Very good combo for a mid-range HTPC, including full HD 1080p, Blu-Ray, HDMI, etc.
- Antec Black M Fusion Remote 350 Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case (includes Media Center Remote) - AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor - Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA Internal Hard Drive - Kingston HyperX T1 Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel - ASUS M4A785-M AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - LITE-ON Black BD-COMBO SATA Model ihes108-29 (includes PowerDVD OEM edition for Blu-ray playback)
The combo is about a $90 discount, which means the recent price jump of the DDR2 1066 is more than canceled out (vs. what it was running a month or so back).
Shipping, for me was, about $7. Normally these combos have free shipping, but this one wasn't completely free. Still very cheap and NO REBATE HASSLES!
Just add Win 7 RC, if you have a copy. If not, just search Fatwallet for alternative ways to get Win 7 cheaply. (Worst case, add another $107 for retail Win 7 Home Premium from Newegg.)
I've been pricing HTPC systems with similar configurations for months and this is the best (only?) combo I've found that includes a Blu-ray drive at this price.
- Record and timeshift HDTV - Playback every conceivable video format - Get the best quality playback for Hulu and Netflix (and other Flash-based video) - Want to do the best de-interlacing and scaling of SD or DVDs - Want the option of upgrading hardware down the road
In fact, the experts on the AVS forum would probably say this is a good start on an "entry-to-mid" level HD-capable AMD-based HTPC.
GWBush said: Give the Acer Aspire Revo a shot, $179.99 at Fry's. $199.99 at Amzn.
This is way too under powered by today's standards. No blue ray (the processor/graphics probably dont even have enough power to play blue ray even if you hook up a drive). No room for upgrade/expansion or what so ever. An absolutely terrible choice for HTPC.
The OP's deal is priced very good for what you get. However in my opinion since the 785G platform does not support 7.1 lossless HD audio, it's not worth buying if one were to build a new HPTC now (adding a dedicated video card will void the point of 785G obviously). It's better to go down a bit on the CPU/motherboard (for example a E5200 or phenom dual core combo can be bought for cheaper) and spend some extra $$ to get a ATI 4600 series (which supports 7.1 HD audio via LPCM) or better yet, a 5000 series video card which supports HD bit streaming (however low end 5000 series won't be out till Q1 2010 and current midrange models are a bit expensive for what they offer).
If you want to bitstream the newer HD audio formats, I suppose you could wait for and HD5xxx, or add a special audio card.
That wasn't the point of this combo. This is a mid-to-entry level SOLID HTPC, not the ultra-high end.
If you can find a comparable-performance HTPC build that does everything this one does, for a lower price...NEW and with a WARRANTY...then please educate me!
Nice config. Green from me. Don't sweat it if people get too critical. I learned in this post that people have very different goals when building an HTPC. For me, lowest price and low power consumption were important, so i recommended a much slower 45W processor.
Did you look at zipzoomfly for any of hte components. Sometimes I have seen that you can selectively cherry-pick your items from ZZF and Newegg to get the best overall price.
startover said: GWBush said: Give the Acer Aspire Revo a shot, $179.99 at Fry's. $199.99 at Amzn.
This is way too under powered by today's standards. No blue ray (the processor/graphics probably dont even have enough power to play blue ray even if you hook up a drive). No room for upgrade/expansion or what so ever. An absolutely terrible choice for HTPC.
The OP's deal is priced very good for what you get. However in my opinion since the 785G platform does not support 7.1 lossless HD audio, it's not worth buying if one were to build a new HPTC now (adding a dedicated video card will void the point of 785G obviously). It's better to go down a bit on the CPU/motherboard (for example a E5200 or phenom dual core combo can be bought for cheaper) and spend some extra $$ to get a ATI 4600 series (which supports 7.1 HD audio via LPCM) or better yet, a 5000 series video card which supports HD bit streaming (however low end 5000 series won't be out till Q1 2010 and current midrange models are a bit expensive for what they offer).
Not to mention, flash based video....or lack thereof on the Revo. (I'm talking about HD, of course)
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