This article is near and dear to my heart because I’m considering building a kind of hybrid HTPC/home server. While my version won’t live in the entertainment center under the TV, for a number of you, you might consider tossing a computer in your cabinet, complete with fat hard drives that hold your music, movies, and favorite TV shows.
Well, that box doesn’t have to be terribly powerful, but it won’t be very good on that big flat panel TV you’ve got if it’s not powerful enough to keep up with your video and music needs, so ExtremeTech put together a parts guide to building your own HTPC, complete with a list of parts you may want to consider to make it fly.