HTPC Realized

I received the parts to build my HTPC on March 20. My son and I put it together the following day, and the system has been running solidly for two months.

There are some improvements I'd still like to make, but the overall system is VERY stable, does everything I wanted it to do, and came in at $556 including shipping. Coupled with a $250 LCD monitor, we built the system for $806; well under my target of $900.

Component list, prices from Newegg.com

HTPC   CASE COMPUCASE|7K09 RT           $48.99
MB     GIGABYTE GA-MA78GPM-DS2H 770 RT  $94.99
CPU    AMD|A64 X2 4850E 2.5G AM2        $55.99
MEM    1Gx2|CRUC CT2KIT12864AA800 x2    $45.98
HD     500G|SEAGATE ST3500418AS         $59.99
KB&MS  MICROSOFT|65X-00024 WIRLS OPT    $21.99
BD ROM LITE-ON|DH-4O1S-58 4X BK RTL     $89.99
MS WIN VISTA HM PREM SP1 64BIT 1PK%     $99.99
SHIPPING                                $38.27
----------------------------------------------
                                       $556.18

I had a decent 3.1 surround sound PC speaker system, which although completely inadequate, "works for now".

I also salvaged a 120GB SATA notebook hard drive for use as a boot/OS drive. Thus the 500GB drive is used only for media, and will soon be supplemented by network-attached RAID storage.

This machine performs flawlessly to display DVD's, BD's, online or stored digital content.

Upgrades I'm considering are:
1) Better speakers. The integrated sound on the Gigabyte MB supports 7.1
2) Windows Media Center-compatible remote control
3) Bigger LCD. Eventually I'd like to get a larger display, but for now, the 25.5" Hannspree is really just fine.