Ask Engadget: Best HTPC under $3,000?
By Darren Murph 
posted November 13th 2008 11:15PM
posted November 13th 2008 11:15PM
This week's episode of Ask Engadget takes things back into the living room -- or the bedroom, or wherever you have a TV -- and looks at the selection of HTPCs below the $3,000 range. And c'mon, who's not into getting a bargain this day and age? "My query is related to a what is commonly referred to as a Home Media PC. Recently I have gone through the wringer searching online for an HTPC which has the possibility of being upgraded when the time comes. I need it to do all the usual PC things (but on a 46-inch HDTV) and would also like to play RTS games, edit music / video and not go broke in the process. Looking online, most pre-fab vendors are charging upwards of $4,000 to $6,000 for potent media PCs -- what are my options for getting one between $2,000 and $3,000 (or less)?"
We know, the bulk of you are just moments away from blurting out "DIY!one1!," and while that's obviously a perfectly reasonable response, feel free to share of pre-built machines that just might fit the bill here. Later, you can beam in a question of your own to ask at engadget dawt com, but only if you feel led. No pressure.
LOL, $3,000?
What sort of moneybags built diamond-encrusted HTPC are you guys looking at?
Assuming that you include $2,000 for a plasma or high-end LCD, the only demands on your HTPC would be the ability to decode 1080p, which can be offloaded to a discrete video card such as the 9800GT, which goes for around $100AR. Figure in the price of all the other components, and you could have a really decent setup for $500. Of course a capture card/dongle could cost you another $100, and depending how OCD you are, you can get 1TB/$100 or so (wide margin there). Good luck breaking $1k though, no matter how you dice it.
Beyond that, there is style involved, and an extra price whether you go Vista, OS X (pre-built macs will have a premium, but I guess there are ways around that now), or a linux distro (such as XBMP, which has been gaining steam).
dendeNYC...Are you really able to watch 1080P content with your MacMini? Im running 2GHz Core 2 with 2 Gigs of ram and the best I can get is 720P to my tiny 37" plasma. What's the secret?
Not doing anything special, I have the lowest current gen Mac with I think 1GB of mem. 1080p (usually about 9gb file sizes) .mkv's runs perfectly. I have nothing else running on the Mini besides Plex.
One important piece, the keyboard. Just plug in a Logitech DiNovo Mini.
Keyboard and mouse in one, small, wireless (BT), shiny. You can do everything from your sofa. ~130$
It is really rocks.
I know its not an HTPC but I feel tempted to recommend the Gateway LX...
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9031692&st=gateway+lx&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1218010851260
For under 800 bucks its got a lot of potential plus its got hdmi on it, so its great for hooking an HDTV
If you are really serious about an HTPC it should be meant for one thing and that is media. Every single person I have seen build a dual purpose machine isn't entirely happy with it. A gaming machine is powerful and loud and hot. An HTPC is quiet, very quiet and meant to be energy efficient so can leave it on and not have to wait a couple of minutes to power it up just to watch a movie.
Another problem is resolution. An HTPC done correctly will overscan the image and place some of your screen like your taskbar slightly into the bezel of your TV. This is normal, every TV program you watch goes slightly into the bezel of your TV. You want every pixel of your 1080P source to correspond to a pixel on your 1080P TV. Sure you can change the settings of your video card to fit the screen but you will then degrade the quality of your media.
If you are serious about this take a week off of work and start reading threads at www.AVSforum.com
My first HTPC was in 1997 When it was cheaper for me to make a computer with a DVD drive than it was to purchase a set top DVD player. I have made 18 HTPCs for myself since then and currently have three in my home. I have 2 terabytes of media and about 400 of our DVDs ripped to my Windows Home Server. My little kids can pick up a remote and browse to a movie without scratching or losing a disc. Choose from a few hundred CDs to play or watch any episode of Gargoyles, Avatar, Spongebob, or Justice League.
While you can't make a Blu-Ray PC cheaper than a set-top box you can make it a lot more functional.
