I am looking to put together a low-end (or low cost depending on how you look at it) HTPC system. I have about $500 bucks in budget to pull this off. With some spare parts, pointers and a little luck maybe I can make this happen. The parts I have laying around don’t have to be used, but are open to being used if it works.
Hard Drive: WD2500YD
Memory: DDR400 Value Ram (Four 512MB Sticks)
Video Card: Radeon X1950 Pro PCI-E
Remote: Logitech Harmony 880
Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi
Decoder: Creative DTS-610
I am looking to make this system HDCP compliant if it is cost effective. I need it to be able to output the current generation of codex: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC / WMV HD. All the files will be accessed from a NAS attached to the network. So Gigabit ethernet is a must. I am planning on using a copy of Windows Vista Home Premium on this unit.
An enclosure seems to be one of the toughest items to pick out. If someone has stumbled across something in black, clean looking and has IR. I’d like to hear it.
The HTPC will be connected via HDMI. I have a basic audio system by Onkyo that offers me Optical-in so I’d like to make use of that. I plan on having this replace my current DVD player and IOData Link2player. I’d like this to be able to output 720p and remain snappy.
Any help would be great as I work this out. Just when I think I get a clear idea on where I stand I end up looking at something else. Thanks.
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