gold Plated HDMI v1.3 Male to DVI-D Male Cable (£7)

Total: £370 // Under budget!

Accessories:

• Logitech diNovo Mini Bluetooth Handheld Keyboard (£75) // If I can get one!

After much research the software that I will allow on the HTPC will be:

• Windows XP Media Center
• MediaPortal
• KMPlayer
• CoreAVC Pro
• Haali Media Splitter
• iTunes
• uTorrent
• winRAR
• Mozilla FireFox
• Mozilla Thunderbird
• AVG Free Edition
• Spybot Search and Destroy

Since I have a laptop that I use for Uni/Games/Whatever I would like to keep my HTPC as clutter-free software wise as possible.

Well thats the planning done. Now all I need to do is gather the required items and get it built! I will be documenting the build process, hopefully with pictures. Check back soon for more!