I say just go with a Dell XPS420 with dual Digital Cable Turners but don't expect to take the recorded shows with you where ever you go - that set up costs me about $2,100. I kinda of regret it because I use it as a DVR and DVRs should not be hit of miss. It may be easier to go with a HD Tivo box.
I have built an OSX HTPC running on Leopard with a touch screen. It runs perfectly silent has SSD and Blu ray (not fully supported in OSX yet) and is capable of all of the major features of any PC counterpart, It is 100% stable and does not get viruses or malware. I have fitted a pro sound card, a Lynx L22 and run it on Boxee. Also i have simplifymedia sharing active to share other peoples music playlists online via itunes.
here is the link to my gallery
http://gallery.me.com/markandclaire1#gallery
and my video on youtube.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-8GyxZq9ThA
I have since added a further 1TB hard drive and have the HTPC connected to an external wireless server creating hourly backups via time machine.
DIY for sure. It would actually be 2 computers. 1 running Windows Home Server and the HTPC. I just made my first dedicated HTPC last week and it runs like a dream with my WHS. Its based on the just released ASUS P5N7A-VM motherboard.
Specs for mine + Additional addons
$120 ASUS P5N7A-VM LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9300/nForce 730i HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard (does 7.1 audio via HDMI)
$165 Intel E8400 3GHz Core2 Duo
$45 4GB of ram
$300 128GB SSD
$100 Blu-Ray SATA Drive
$170 Vista Ultimate (with TV pack)
$170 HD Homerun (for 2 QAM or ATSC tuners)
$440 2 x HD-PVR (for HD premium channels from cable or SAT)
$150 FSP Group ZEN 400 400W fanless power supply
$220 Antec Fusion Remote Max case
$590 HP EX475 MediaSmart Home Server 1TB
$180 Apple Airport Extreme
Total $2650
Use the $350 leftover to buy a rack to house it all or a couple 1.5TB drives for the WHS.
Seconded! You won't get Cable Card for true HD, but for bang for the buck, $3000 will get you a DIY HTPC, with a home server, and a media center exender. That's a home system sorted!
Reel Avantgarde from Reel multimedia probably fits the bill quite nicely... €1290
http://www.reel-multimedia.com/en/index.html
Ars technica do good overviews of HTPC every few months. The last one was in April, so it's a bit old now, its a good overview none-the-less. Check it out at: http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/guide-200804.ars
And to go with your HTPC, you should buy a dinovo mini. I have one and use it with my laptop hooked up to my tv (until i buy a mac mini) and i love it, its so easy to watch hulu from my couch.
Some general questions that might be useful to consider before building a system:
-What is the makeup of the user's household? Will other regular users of this system be more or less computer literate than the user submitting the question?
-Is blu-ray playback a requirement?
-What version of HDMI does this user's Television support?
-Does this user have a receiver or are they using the TV's built-in audio?
-If so, what version of HDMI does their receiver support?
-If using a receiver and not concerned about HDMI does the receiver have optical or coaxial digital inputs?
-Is surround sound a concern?
-If using PVR software, do they wish to be able to distribute recorded TV to others?
-Does the user have a netflix account?
-Is the user a regular customer of Amazon unbox or the iTunes store or more importantly, both?
-Does the user wish to be able to use all of their digital media throughout the house on many computers or just on this one PC?
-Is playback of ripped DVDs (bit-for-bit as MPEG2, stored in a VIDEO_TS folder or similar) of interest?
-Is DIVX playback of interest?
-Is MKV playback of interest?
Some general thoughts
-Many of the very expensive HTPC machines are expensive due to custom aluminum cases, fanless designs and similar. If you are willing to sacrifice aesthetics and noise, medium grade systems from alien, dell, or HP might be sufficient and tend to be somewhat cheaper.
-If the user wants support of the windows OS and system hardware, they should probably go through a manufacturer...The newer OEM licenses attached to Vista are difficult to get support should a single end user need it, and that might be important for this user.
