After 6 months, I still love my HTPC.

If you are like me, you most likely have plenty of electronics.   My house is filled, so why would I need a HTPC when I already have 3 computers, DVR’s, DVD players and about every game system except for a PS3. Well about 6 months ago, out of curiosity,  I figured I’d build a HTPC and see how much I liked it.   My goals were to make it cheap, small, quiet yet powerful enough to do some gaming and do Blu-Ray playback with 7.1 surround sound via HDMI.

The build was simple.   I wanted to use cheaper parts so that meant no top shelf items, but still offer good performance.   I decided to pick start with a AMD Athlon X2 5050e which is a dual core and low voltage 2.6ghz part ($55).   For the motherboard I selected a Foxconn A7GM-S because of the then, up to date 780G chipset, decent features and Micro ATX design ($65).  For RAM, I went with 2GB of Gskill DDR800 ($29).   I am fond of Gskill and Mushkin as they have always delivered the best performance for my RAM dollar.  To hold everthigng together and fit in the spot I had selected, I chose the Silverstone SUGO cube case ($49).   It is black and nicely finished and accomodates full size graphics cards.   Since I did not need a ton of power, but wanted enough to power a more modern graphics card and stay within budget, I selected a Rosewill RD450 450W power supply ($35).  For my Blu-Ray and DVD playpack I went with a Lite-On 4x Blu-Ray player ($75).   For storage, I decided to try a Western Digital Green 500GB drive due to it’s lower power consumption and heat ($59).  Lastly I wanted a video card that could play most recent games with low power consumption and noise and could pass through LPCM via HDMI for true 7.1 theater sound.  I decided to pick use a ATI HD 4670 512MB part with HDMI out from Biostar ($49).  I already had a copy of Windows Vista, so I used it for it’s Media Center abilities necessary for a HTPC.  Last few needed odds and ends like a Xbox 360 wireless PC remote ($30), Wireless RF Keyboard ($30) and Media Center remote ($15) were later purchased.   So all in all, a complete investment of around $425.  This investment compares favorably to a PS3 or Xbox 360 elite and remember, at the time of the build, stand alone Blu-Ray players were still in the $300 range.

So now that it is all built, what can it do that my Xbox 360 cannot?  Well to be honest outside of Blu-Ray movie playback and internet surfing, they both get used to browse and play media off my home network, both steam Netflix, play games and offer a Media Center interface.   However all these things just perform much better on my HTPC.  But the biggest thing I have found for myself, is that many good games for the Xbox 360 and PS3 can also be purchased for the PC (Prototype, Grid, Ghostbusters, BioShock, Orange Box, etc) and are generally 25-50% cheaper and prices drop sooner.  So games are lots cheaper, look as good or better on a 46″ 1080p LCD like the one I use and the system is quiet.  So insane grinding noises from the Xbox 360 DVD drive, no red ring of death, plus cheap and easy storage and performance upgrades or proprietary equipment to worry about.   Really the only advantage I see to the consoles at the moment is the more compact preassembled build and exclusive game content that you just cannot get on a PC.

Now that 6 months have gone by are there some things I would change with my build?  Yes, due to cheaper costs of components lately, I would substitute the ATI HD4670 for a HD4850 or HD4770 for better gaming performance ($90 versus $49).  I’d also use a 1TB HD ($79 versus $49), 4GB Ram ($45 versus $29) and a triple core AMD Phenom II X3 720 ($85 versus $54).  So about $110 more investment for better performance and storage capacity.