In The Beginning

These first few posts may be a bit heavy going, as I had already started the process at the time of creating this Blog.

I started off trying to work out exactly what I wanted in a machine, and I came up with a list of features that I MUST have.
I also wanted to spend about $500. (Not sure whether this is realistic...but I’ll give it a go!)

Physical and asthetics:

No bigger than VCR
Quiet
Minimalistic front panel
Remote

Basic needed Features:

Digital tuner
Time shifting
scheduled recording
All in one software solution
DVD, CD, mp3, and most compressed video formats playback
GAF (Girlfriend acceptance factor)

Features that would be nice:

Networked with other home PC’s
No need for keyboard and mouse
Wireless network?

GAF is a big deal as we are both paying for the box. She wants something that is going to be no more hassle to operate than a vcr on dvd player etc, which is the ultimate purpose of this box anyway.

Components I have to decide on are:

Tuner card
mobo/chip/ram
graphics
HD(s)
DVD drive
sound
case

I wasn’t sure what spec I’d need to run the system as I’ve never really researched on what you need to run something like this, but I assumed that It wouldn’t need to be TOO fast.

My mate had an old p4 1.2(?) ATX board+chip sitting around that he said I could have for free, so I thought I’d start with that and go from there. Soon after looking around at other HTPC specs however, I decided that this wouldn’t do, and also I felt better about building it from all new components anyway for reliability sake. So I’m saying no to the parts, and building from scratch.

At this stage I didn’t really even know the differences between mobo form factors and the such. I’d seen smaller boxes at the local PC market, and I assumed that they were micro-ATX, so I figured that I’d base my decisions on fitting stuff into a micro-ATX sized box. As it turns out, they were actually ATX cases, just small ones! I showed the GF a few of these cases, and she approved the size, which means that I can relax a bit on the internal component restrictions for now.