Need advice building a new PC

GnomeWizardd

Waiting to build a home theater pc, I have a case left over from my old days before i went lappy, I wanna go cheap cool and quite, Main use would be hulu and surfing the net of the couch. I would like to be able to play SC II from it also. So throw me some ideas, I dont need super fast Its for mostly videos. No blue ray needed I have one alredy

GnomeWizardd

Ok how about we start out with A cheap mobo and CPU? amd / intel? I havent looked at hardware in over 2 years, Whats good and cheap now?

Thrax

What's your budget?

adarryl

I just finished an HTPC using this motherboard and would highly recommend it: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128394

What I liked, in particular, was the fact that it supports AM3/AM2+/AM2 processors, DDR2 RAM which is cheaper than DDR3, has eSATA, pretty decent graphics on-board for general purposes, a PCIe 16x slot if needed, HDMI interface plus some other goodies you may or may not need. Here is Gigabyte's product link: http://www.gigabyte.us/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=3278

Put a Phenom II X2,X3 or X4 on it I don't believe you can do much better for the money.

ardichoke

You could even throw an Athlon II X4 in it which will consume less power, require less cooling (quiet is good for HTPCs). You might not get the crushing power of a Phenom II from it, but for an HTPC it will do a damn fine job.

GnomeWizardd

My budget Thrax would be 300 or less, I have a Case/ Psu/ and HD already. Its a coolermaster wavemaster case so Micro ATX isnt a must