Another attempt… Probably closer to what I would do. The prices are based on November 4th, 2009.
- Case: Apex MI-008 ($39.99) – 250W is a bit overkill. I doubt this system will use more than 60W.
- Motherboard: Pegatron IPX7A-ION 330 ($149.00, the same as POV ION330) or Zotac IONITX-G-E (MSRP seems to be $159.99, but not yet available in the U.S., it seems) – both have a 16x PCI-e (update: Zotac IONITX-G-E has only a 1x PCI-e) and nVidia ION (GeForce 9400M) can enable Blu-ray playback.
- Tuner: AVerTVHD Duet ($59.99) – Dual ATSC-only tuner.
- Memory: 1x2GB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz SO-DIMM ($42.99) – Just in case, I want to add an extra 2GB stick.
- HDD: 1GB Western Digital Caviar Green ($84.99)
- OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM ($109.99) – For Windows Media Center.
- Remote: Anyware GP-IR01BK ($24.99)
- Optical Drive (optional): LITE-ON BD-ROM ($67.99) – I can do without this initially.
The total is $511.94 (or $579.93 with the optical drive).
The only thing is my TV doesn’t have an HDMI port. I don’t know what the VGA quality will be like. Time to upgrade the TV (and the pre-amp)? :p
@Terry
Sure HDMI is the way to go, but that for me means that I have to upgrade my TV at least and the preprocessor possibly. I don’t think I can do that for now since my “CFO” won’t approve it. :p
You wrote: “…what the VGA quality will be like…”
The Zotac IONITX-G-E does not have a VGA port, only DVI and HDMI. It does come with a DVI to VGA adapter, but I have never used it. HDMI is the way to go.