-It is currently difficult to get 'Fiji/Vista TV Pack' unless you are a registered OEM. If you are not a registered OEM and manage to acquire the pack, support and updates will be difficult until Windows 7 comes out and the pack is incorporated as standard.
-If you want DIVx playback through the Vista MC '10 ft' interface, this currently requires installation of an ffdshow codec fork which may or may not affect compatibility of other installed codecs. Some people do not care about divx playback or the vista MC interface, but I do not know if this is that user.
(Repost from the E-HD thread pointing here)
The one you build on your own, without a doubt. Check AVS Forums, there are tons of threads there filled with posters that would love to help you. The link at the bottom is to user renethx's guide (dated in August) to multiple builds, as well as performance standards. renethx is an amazing guy, and if you post in that same thread your proposed build he and other very capable members will point out where you could improve, save money etc.
I know it's daunting to build your own machine but seriously, it's well worth it. Read up about it online -- it's incredibly simple to do now-a-days. If you're really scared, I bet you know someone geeky enough to help. You should know living in the HD world that "high end" pre-build components cost a hojillion dollars. This is one area where you can absolutely tackle it yourself, learn a little bit and really be proud of your result. That's the route I took and I'm extremely glad I did!
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=940972&page=85
I built one without keyboard and mouse for under 1200 Canadian. The motherboards out right now support HDMI, and 7.1 audio. The bluray drive 150 OEM supports both BluRay, and HDDVD. The case should come with a power supply... I used a rather expensive case (Mozart SX). To store all those movies, you need a big Hard Drive 1.5 TB for 200 now. 2GB Ram is all that is necessary for watching movies. Put in a low end Quad Core CPU for 250.
Intel Core™2 Quad Processor Q6600 2.4GHz w/ 2x4MB Cache
$239.99
THERMALTAKE Mozart SX Media Lab Home Theatre Chassis w/ VFD, Remote, Silver
$229.99
Asus P5E-VM HDMI w/ DualDDR2 800 ,Video, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, 1394, PCI-E x16, HDMI
$169.99
Corsair 2GB XMS2-6400 TWIN2X Dual Channel DDR2 Kit (2 x 1GB)
$59.99
SEAGATE 1.5TB Barracude 7200.11 SATA II w/ 32MB Cache
$199.99
LG Super Multi Blue Blu-ray / HD DVD-ROM Drive, SATA, Black (Retail Box)
$159.99
1059.95
What a coincidence, look what showed up on cnet today.
http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/asus-essentio/4505-3118_7-33350933.html?autoplay=true&tag=TOCmoreStories.0
An actual pre-built system.
I've built PCs before but none of them were as stable as buying a OEM (original equipment manufacturer) box. I'm technical but just not enough I guess. So when I wanted to replace my ReplayTV DVR for something that could record HD & stream my ripped movies I started looking. I have tried streaming from my NAS with the PS3 but it wasn't working so well. I found pretty much a good solution that worked for me which was the Acer AX3200-EF9100A (Blu-ray).
It took me a two tries to find a tuner card that fit in a tight space in the box but overall I its working out fine. I would suggest a RF keyboard since I tried IR and Bluetooth which are not really girlfriend friendly. I would suggest an IR remote so you can control your other system components.
It's not a high end system but works fine for what I need. I don't have digital cable so I'm just using OTA HD and basic cable. In order to get CableCard support you need to buy an OEM system that comes with the card pre-installed from what I have heard you can't get one in the states for DIY systems.
Acer AX3200 Blu-ray
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103168&Tpk=ax3200
AVerMedia AVerTV Combo PCIe ATSC/NTSC/QAM TV Tuner Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815100015
Adesso RF Keyboard WKB-3000UB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823166079
Win Vista Premium Ultimate Mce Remote Control By Mediagate
You'll have to search amazon for this one since engadget only allows 3 urls in comments. There is a combo IR/RF on Newegg but I couldn't spend $150 at that time. Plus I like the track ball on the keyboard I bought.
