It would not be correct to say that money was no object with my MythTV HTPC build, but I did want something special, something I would be proud of, and a HTPC that performed well as well as looking good. Therefore keeping costs down wasn't my primary objective. I bided my time and got the most important part - the chassis - mint in box off eBay after waiting for the correct one to turn up. The hardware was selected to be good enough to do a job whilst having headroom to spare and to have all the functionality I will need for the foreseeable future. Due to work constraints I wasn't able to build the box immediately and many of the components languished for close to a year thus resulting in poor economy when you consider that technology prices generally fall over a period of time.
Chassis | Antec Fusion Remote Black (S/hand, MIB) | eBay | £107.00 |
Motherboard | ASRock H77M Socket 1155, Intel H77, DDR3, S-ATA 600, Micro ATX | Amazon | £64.99 |
CPU | Intel Core i3 3225 Dual Core CPU (Socket 1155, 3.30GHz, 3MB Cache, Ivy Bridge, 55W) | Amazon | £107.50 |
CPU Fan | Scythe SCKZT-1000 Kozuti Low-Profile CPU Cooler | Kustom PCs | £25.00 |
Memory | Corsair CML8GX3M2A1600C9 Vengeance Low Profile 8GB | Amazon | £68.38 |
PSU | picoPSU-160-XT 12v 160W & AC Power Adapter 12V, 150W | Kustom PC | £60.00 |
Solid State Disk | SanDisk SDSSDP-064G-G25 64GB Pulse SATA 6GB/s 2.5 Inch Internal SSD | Amazon | £50.31 |
Satellite Card | TBS6981 PCI-E DVB S2 HD Dual Tuner Card | Amazon | £84.99 |
Optical Drive | LiteOn IHAS124-04 24x SATA DVD±RW ±R | eBay | £12.96 |
USB Card | 5 Port High Speed 4+1 Extra USB 2.0 Host PCI Advanced VIA Gaming PC Card Adapter | eBay | £3.27 |
Firewire Card | PCI FIREWIRE CARD 1394 400 FOR DV CAM CORDER HARD DISK 4 PORT 6 PIN 4 PIN CABLE | eBay | £6.94 |
Cover Plate | PSU gap cover / blanking plate. | eBay | £10.40 |
Optical Cable | Audio Lead 2m TOSLink SPDIF Cable | eBay | £5.99 |
HDMI Cable | High quality 2m | eBay | £5.99 |
ATX Cable | ATX 20 Pin Female to 24 Pin Male Internal PC PSU Power Adaptor Cable | eBay | £2.19 |
ATX Cable | ATX 20 Pin to 20 Pin PSU Power Extension Adaptor Cable Lead | eBay | £2.89 |
LAN Cable | Cat 5e patch cable 5m | Maplin | £11.99 |
SATA Cable | SATA extension power and data cable | eBay | £2.99 |
SATA Cable | SATA male to female power splitter | eBay | £2.95 |
TOTAL | £636.73 |