Home Theater PC (HTPC) – the latest buzz in the technology circuit is here to make human life more confortable and entertaining. A PC that includes home entertainment is the ultimate solution everywhere. The vast consumers of HTPC includes families and singles.
Building Home Theater on PC is an exciting feature and can be done much confortably with minimum understanding of assembling technology. HTPC can be built on the same cabinet with necessary components. Following are the machinery required to assemble a Home Theater PC. Their costs also have been mentioned and the brand is given in parentheses. These products are suggested by experts in the field and one can check with the quality by goig through individual reviews.
Essential Parts for HTPC: 1. Motherboard (ASUS M3A7B- EMH HDMI) 2. CPU (AMD Athlon 64 X 2 4800+ 3. RAM (1GB DDR2 RAM) 4. Hard Drive (Seagate 250 GB Sata) 5. DVD Writer (LG DVD RW) 6. Graphics card (Zotac GeForce 210 Synergy 512 MB DDR2) 7. TV Tuner (AverMedia Speedy PCle) 8. Cabinet (SilverStone LC20B-M) 9. Wireless Keyboard and Mouse (Logitech wireless Desktop MK250) 10. Operating System (Windows 7 Ultimate). Most of the parts from the above list are available as old parts with your used PC and some can be purchased.)
These are Optional Components… 1. ITX motherboard: Rs. 4000- 4500 (Zotac, Gigabyte) 2. Processor: Rs. 2500- 3000 (Intel, AMD) 3. Graphics Card: Rs. 2200- 2500 (Zotac, XFX, Sapphire) 4. TV Tuner: Rs. 1300- 1500 (Amkette, Hoppage, AverMedia) 5. Cabinet: Rs. 2500- 3000 (SilverStone, Cooler Master) 6. Optical Drive : Rs. 1000- 1200 (Sony, Benq, ASUS, Samsung) 7. Operating System: Rs. 9500- 10800 (Windows 7 Ultimate 8. Media Center Software : Freeware (XBMC, Boxee, Fucion, Media portal, Moovida, GB-PVR) 9. Codec Packs: Free (K-lite, ACE Mega CoDecS Pack, X Codec Pack) 10. Wireless Keyboard and Mouse: Rs. 1000- 1200 (iBall, Logitech, Microsoft) 11. Webcam: Rs. 600- 800 (iBall, Logitech, Microsoft) 12. Bluetooth Dongle: Rs. 240- 300 (SMC, Enter) 13. Presentation Remote: Rs. 900- 1200 (iBall, Kensington) 14. Wi-Fi module: Rs. 1200- 1500 (D-Link, Linksys) 15. Memory Card Reader: Rs. 250- 300 (Enter, iBall) 16. NAS: Rs. 12500- 15000 (YES, Buffalo)
Follow these steps to build HTPC: Step I: Just unplug the power socket of you PC. Next unscrew all the components from your old PC. If you have purchased any of the components, unseal them. Now reassemble the old or purchased components inside the new cabinet.
Step II: Add following accessories: Optical drive, remote control interface, extra hard drive and other components.
Step III: Its time to install operating system. You can choose and install OS of your choice. And also install media playback software. It is always better to go for latest drivers available for all the hardware you have purchased.
Last Step: You have to connect the HTPC to your TV. And also plug in the receiver for the wireless peripherals. Just relax and enjoy!