My first HTPC

Since last few weeks, I was very much obsessed with building my-very-own-first-HTPC. If you haven’t heard the term before; Google to know more about it. For me, it is simply a device like DVD player which plays all kinds of media formats plus has some thinking ability (CPU) so that you can extend the media experience.

Imagine - The movies you downloaded using bit-torrent (which may be in Terabytes) stored at one place, all of your photos stored in a central location. You have that device connected to your HDMI LCD TV and you can play it whenever you want. And, as that device has the thinking ability too, you can extend the functionality of it as well (in other term – Automate your way of life). For example, you can extend the HTPC so that it will record your TV programs in the time-frame you set. So, even if you are not there during that time; you can still watch it afterwards at your comfort. The possibilities are endless.

Finally after lot of R&D, my obsession came to reality. And oh boy !! What a reality !!

I searched a lot and came across - CODING HORROR. It really helped me out to get it done. I was able to get almost everything mentioned on the site.

I built it using -

1. Motherboard: Gigabyte GA - MA78GM - 780G HDMI
Cost: Rs. 4700
Note: This motherboard is a must must element. Because it has an HDMI Output on it and it peforms like - Wow!!!

2. Processor: AMD Athlon X2/2.1 GHZ
Cost: Rs. 2900
Note: We don't need a powerful processor. Because, we won't be doing much calculation sensitive stuff with it. We will be mostly doing graphics processing. Mentioned motherboard is capable of doing that.

3. DVD: Lite-On 20x
Cost: Rs. 1200

4. HDD: Segate 500 GB SATA
Cost: Rs. 3000
Note: The motherboard has 7 SATA connectors. So, you can go ahead and play with lot of storage.

5. Cabinet: iBall Baby 306
Cost: Rs. 1650
Note: A very cool looking cabinet. You can place it in your living-room and still get the appreciation from your neighbors :)

6. RAM: Transcend 2 GB 866 Mhz
Cost: 1900

Thats all. Well, almost.

7. Windows Vista Home Premium
Cost: You know that
Note: I am recommending this OS because it comes with Media Center application. And, that is the only application that you will need to have your HTPC work for you. You can either go for Linux as well. Linux OS do have some open source media center like softwares.

Optional but nice things which you can add are:

8. HDMI Cable: to connect this CPU to your LCD TV. Costing around from Rs. 250 to 1000 in India

9. Pinnacle Remote Kit for PC: This will help you to control your media center application with remote.

This entire thing will cost you around only Rs. 18,000 to 19,000 for the life time of adventure. The adventurous part is - you can extend your Media Center to automate your life, home and digital contents.