New to the HTPC world needs help

What is your budget?
What is your TV input (over the air or cable/satellite)?
What size/type case are you wanting?
Where will you be buying from?

You have several options. You can get an AMD APU setup or an Intel i3 setup. The AMD is a bit cheaper, and I believe more power efficient (not positive on that though, the i3 is pretty efficient also). I would stay away from Atom builds, I just have not had luck with them.
Once we have a budget and such, more specific stuff can be suggested.

I personally use Windows 7's built in Windows Media Center (WMC) for navagation/playback. My wife (who is a bit of a technophobe) and 2 kids (ages 6 and 9 now, but they had it figured out at age 4) can use the interface very easily to watch and record TV, watch Netflix and access our stored videos. Hulu does not have a built in interface with WMC, but their is a plug in that works OK for it and allows you to use your WMC remote and Hulu Desktop. I also use MyMovies for my DVD collection (I save them in .iso format).

you can get a cheap AMD APU the E-350 and would be more than enough for htpc and some minor gaming. it's really cheap and very power efficient.

I use XBMC(windows media center-like program) on my htpc. my parents can use the interface very well with the wireless xbox 360 controller that I have in the living room.(I have the xmbc program on the home shortcut key on my wireless keyboard) my dad watches movies and boxing videos without problems. very userfriendly interface

edit:

almost forgot. about watching/recording tv you can do it using MythTV plugin on XBMC

this is the specs of the htpc that I recommend.

AMD E-350 APU
single stick 4gb ram (they're really cheap nowadays so more is better )
cheap microatx case with generic PSU
1TB HDD
DVD drive or Blu-ray drive
IR remote for pc (configure it via x-padder)
Edited by jprovido - 12/22/11 at 6:25am

this^

XBMC is a great front end for your htpc as for components you dont really need alot of power as stated before an amd APU should do 1080 playback just fine ive got a 9600gso in mine and it works just fine as for the tv part youll need a decient TV tuner card and from what ive read if you want a good experience shy away from the cheaper tuner cards look at around the $50-60 range and you should be good

The hauppauge cards used to be great and still seem to be the preferred card around here you dont need much in the way of memory probably 2gb would get you going just fine but with the current price of memory I would just go ahead and slap 4gb on there

One thing to remember about the APU chips is that the gpu uses your memory as gpu memory so picking up some deficient memory will help out your graphics
Edited by racer86 - 12/22/11 at 6:31am

This would be a great start for your htpc the total is $409 before shipping the 1866 memory is to help with the gpu and I went with a tripple core because it has better integraded graphics than the basic dual cores and could easily be OC to 3ghz (this will also help to OC the gpu) to make for a nice media center pc with out too much heat or power consumption.

The board is nothing special but then again you dont need a super board for a htpc it has plenty of expandability with the extra pci and pci-e slots.

The case is a little pricy however Its is nice and small while still retaining 9 3.5 in HDD bays which is awesome plus you get the great quality of the lian li brand

This also leaves you $300 to set your self up with drives an raid cards should you want them.

If you want a super easy and user friendly front end Windows Media Center usually works with the remotes that come with TV tuner cards and would be really simple to navigate using just the remote. Also dont hold me to it but i THINK WMC also supports netflix and hulu plugins but i could be wrong.

Also if you want a all in one mouse keyboard logitech makes a pretty nice combo set up


Edited by racer86 - 12/22/11 at 9:58am

Try this:

APU: A4-3400 2.7 Ghz - this is 65W TDP processor which would would save you money on electricity and would work great for your HTPC, it is much better than the A6 & A8 (100W TDP) in terms of power draw, and for an HTPC the IGP on the A4 (AMD Radeon HD 6410D) is more than enough and you don't need more than 2 cores if this is going to be a media player! - $70
MoBo: ECS A75F-M2 FMI Socket - I used this for my build, great MoBo no problems so far, and at the price it is unbeatable! - $50
Case: Silverstone GD05 Black - great case for an HTPC, free shipping on Amazon! The depth is awesome and would fit easily in a any media console! - $84
PSU: Cooler Master GX 450W - $40 (after MIR)
ODD: LG Blu Ray Reader - $60
OS: Win 7 Home Premium. You did not include an O/S in your parts list, unless you are planning to run Linux/XBMC, this is what I would recommend! - $100
SSD: Patriot Pyro 60 GB (boot drive - only for O/S) - $80
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1.5 TB - cheapest and comparatively better one available right now! - $120
TV TUNER Card: Hauppauge 1213 WinTV-HVR-2250 - Dual TV Tuner (meaning you can watch one channel and record another)! You can get the OEM version of the same without the remote and maybe save some money, not much of a diff though! - $108

Total Cost: $712

Optional Items: If needed you can get a I/O device, like a HTPC keyboard with a touch-pad - like this one - Rii Mini - I use this and like it so far, it is backlit which is a huge plus for me as I use it in a dark room (mostly), it does what it says it will do! - $28

The major cost item is your HDD because of the flood in Thailand, if you can use any old HDD's for the time being you might get a larger and better drive for less or the same price after production is restored to normalcy and the current sky-high prices drop!

