Just built a HTPC not too long ago. Here are the specs if you are interested.
- nMEDIAPC Black Aluminum HTPC Case
- GIGABYTE HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
- CORSAIR 400w Power Supply
- AMD Athlon II Dual Core 3.1GHz 64W Processor
- G.SKILL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR SDRAM 1600 Memory
- Westeran Digital 1.5TB SATA Hard Drive (low power)
- Logitech diNovo Mini Black Keyboard
- Lite-On Black Blu-Ray 4X Player
- Hauppage WinTV Hybrid TV Tuner w/ Antenna
- Terk HDTV Amplified Antenna
- Optional: Windows Home 7 Premium 64-bit (I had a Microsoft TechNet subscription already)
Once I built the machine, and loaded all the drivers, updated the BIOS, etc. I setup the following apps:
Windows Media Center 7
Boxee (Lots of great content here like Revision3, Fox, etc)
Media Browser (for a great looking interface for viewing content in Media Center)
Any DVD (for archiving my existing movie content to my HP EX470 Home Server)
Also, the following plug-ins allowed me to easily swap between my 3 main programs (Hulu, WMC7, Boxee)
Boxee WMC Plugin
Hulu Desktop WMC Plugin
Boxee WMC Plugin
Hulu Desktop WMC Plugin
All in all, my wife and I were not watching cable very much anymore, so this has been a great solution for us. I’m a bit concerned with Comcast’s 250GB data cap, but with compression getting better and better, and being able to enjoy the over the air broadcasts, it hopefully will not be a concern.
With this setup we are able to get the best of all the wonder niche content on the web (Netflix, Hulu, Revision3, Music Videos on demand, etc) and also get broadcast television in beautiful HD content in any room in the house (thanks to Windows Media Center Extender/Xbox 360).