Budget HTPC (Part 1)

The Core

A media center PC can cost $500-$1000 if you go out to the store to buy one. However, in my opinion, it's really not necessary to do that. Older systems are very capable of operating as a home theater PC (HTPC)... especially if you're building something for a 720p TV. Buying a new dual-core or quad-core system with all of the latest parts is overkill unless you plan to do video editing and Photoshop work on your TV. In this series of posts, I'm going to write about the system I built for my parents' new 52" LCD.

This project started on Thanksgiving weekend and I was able to find a lot of Black Friday sales related to parts I needed. I started with the small form-factor IBM system from my apartment. I replaced the hard drive with something much larger... going from the default 40 GB to a 500 GB model ($35 @ Directron... FREE shipping). That had plenty of room for a bunch of DVDs and DivX movies. I also had a bunch of spare parts that I added to the system... a 802.11g wireless PCI card ($10 after a rebate offer) and USB 2.0 PCI card (FREE after a rebate offer) to fill up the 2 available slots.

Shopping List

1. System - First, you'll need a small form-factor system... something that will fit into your TV stand. It should also be energy efficient and relatively cool since it will be on a lot and could be in an enclosed space (depending on the type of stand you have). For good off-lease system, check out the IBM ThinkCentre S50 or Dell Optiplex GX series from PC Exchange. They're both Pentium 4 systems. For any system you order, get the highest possible RAM option and upgrade to a DVD-ROM if it has a CDROM by default. Leave the hard drive because you'll want a 500 GB or higher.

2. Hard Drive - Get a 500 GB or larger drive because you're going to store large movie files on it. It should be hi-speed... at least 7200 rpm, large cache, SATA is possible (IDE should still be OK).

3. Network - The best option is to connect via ethernet to your hi-speed Internet connection. The video throughput is much higher than wireless. If not possible, 802.11g actually works OK. With the HTPC I built, I was able to stream an episode of Terminator without any problems.

4. USB 2.0 Ports - If the system doesn't have a lot of these by default, you should add an additional card since you'll probably have a need to add media drives and connect cameras in the future.