Overall system cost: about $900
I've been pretty happy except for the times I start dinking with drivers and plug-ins. I would recommend just getting it all set up get it working and stable with your installs and just use it as a HTPC.
A few OEMs to look at:
Velocity Micro - Pioneered CableCard support
Okoro
Cannon PC
Dell XPS w/ CableCard support
HP
Niveus ($$$)
Vidabox
As mentioned above the DIY route is cheaper.. Most of these OEMs target custom isntallers so they are a bit on the pricier side. However, their support is pretty good and you know you shouldn't have to deal with a stuttering mess when you build it :) It happens.
Sample more then a few wireless keyboards mouse combos if you plan on doing a lot of other activities on the couch. I use separates for gaming and heavy mousing activities.
One thing I can definitely say is STAY AWAY FROM HP NO MATTER WHAT!!! HP support is not only lacking, it's laughable. Their support goons all over the world have no idea what the hell a media center PC is, even though they probably sell thousands upon thousands of them every year. I ordered a Cablecard-equipped media center from them a year ago, and it took all this time to get them to finally make it work. To their credit, they shipped me a new PC after I placed enough irate phone calls to them, but honestly, I would have preferred that they just ship me a PC that worked as advertised.
I had a great experience with a Dell media center PC in the pre-Cablecard world, so I can say they definitely know how to make one of those. Don't know what they did with Cablecard, but I have more faith in them than in HP.
If you wanna stay cheap (and w/o playing games) go for a Mac Mini.
If you wanna spend some more go for the new MacBooks / MacBook Pros and you are set.
Using a Windows-machine as a htpc is more pain than pleasure imho.
I hope you read this one. Everyone seems to be forgetting that in the U.S. on Feb. 17th, 2009 standard broadcasts go away. This means that your tuner card will only pick up off air signals (antenna) and whatever unencrypted QAM signals left alive by your cable provider. This means you will either need an external box converted back to analog (looks like shit) or a cable card tuner. The latter of which is available from certain manufacturers. Those are the ones that paid huge $$$ to MS for licensing, and charge HUGE $$$$ for the systems.
I'm not saying that they deserve an extra couple of grand for that feature, but that is why the prefabs are so expensive.
I really like the media center to be silent like most other consumer electronic devices. Zalman TNN 300 looked like a very good option but for some reason newegg deactivated the item.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811235003
This is all a lot of coin for a simple HTPC.
I have an HP Pvaillion a350n, added a bit of RAM, a Gigabit Ethernet card and a 9800 Pro, and it streams 1080p video with no issues.
As I got the machine free from a friend, all I needed was a PSU. I spent about 50 bucks total, and it plays Half Life 2 at 720p with no stutters. I would have issue with the newest games, but that's why you have a gaming PC.
RE: DIY
Yep. You can build a rig that can do any sort of media out there for under $1K. Easy.Asus P5N7A-VM based and needed parts. Done.
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=7969192
$423. Just add tuners, or a BR drive, or both.
For me, getting CableCard in there is almost a must (no clear QAM through my cable provider). I will likely go the route of buying a HP m9400t and transporting the guts to a new case that is a little more living room friendly.
IF someone is not willing to do DIY (unlike just about everyone here), one off-the-shelf option is the Sony VGX-TP25. It has two CableCard tuners (external for this model), 4GB of RAM and nice small form factor (the hockey puck). But most here will agree it is overpriced for what is included and not very upgradeable. But hey, you can get one for $2,500 which meets the criteria of the question asked.
I currently have a WHS which is awesome for storing media on the network. Right now it serves my Xbox classic (with XBMC/Mediastream) very, very well. I have also temporarily hooked up my tower computer to the TV and found that HD also streams perfect - even over poweline.
Can't wait to get something that will work for me as a PVR. I'd get a TivoHD, but I have issues with buying hardware and then paying to use it.
