Right i know i've done alot of post on the subject of htpcs but this time I want to do this right lol for as cheap as possible. Anyways as needs be i've retired one of my pc's guess what I tried turning this pc into a htpc a little unsucessfully anyways as far as things go i got the following parts: Ideq 200T Barebones (which i have retrofitted with a zalman 7700 skt478 cooler for better cooling and a quieter system) 1GB Dual Channel DDR 400 RAM Pentium 4 3.4Ghz Prescott 1MB Cache SKT 478 Processor NEC ND-1100 DVD + RW Drive Which I May Replace Or Flash To A 1300 Firmware. So I'm right in thinking I need: A) A hard drive B) A AGP Graphics Card Preferably with HD playback assistance so I can use with a bluray drive in the future or HD DVD C) A capture card to connect my sky digital STB to the pc that supports vista or mce2005 D) I want maybe an X-fi but the X-fi Audio is too basic i.e doesn't support EAX 5 so I may invest in the X-fi Music but then I don't have a PCI port for my capture card so that will may have to be USB2. E)A decent budget set of speaker such as the creative inspire T6100's. Anyways I got a budget of around £200 (yes UK sorry) so suggestions for components please and other tips. My Systems: iDEQ 200T, P4 3.4Ghz,1GB DDR400 Dual Channel,160GB SATA,19'' W/S LCD Monitor, IBM Thinkpad R52 What a Machine IBM/Lenovo Rule, Acer Travelmate 2305LCI

I suggest you get rid of that SFF lunchbox & build a mid tower that has more breathing room. And for all the parts you're dreaming of, £200 probably isn't gonna do it.

250gb HDD alone is going to cost £60 in our good old U.K. and then a 7600gs is going to cost you £120 alet alone anything else :( It sucks i know from 02coled Core2Duo E6400 @ 3.4ghz 2gb Elipedia 1066mhz5,5,5,15 EVGA 680i Ati Radeon X600 128mb 680w Thermaltake Purepower 2 x 250gb Sata XP Home

lol 7600gs £130???? from where I was thinking x1600 hdcp 512mb from ebuyer £59.99 or maybe a 7600gs for £80 from ebuyer at max lol you get ripped off my friend. My Systems: iDEQ 200T, P4 3.4Ghz,1GB DDR400 Dual Channel,160GB SATA,19'' W/S LCD Monitor, IBM Thinkpad R52 What a Machine IBM/Lenovo Rule, Acer Travelmate 2305LCI

"I was thinking x1600 hdcp 512mb" Why would you need 512MB? It's just marketing hype....

You're gonna have a hard time playing HD-DVD on a single-core processor, even with a card that offers "hardware assistance" such as the x1600. You may be able to pull it off with a card that offers full bitstream decoding. The Radeon HD2400 and HD2600, as well as the GeForce 8500 and 8600 series cards would be a far better choice than the x1600, because these newer cards offer H.264 bitstream decoding. EDIT: Crap, I just noticed that you need an AGP card. This complicates things. I think some of ATI's partners plan on building AGP-based HD2400 and 2600 cards, though you may have to wait a while. Until then, you won't be able to playback HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, due to your single core processor.

You can play HD-DVD and Blu-Ray on a single core processor. I just installed a Blu-Ray player on an Athlon 64 3500+ system and it plays fine, just as long as he doesn't have another program taking up moderate resources running at the same time. Blu-Ray playback requirments Pentium 4 2.0GHz or faster CPU and 512MB or higher RAM are required > 30GB HDD available capacity For High Definition BD Playback & Authoring: ( Only Windows XP SP2 ) Pentium D 3.4GHz or faster CPU and 1GB or higher RAM are required HDCP capable graphics card with 256MB RAM, PCI Express x16, 1920x1200 resolution, 32bit color GPU : nVidia GeForce 6600GT / 7600GT / 7800GTX512 / 7900GX2 / 7900GTX / 7950GX2 and ATI X1600 / X1800 / X1900 series are recommended > 60GB HDD available capacity HDCP capable Monitor or TV for High Definition digital output