The HTPC, 2005 edition

[Mercutio]

I've been asked to build my first HTPC in almost a year. I have a budget of $900 which fortunately does not include anything but the PC, OS, keyboard and mouse.

This is what I have come up with.

Mobility A64/3400
Gigabyte K8VM800M
1GB Corsair PC3200 RAM
Logitech Cordless Desktop Keyboard & Mouse
250GB SATA Hitachi 7k250
AverMedia UltraTV 1500 Hardware MPEG encoder
Bluegears X-Mystique 7.1
Gigabyte Radeon 9550
LiteOn 16x DVD-RW
Chenbro PC80568 enclosure

This little guy will be running XPMCE 2005.
The only doubt I have about this configuration at the moment is what I'm going to do for a HSF for this thing; I understand regular socket 754 heat sinks don't mate well with mobility athlon chips.
Er, and I guess I'm not completely happy with the case. Not that there are lots of sub-$200 "media PC" cases to choose from. C'est la vie.

Comments?

 

[Fushigi]

Can't get the Samsung 250GB SATA drive yet? I picked up the PATA version and it seems pretty nice so far. Only 2 platters vs. the Deskstar's 3 and $120 + tax from Microcenter in Westmont. Or are you talking the T7K250, which is a 2-platter drive?

 

[Mercutio]

It was a toss-up between the 7K250 and the PATA T7K250 in this case. The T7K250 is REALLY inexpensive - $100 - but I thought I'd stick with a known quantity and the skinnier cables.

 

[Buck]

The setup looks good to me, although I'm not familiar with the Bluegears and AverMedia stuff. That Chenbro case looks pretty decent for a compact HTPC.

 

[ddrueding]

The mobility chips work pretty well with the screw/spring based heatsinks. I used the Thermalright SLK-900 when I had one, but I think the Scythe Ninja would be a great match if it fit in the chassis.

 

[Mercutio]

I'm kind of philosophically opposed to paying $50 for a heat sink. Especially when the normal AMD retail HSF works so well.