I would suggest build this and run WMC (boot into WMC, it is an option available under tasks), you would not even realize this a normal computer! Y

You would have to add on Hulu and Boxee integration if you need those - read this to learn how to, Netflix is built in in Win 7 WMC! I have mine with all those add on's and I would recommend Kylo as well!

Good luck, post some pictures once you are done!

one thing the above poster forgot was memory lol also the dual cores are great however if you want to compress the video files from the huge sizes they will be when you record them I would recommend atleas the tripple core and some OCing

also the coolermaster PSUs are meh in terms of quality

also as great as they are an SSD is not needed in a media center build as it will probablly only be running 1-2 programs at a time and almost always be on its a waste of money IMO for a media center I would just create a small OS partition on whatever drive you get and use that

Cable..... digital, analogue, or encrypted cable? Do you have any premium channels?


If so, you may need a CableCard tuner instead.

Yes I did forget the RAM sorry about that OP - I copied one of my replies on another thread about a similar build and tailored it to fit your needs and that guy had RAM sticks lying around from an old system I guess!

So here is an addition to my existing build -

RAM:
Kingston Hyper X Blu - 4 GB - 2x2 sticks would be more than enough for an HTPC! Then also you will never use all of it for the uses that you intend to use this system for, so no need to waste money on 8 GB - $25

Total Cost = $712 + $25 = $737

The PSU would work just fine, or your can look at the PSU in my HTPC build, not loud or hot! Of course if you can get a modular PSU it is going to be better for cable management but you would have to dish out out much more for that (not needed)!

CPU:
Not to say racer86 does not know what he is talking about but I would not ever OC an HTPC system - for what? Overclocking with the stock cooler in a crammed HTPC case is not recommended at all! Please don't kill your CPU, plus you really don't need the extra juice that bad, 2.1 or 2.7 clock speed is more than sufficient for what you want!

Cores:
Now about cores, what I said for RAM goes for cores too, you don't need more than a dual core system for playing movies really!

Cores vs. speed is an interesting discussion. We often refer to motor vehicles when talking about CPUs. A traditional quad core CPU being more like a truck... it can haul a big load but won't be winning a race onto the freeway. That's why I use cheap AMD quads in office builds. I know that as the user loads up the system with junk (and they always do) the CPU will continue to carry the load and not bog down.

Intel has changed this a bit though. The newer CPUs ramp up when just one or two cores are needed, making the quad cores behave like the sports car when needed and the truck when needed. That's not so true with Llano, so you want the race winner here for an HTPC not the big 18 wheeler truck, that is very nice for a gaming system or a work system, not a media player (which is what your HTPC is)!

You want to win the race on the freeway with an HTPC processor, and you don't want to bog it down with junk on the system, applications or programs and have it carry a lot of load. That is what you have a desktop for! With an HTPC you want to install what you want to install when you build it and then shut it and forget about it, and treat it no different than a DVD player or a AV receiver, set the O/S and applications to auto update and forget about tinkering with the software or hardware! Only do it if you absolutely need to!

So, If the choice is between no. of cores and clock speed of the processor, I would choose the one with the higher clock speed and lower cost! Hence the choice would be A4.

SSD:
This is a good to have part not a must have, your system would work well without this too! But I would include this if your wallet allows it, and your stated budget did , hence the suggestion! I have it in my HTPC for one reason and one reason only, that is for a faster boot times!

You don't want to treat or think of the HTPC any different than your other AV equipment, you or your family don't want to switch the thing on and wait for it start working, you want it to work immediately and an SSD was suggested for this purpose! I use it and it lets me forget that this system is actually a computer at all!

I have actually moved the User and Program Data folders (the most space consuming Windows folders) to my HDD and left the Program Files and other Windows folders int he SSD, that ways the SSD won't get bloated with more apps or programs - here is how I learned how to do that - only if you are worried about space in your 60GB SSD! Otherwise just install your O/S on the SSD and then connect your HDD and start using the system as normal!

This is true, I don't have cable and hence don't know much about the premium channels, but if that is indeed what you want to do then, get a Cable card from your cable provider and a different tuner that would work with the card, like a Ceton - have heard this is the best out there, but it is insanely expensive and would eat almost half of your budget!

Someone else might be able to suggest a lower costing option!