4. Each Component Considered, Continued

Pioneer's BDR-101A Blu-ray DVD Drive

The Toshiba TS-L802A HD-DVD DVD Drive

We settled on Pioneer BDR-101A Blu-ray and Toshiba TS-L802A HD-DVD DVD players. Try as we might, we couldn't find an LG hybrid GGW-H10 Blu-ray/HD-DVD drive, either. At $1,200 a pop, however, it definitely helps propel our suggestions for ways to spend more money on a top-of-the-line media PC. See the components table in the next section for a suggestion for alternatives using X-Box and PS3 DVD players.

Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500MCE for standard TV

AverMedia AVerTVHD MCE 180 for HDTV

We chose two old familiar TV tuner cards for our build, because they're tried and true, and do what we need them to do. For standard television, we picked the dual-tuner Hauppauge WinTV-PVR500MCE (one for recording, the other for watching), and for HDTV, we picked the AverMedia AVerTVHD MCE 180. Here again, that took care of all our open PCI slots, even in this full-size ATX board!