Actually, the VGX-TP25 had a price drop down to $1,999.00. That's really not too bad for what you get - Blu-Ray, 4GB RAM, 500GB Hard Drive; Dual CableCARDS; Intel Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz; Vista Home Premium. The NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT 256MB graphics card leaves something to be desired, but it would probably playback HD just fine.
Total Cost: $1101
Case: $160 Antec Veris Fusion
PSU: Included with case 400W
Motherboard: $80 ASUS M3A
Processor: $50 AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.5Ghz
Memory: $40 2GB Patriot "Extreme Performance"
HDD: $91 16GB Super Talent SSD (for boot and quiet tv tuning) and $115 1TB 7200RPM (for recording)
Optical: $150 Pioneer Blu-Ray ROM
Networking: Onboard Gigabit LAN and $90 Belkin N1 Wireless Card with external antenna
Video Card: $205 ATi Radeon HD 3650 All-in-Wonder w/ 512mb GDDR2 VRAM
OS: $120 Windows MCE
Everything came from newegg with the exception of the case, which came from buy.com.
I bought a refurbished hp w amd processor and built in video card and a video card. Came with vista home-premium. Was about 300.
I addded;
the internal video was crap , couldnt play hd back, added an 8500gt. about 70 bucks when I got it.
bought a hdhomerun, which is 2 tuners. about 200 I think
added a 500GB drive (120 bucks when I bought it.
added memory 50 bucks I Think
total is about 800 a year ago. now it can probably be done for 500. I used the hdhomerun for hd recordings, the ineternal tv card does the remaining analog channels. I get beautiful hd recordings. I watch hd shows I wouldn't watch in regular def. For the must watch shows in regular def I use the analog tuner. pretty happy.
Homebuilt could obviously be done for less than $1000. The problem is you'd have to do software setup yourself, and for HTPCs it's always a hassle.
1) the alienware 18 htpc is good, but i don't like the built in amplifier. wish they'd offer a model with good graphics instead
2) HP have some really good htpc in that price range.
3) Newegg.com has some really good deals of packages (DIY!) to check out. I looked at one the other day ($2800) that came with a Samsung TV.
This xmas i'm building my own HTPC. HD/Blue Ray combo drive, capable of gaming, good recorder, adequate storage (i am using a HP home server), Vista 64.
Looking for a HDMI card to combine my sound & graphics into 1 HDMI output.
I agree with other ppl on the forum that a true integrated experience cannot be had with a DIY HTPC because of the lack of cable card support. OTA doesn't cut it since you will not be able to get HD premium channels. That said you are left with a few options:
1. DELL XPS 420
2. HP (don't remember the model)
3. Velocity Micro (cinemagix or fuzebox)
4. Other (high end & much more expensive than the first 3 - Vidabox, Niveus, etc)
No, you cannot build yourself a HTPC with cable card support since they require a special BIOS on the motherboard. With coupons a DELL will set you back between $1.2K to $2K depending on the options. HP about the same. VM a bit more $2K-$3K. The others are well over $4K.
Mine is a VM Cinemagix Grand Theater and has 2 DCT (HD cable card support) and a HD Homerun giving me 4 HD tuners. I also have HD-DVD and Bluray playback as well a firewire connected DVD changer supporting 200 discs. I am currently running it with 5 TB HDD capacity. Video card is still a measly ATI 2600 XT which is crap for gaming but decent for playback. Also have a SoundBlaster X-FI for 7.1 analog uncompressed sound. Everything is connected to an ONKYO SR-805.
Cablecard support: It is true that you cannot get cablecard support without Vista and a special BIOS, you can get the equivalent (or very close) using the Hauppage box. I'd rather take that (and be able to take my movies anywhere legally) instead of having Micro$oft hold me hostage ...
