[sanddrag]

I selected the K model to have the option for overclocking in the future. I did decide on a case for the desktop too. Antec model One Hundred.

Here's what I'm looking at for the HTPC. Let me know what you think:

Athlon XII 3.0GHz ADX250OCGMBOX
Motherboard JHZ03-GT-V2-LF
RAM F3-10600CL9D-4GBNS
Hard drive Deskstar 7K1000.C 0F10383
Case+PSU 7K09BBA30FNRX
Optical Drive SH-B123L/RSBP
Tuner - Ceton InfiniTV 4
Remote RRC-126
Keyboard/Mouse IOGEAR GKM551R

Total - $693

This is really becoming a rather pricey endeavor. The awesome tuner is what's eating up the HTPC budget. Any way to make this thing cheaper? I could knock $20 off the motherboard by going to a slightly less capable model, and I could knock $15 or $20 off the hard drive price by going to something smaller, but that's not much savings. I'm thrilled with the idea of this, but $700 to play with television seems a bit steep.


Assuming I get the V4800 for the desktop, that'll total roughly $800. HTPC will be $700. Haven't even thought about laptop. And, I need a couple new displays for the desktop: $250-$300. I'll hold off on the laptop until August though.

My desktop is still the same case and CPU and motherboard I put in it in 2003. Since then, I've put in a new $40 graphics card, maybe $60 of RAM, $50 PSU, $15 tuner, and $160 of hard drives. My current laptop was about $500 back in March of 2008. I have not bought any displays.

So, I haven't spent a whole lot on computer hardware over the last several years, but it's just a bit much to make a $2000+ plunge all at once.

One thought I had was to stick the tuner and second drive in the desktop machine and just run an extender in the living room. That would save me the other case, ram, processor, power supply. However, there is reduced functionality. I want to be able to use a computer normally (web surfing, etc) in the living room on the TV screen. Am I correct in saying a PC cannot act as a WMC extender? If it could, I could do what I mention above, and just stick some super cheap computer in the living room.