So I was thinking about building a home media pc but I have no clue where to start. I would like a nice case that would fit into the tv console but I'm not stuck on that. Any micro case would be good. What are your guys thoughts for a budget around $500? Everyone says you need tons of storage so I was just curious. I have an extra windows 8 key so no OS on the budget. Do I need a tv tuner card for cable? HELP ME lol
also I can get a discount on intel processors since microcenter is just down the street from me.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1o1ub
WiFi unless your router / modem is next to the TV.
Cable Card. These only work for Cable. They, to my knowledge, never have been known to work for Sat providers. Depending on your cable provider it still may have hick ups.
Solid State Drive for quick loading and booting, i'd recommed just enabling hibernate and set it to pc off.
1866 mhz ram to get the most out of the apu.
Blu ray player. Since this is a HTPC. Feel free to change to a dvd player.
Doubt this will game. Change apu to a A10 - 6700 or 6800k if you want to game.
Logitech K400 keyboard and touchpad combo.
This build assumes you won't be downloading content directly. It is mostly for streaming with some DVR functions. Hulu, Netflix, Cable.
Case is low profile, as such it's tougher finding pci cards.