Let me once more emphatically state that Dell and HP do not sell HTPCs but overpriced PVRs that run Vista. Yes, they have cablecard support but they will not let burn anything you recorded to a DVD or elsewhere. They won't let you stream it via any of the gadget boxes to a TV in another room. The will not play back h.264 (AVCHD), the most commonly used HD storage form (last I checked). However, Microsoft announced that Mediacenter light (comes with Vista) at some point will support h.264 (pretty much the standard for Bluray besides VC1). Even if it does, it will not support the Matroska container (the most commonly used container for A/V aficionados) which means you do not get chapters or subtitles.
Really, Micro$oft's Mediacenter makes sure you do not get fair use.
XBMC vs. Mediacenter (forced on you in this Dell and HP crap):
Does Mediacenter retrieve the trailer of the movie you are about to watch: Aaah - No.
Does Mediacenter display the plot of the movie you are about to watch: Aaagh - No.
Does Mediacenter retrieve cast and bio: Aaah - No.
Does Mediacenter support your 108 episode Babylon 5 collection: Aaagh - No.
Does Mediacenter retrieve fan art for any movie of your choosing and display it right there and then as you are browsing your material: Aaagh - No.
Does Mediacenter support CIFS, FTP or NFS as storage: Aaaagh - No.
Does Medicenter support the following file formats: M2T/M2TS/MTS (essentially anything Bluray ripped), EVO, BIVX, (DivX I am not sure), NUT, AVS, Vivo, Nuppelvideo, FLC, FLV, *any* kind of MP3 playlist, OGG, Sorenson, Falc, Wavepac, MPC, APE, SHN, Adlib, SID, YM, NSF, SPC GYM, ADX/AST/ADP/DSP/YMF/HPS CRI MiddleWare and Gamecube ADPCM), MOD/AMF/669/DMF/DSM/FA, CBR, CBZ, Shoutcast, Nullsoft streaming, TiVo streaming, CDDB lookup: Aagh - No.
Does *free* XBMC offer all this with a *much better looking* interface: Of course.
But nobody is going to sell you an HTPC with that because, as I said, it's free.
Do not succumb to the sweet talk of those that have already fallen for big bucks and crappy software. DIY.
Any caveats for using USB TV tuners? Could do multiple channel recording with those... I'm not sure about quality or bandwith issues, however. Any thoughts?
Hitesh,
There are no issues and the bandwidth is more than enough even for HD recording. In fact DCTs (HD digital cable tuner) are also USB devices. Unfortunately anything other than DCT is useless for HD premium channels (vast majority, in NY only the 5 major networks and PBS are unencrypted).
This is something I made real quick it's decent you could add or subtract certian components to your liking :)
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=11327548
Of course I am also joining the chorus:
There is no such thing as what you are asking for. I built a machine as what I consider HTPC but it won't run the latest and coolest graphics. Here's why:
a.) You want a machine that'll look nice to your Bang & Olufson. That means it's no larger than a DVD player. It's not a box like a Mac mini. It's very small. Micro ATX or Mini ITX.
b.) You want one that is very silent. That already excludes any PC with a PSU with fan. The maximum power supply that you can buy without a fan (external) is 120 watts. There were larger power supplies discussed on the net but they were all pulled from the shelves as far as my research found.
c.) With that little power you need to run an energy efficient CPU. There are either very low performing Atoms etc. or the AMD 4050e. I am sure the Intel side looks similar.
d.) With a small case you need a low profile CPU fan (if you choose a midsize performing CPU which you will need for full HD.
All these special parts add up. The most important thing for me for looks
I bought a silverlake case which as case costs $200. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163081
You need a special fan which runs you $50. The lowest price for the 4050e I could find was $70. A slimline DVD drive (unless you buy on eBay stuff that has been pulled from laptops) will cost you $50,-. Memory $20.
I bought an ASUS motherboard (wanted the best) with HDMI and digital sound and onboard graphics (no cooler for 8600 required) for $90. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131281
I bought a wireless keyboard with touchpad for $50. I bought a Media center compatible remote for $30,-. There were assorted other parts for maybe $30. You will need a Microsoft XP license (unless you want everything with DRM included and buy Vista) for $80.
