OK Computer gurus, lets talk HTPCs

I don't get this board sometimes. If you go to Starbucks you are bashed for wasting money on coffee, if you buy a new car you are bashed for wasting money, If you drive anything that cost more then 3k and it runs all the time you are an outcast. WTF. Google TV is 150.00. I don't need one because my TV is wireless and has some app thing that connects it to a media server. I will probably get bashed for that since its not a 1950's Zenith held together with duct tape and bailing wire. Really with all the berkeleying cheap people on this board I would think you guys would be on this like a bum on a bologna sandwich.

It's not about cheap, it's about the challenge and the fun of building it. I've never upgraded a compute,r and other than the basics I don't know that much about them. I wanted to try it. I did it, and it was fun to do. Fun enough that it'll happen again. For probably half again what I spent on this one I could have probably bought a new one. But I still wouldn't know much about computers. Now I do.

That and Google TV doesn't have the storage I want. It only has 8GB. My ultimate plan is to dump all my DVDs, music, etc to hard drives. No more digging through a stack of disks. The OS on the above system runs on a 160GB disk. I have two 1TB disks for storage so far and can add more as necessary.

I use my laptop with a standard VGA output and a headphone to RCA output. Sound is good enough for the TV to put out, but I have not experimented with surround sound. I swore off cable TV years ago and I have been more than happy with free Hulu and paying a little bit for Netflix (the telecom companies are always confused when I just tell them I want interwebz service--they just don't get it!).

I use my iPhone as a remote using a program called Logitech Touch Mouse. It turns the iPhone (and presumably, for more awesomeness, an iTouch) into a mouse touchpad with easy to use buttons. I can also call up a keyboard which resembles the iPhone keypad but with Ctrl and Alt keys. As I type, the program displays the characters that I am typing on the iPhone screen so I don't have to keep checking the computer (and so I can see what I am writing).

My computer is nothing special, but the picture is amazing and the display works very well. That is to say, my $300 Compaq can easily handle the demand. Presumably with HDMI and surround, it would be perfect, but this works for me.

xd wrote: I don't get this board sometimes. If you go to Starbucks you are bashed for wasting money on coffee, if you buy a new car you are bashed for wasting money, If you drive anything that cost more then 3k and it runs all the time you are an outcast. WTF. Google TV is 150.00. I don't need one because my TV is wireless and has some app thing that connects it to a media server. I will probably get bashed for that since its not a 1950's Zenith held together with duct tape and bailing wire. Really with all the berkeleying cheap people on this board I would think you guys would be on this like a bum on a bologna sandwich.

...I'm at a Starbucks now. On my computer. Worse yet, this Starbucks is literally open 24/7. And I've been here for hours!

Fire away...

edit: I just logged onto Skynet---I mean Facebook.

calteg wrote: Just recently did the same, I'll share my setup, and where I go from here. Currently going the ultra-cheap bastard route: sabnzbd (free) + sickbeard (free) + usenet service of your choice (i use easynews at $10/month)

Thanks for those links. We ditched cable a year ago, having internet & netflix. I download everything and already have an easynews account. I setup everything this morning and it works perfect, saving me much time.

Again, thanks. I had True Blood for the wife and I to watch last night less than 30 minutes after it aired w/out having to go looking.

I've got about $75 in mine, but it was mostly spare and eBay parts:

Old Refurb AsRock 775 motherboard - eBay

Fanless ATI 4350 HDMI Graphics Card (Audio too) - eBay

Pentium D 840 - spare parts box

2Gb 667 DDR2 Corsair Value Select Ram - spare parts box

Fancy Hyper low profile quiet copper heatsink for HOT PD - eBay

WD Green 640GB SATA Hard Drive - spare parts box

Cheap Rosewill HDMI cable - Newegg

Cheap Diablotek 350w PSU - Newegg

Ubuntu - Free

Wireless Logitec mouse & keyboard - spare parts box

It's not the greatest, but handles all the 720p video I've thrown at it (I don't have any 1080) and looks great on our 47" Samsung. Stream 720p Wireless 802.11g from Workstation/Server in basement, and mostly use it for Hulu and Stagevu.

I don't have a tuner card, but haven't found a reason to have one. We don't have satillite/cable, just the ~15 digital channels we get over the air, and all the shows we watch are streaming on line at the most a week after the original air date, but the majority are the next day. So why use my HD to store video when the network does it for me?

Xbox does Netflix and ESPN duty.

• Lee