1. Introduction

Thomas Edison once said: "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." He could have been trying to assemble the ideal components for a home theater PC (HTPC). While Edison was trying to invent the light bulb, the point is that if Edison made a mess out of the light bulb 10,000 times, I didn't need to worry about making a couple of dismal HTPCs.

In part one and part two of this series, I highlighted my HTPC failures. I skirted around the edges of success each time that I tried to put together the perfect HTPC, which was very frustrating. However, the experience taught me a few lessons about what I really wanted in a HTPC and enabled me to come up with a list of guidelines for my latest build.

HTPC Priorities:

It sounds really simple, doesn't it? Unfortunately, my guidelines have a tendency to contradict one another. If I decided to build a completely noiseless PC, I might need to skimp on guidelines two, three and four. I would likely need to use elaborate and less-efficient passive coolers for the CPU and power supply, which might require a large and inappropriate case.

If I wanted a cool HTPC, I might have had to sacrifice guidelines one and three by adding fans, or using slow or underclocked equipment. If I want an abundance of power, I would have to deal with more heat, which cuts into the cool and quiet operation. If I were to opt for an aesthetically-pleasing case, its size could potentially create a heat nightmare.

I jumped on the Net and started to hunt for components that would fit into my priority list. I wasn't sure how I was going to follow one guideline without adversely affecting the other three, and the research process soon became a game of balance and compromise. It was frustrating at the time, because it was hard to find enough of the right kind of reviews and online tutorials. There are plenty of people that will go to great lengths to explain how to achieve success in different combinations of the first three guidelines, but the challenge was finding information on all four. After learning a few things here and there I started to formulate a list of things that I wanted to incorporate into my new build.

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