I used XBMC media center with the aforementioned skin which runs circles around Microsoft's Media Center and it's free. I used Eventghost to drive both the keyboard and remote and is free also. I run Filezilla server to backup and transfer files to it wirelessly (it's faster than Netbios).
Ok, so I have this almost silent really slick thing driving my 5.1 and 50 inch TV.
Am I going to sit in front of the TV and start video editing? That idea is absurd. You either want an HTPC, a set top component or you want a PC. Everything they sell you as HTPC is nothing but a PC. You can build an HTPC but you cannot buy one.
If you want to do recording, timeshifted and in HD quality you can use the Hauppahe HD PVR, which is a small external device that hooks up to your sleek set top and has a hardware chip to record in h.264 using component (the three cable kind) video. You cannot record HDMI because the only way to do that is a cablecard and a special PC (BIOS and all) running Vista, which, as you probably know, encrypts everything. But the quality out of the Hauppage box should be amazing and goes up to 1080i.
You can use that PC to play light games (Warcraft or such) but not Crysis.
Oh, btw, I am selling these machines pre-built and preconfigured for $800.
Forgot to mention, stuck in a TB, too, but you can hook up as much storage as you like either via a NAS or USB.
u guys are putting in harddrive that are too big. when u pass 320gb spinning disk drives become slower. pit in a barracuda 80gb and NAS the larger storage. therefore u can have 1TB in raid configuration that easily be accessed from any pc.
Get a Touchsmart iq816 -- Monitor and HTPC and touch interface. Done.
Hey
I am part of the team that founded http://www.allhtpc.com a short time ago - a site dedicated to HTPCs, we encourage all you HTPC folks to come check us out!
I agree that the best way to go is definitely build yourself if you have the time and knowledge to do so. You will be able to get everything you want for a considerably less price - albeit no CableCARD for the while.
Try S1 Digital. They offer dual cablecard tuners free to Green Button members. That'll save you $500 on arguably a must-have for an HTPC. Intel Q9300, nVidia 9500, 640GB drive, onboard sound w/Dolby Live!, 2GB RAM, Vista Home Premium w/Fiji (TV Pack), Gyration keyboard and MCE remote shipped to your door for about $2,650.
Any pc/mac/linux box topped off with XBMC ftw!
I have setup Knoppmyth (KM) and feel that it provides the most options. BTW, did I mention that a subscription to the programming data is only $20 per year (Tivo is $180).
If you don't want to go through the trouble of assembling a computer there is a "reference system" for sale. It should be well under $3k.
http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=110239&sid=27f8c59410be577e076ac04fb00d6d75
I bought a mid-level custom from Velocity because I wanted 2 CableCard tuners. I believe this was and still is the only way to record premium (i.e. HBO) content on an HTPC as the special version of Vista and the ATI tuners are not sold to consumers directly. So, if you want to record anything and everything broadcast you can't DIY. That said, here's what I learned and would recommend.: Buy as little as you can from the OEMs -- a minimally configured box with two tuners and the Vista with digital cable support. Once you get your machine, trick it out yourself as you can buy the upgrade components for a lot less than the OEMs charge. My experience is no matter how good the VPU was, BRD playback was choppy at times until I went quad on the CPU -- so CPU does matter. There's silent and there's quiet and silent required too many performance trade-offs -- my rig makes noticeable noise in a completely quiet room in the middle of the night but it is not at all noticeable when in real world useage. Rebuild into the HTPC case of your choice after your warranty is up (or you'll spoil the warranty). You simply can't have too much storage. I've got 3 TB and I don't watch/record that much TV (although I keep a healthy library of movies) and I'd like to have more. Go RAID and stay away from the premium of the latest/largest drives). Max out on tuners. Four tuners (2CC and 2OTA) is not overkill and I believe you can hack for more than 4. Be prepared for heartache on TrueHD. There's still no easy solution for this one that I'm aware of for getting THD beyond 2 channels. All in all, it can be work and a struggle at times but you can have a highly functional rig for less than $3K.