4. Components Table

The total cost for the entire package is $1,004, including the CPU ($118), which is not listed in the above table and excluding a display (but we assume you’ve got a TV set to which you’ll find a way to attach your media PC, preferably using HDMI direct or through an A/V receiver). If you wanted to bring the price down still further, consider making one or more of the following substitutions:

Switch to a cheaper DVD burner. Right now, you can pick up a faster, dual-layer SATA Lite-On model with LightScribe support at Newegg for $42. This saves $79.

Replace the nice, quiet and powerful CoolerMaster 430W power supply with the equally nice and quiet but not as powerful Seasonic S12-330 ATX 12V 330W power supply for $60. This saves $39.

Replace the nice, quiet, and relatively spacious Nmedia HTPC 500 case with the HTPC 300 case from the same vendor for $50. This saves $110.

Choosing to implement all three cost-savings drops the total system cost by $228, to $776. That’s pretty inexpensive for the capability it can bring to your living or family room. In our final day summary, we’ll show you how to get even more capability by cutting corners in a couple of areas while adding better components in others.

A Closer Look At The Asus M2A-VM HDMI

In the time between our last story on HDMI PCs, and the time we started this one, we received the HDMI version of the Asus M2A-VM, which is a nice, micro-ATX motherboard that retails for about $80. It’s amazing how much functionality you can buy for under $100 nowadays.

You can’ t do much to tweak performance on this board: it’s clearly not aimed at overclockers or overclocking. It puts the emphasis on media handling, right where it belongs. We don’t see much value in overclocking media PCs simply because "cool and quiet" also describes our preferred operating state as well as AMD’s trade name for its temperature controls.