No pun intended but its like walking into shop and asking a salesman what he have for sale

In order to build a htpc, there are various factors to take into consideration. What sound system your running now? HiTB or AVR? What output do you need? HDMI or Composite? Optical or Bitstream? What future upgrades you looking at? You need to do a little research then ask the correct questions.

BTW all your requirements are already answered in all the previous post. Take some time to browse thru the past post then ask again with the proper questions. As for your question, anything spec will suffice in doing that. Thats all

Core i5 530 + Gigabyte H55M-UD2H + 2GB RAM + 1.5TB HDD + China ATX Casing + 400W PS + DVD Burner = RM17++

Outputs will be HDMI(Video), Optical(Sound).

Future Upgrade = DD TrueHD / DTS MA Bitstream capable AVR (thru HDMI), Bluray drive for BD playback.

Core spec will be able to handle most of your req there and future upgrade to support DD TrueHD and DTS MA is in place if you wanna upgrade your HT set. Hope this fits your budget

Based on your budget, dont you wanna get the best hardware possible?

True that most ppl have different requirement from their HTPC. As per yikyeou request, i just provide a spec to match his budget. How he wants to change it is totally up to him.

For me, Processor play a bigger role than Storage cause occasionally i do some video/sound editing/authoring so the extra speed comes in handy. My HTPC is more like a transformer , when hooked up to my Monitor i use it to do general work, when hooked up to my AVR it transforms into a Media HTPC.

P.S Iam using Acer 6935G notebook as my workhorse and HTPC. Windows Vista for general work and XBMC for Media HTPC purpose.

This post has been edited by netherlord: May 22 2010, 02:53 PM

Depend on how much you budget and how much u use the HTPC, of coz a new graphic card + P4 is cheaper but not viable in the long run cause P4 parts are quite rare and those 2nd hand shop gonna samurai you unless you buy from lyn members .

C2D is gonna phase out soon also. So if your planning to spend 1k might as well go for i3 + H55 MB which already proven to be able to support all format playback. Exact how much i don't really know but i think you can check how much is it easily. But i think if your buying i3 + H55 MB i think you have to get the RAM also so budget might go overboard .

I think the cheapest should be DIY NAS. I found a quite informative place where ppl DIY their own NAS.

Pro: You get to customise your own NAS
Bring ur old pc system back to life

Cons: Computer knowledge must be adequate and willing to get ur hands dirty
Might overbudget when going on a buying spree

Link: http://www.diynas.com/category/hardware/complete-systems/

From my exp, BSOD with the message STOP: XXXXXXXXXXX <--- (numbers) is usually RAM or HDD problem, try reinserting the RAM/HDD cables and make sure they are on tight. If its a filename, take note of it and see which driver/software is causing the problem. IF you get BSOD from installing Win7 then my best guess would be either RAM, HDD or the media your installing Win7 (DVD rom / USB Stick) from.

If your installing from DVD then you might wanna try using a USB Stick instead. Link to do it i have included below. Be warned that the steps might need some computer expertise (Dos Command) , i will not be responsible if your accidently formats your computer HDD rather than the USB stick.

http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-...-working-guide/

Hope this solves the BSOD problem for you.

For the LCD resolution not matching the Desktop resolution i did not do anything on the GC side (Nvidia 9600M GT on Acer Aspire 6935G using HDMI) but i used my LCD (Samsung LA32B530) Screen Fit mode to make the desktop fit nicely (no black border or overscan).

IMHO if my LCD has this mode, iam sure other model should have something similar maybe browse thru the manual

For me (iam using XBMC also) i just make sure the Folders are the name and the files inside are following this scheme.

Foldername (Lost) --> Foldername (Season 1) ---> Filename S01E001.avi

1st Folder depicts the TV show name, 2nd Folder depicts the Season, 3rd Filename depicts the season and episode of that particular file. The built-in scraper for TV Shows (www.thetvdb.com) uses the SxxExxx format to get the info.

This format will allow XBMC to get the info for your TV Shows based on www.thetvdb.com database. Works with anime also ^^

Hope it helps

This post has been edited by netherlord: Aug 14 2010, 02:38 PM

you should select (Lost) so it will use the foldername to search for the show info.