Build Your Own HTPC

Next on the list was the motherboard - this is one area where we weren't short on alternatives. We came across many motherboards that would fit our needs, and spent ages amongst spec sheets, trying to digest the buffet that lay before us. Our colleague and hardcore techie, Anand Tuliani recommended the ASUS M3N78-EM; trusting his word (and the fact that he knows a truck-load more about hardware than we do), we took the plunge and bought it.

The M3N78-EM features solid build quality and supports AMD's socket AM2+/AM2 processors. It supports DDR2 1066Mhz, has on-board Optical S/PDIF output (optical sound out), and a plethora of secondary features, including an on-board NVidia 8300 video card. The board cost us Rs. 5,000.

CPU
AMD Phenom II X3 720

If you're going to back-up a lot of BluRay movies, or wish to do any sort of encoding/decoding, having a great processor is a must. We're aware that other than this, there's not much reason to buy a high-end processor, but we just wanted a strong work-horse that could do our bidding to its best.

Again, on Anand's recommendation we picked the AMD Phenom II X3 720 (we wanted to pick the 710, but it was out of stock almost everywhere). We had to pick between AMD's tri-core and Intel's dual-core processors (Core2Duo); since the extra core benefited us more (for smoother multitasking) than Intel's extra raw power, we stuck to to the Phenom II X3 720. The processor cost us Rs. 9,150.

Graphic Card
Sparkle Low Profile 9600 GT

We had a bit of trouble locating a low-profile 9600GT in the market, since most dealers had only 9400GTs. We finally came across the distributor named Abacus, that sells Sparkle's low profile cards - one of which was the 9600 GT. Without thinking twice, we took the dive. The 9400GT might have worked too, but we wanted the best we could get at a reasonable price, so that we can play all those 1080p movies without too much trouble. Also, should we choose to game, the 9600 GT is a respectable card! The card set us back by Rs. 10,000. If you face any difficulty in finding these cards at your local dealer, you can always email Abacus Peripherals at shreeya@abacusperipherals.com to know more about local availability.

Update: As some of you guys pointed out, the 9600 GT is available for way cheaper now (about Rs. 6500). We bought this card a while back, and didn't update the price. Sorry about that; thanks for pointing it out!