building htpc

[todpod]

budget is about $250 for case, ps, memory, m/b, and cpu. I have all the rest. I am not doing anything high end, just playing movies, will use on board sound. I am thinking either using and atom processor or sempron, all probably coming from newegg

M/b this
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?...82E16813121399

or this
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?...82E16813131626
with www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?...82E16819103888

Hard Drive cheap at least 1TB, Memory 2 gigabytes
Case is the big ?

 

[todpod]

btw running ubuntu 10.04 or 10.10

 

[mfenn]

Don't get the Atom if you ever plan to do anything HD.

As for the non-Atom route, I'd probably try to fit a 785G-based board like the ASRock A785GMH/128 into the mix so that you can have at least a modicum of video decode acceleration.

For the rest:
Samsung F3 1TB $55
2GB DDR2 800 $36
Apex case $45

 

[todpod]

I like the idea of hdmi, but I am a little scared of the ati video when I upgraded my computer to Ubuntu 10.04 x-windows would run at all until I ditched the ATI card for a nvidia.

Thanks for the links

 

[jacktesterson]

I would forget the Atom. Not worth the money.

Are you going HD at all?

The AMD 780/785/880g motherboards with a cheapo processor are best bang for buck for HTPCs... not to mention quiet and cool.

My 405e runs in the mid-high 20's most of the time temp wise.

 

[todpod]

not to worried about HD

 

[todpod]

how about this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856119018

 

[crucibelle]

I like the idea of hdmi, but I am a little scared of the ati video when I upgraded my computer to Ubuntu 10.04 x-windows would run at all until I ditched the ATI card for a nvidia.

Thanks for the links

How about this, then:

Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157187 (has nvidia integrated vid)

And the processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103698 (Sempron)

+ the other stuff in mfenn's build. Not sure about how much $ that all adds up to, though.

As for the barebones you posted, I don't know much about it, so will leave that for someone else.

 

[coolVariable]

Get an Atom with Ion chipset.
Stay away from AMD/ATI chipsets/IGP for HTPCs ... nothing but trouble.