Building a HTPC, seek comments and advices.

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So I'm building a mid-range HTPC for my living room around 600-650$
So far I've got the following components, any thought ? I've already have an HDTV btw.

1. AMD Athlon II X3 455 Rana 3.3GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor,
2. MSI 880GMA-E55 AM3 AMD 880G SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard -- I assume the on board Radeon HD4200 will be enough for HD video and some light gaming (i.e. Civilization V)
3. nMEDIAPC Black Aluminum / Acrylic / Steel HTPC 1080P Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
4. 2x Kingston ValueRAM 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
5. Diablotek PHD Series PHD380M 380W Micro ATX Power Supply
6. HITACHI Deskstar 7K3000 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
7. LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray Reader SATA Model iHOS104-06
8. GIGABYTE KM7580 Black 2.4GHz Wireless Keyboard with wireless mouse
9. nMEDIAPC Black Aluminum / Acrylic / Steel HTPC 1080P Micro ATX Media Center
10. Rosewill WMC Remote control/Rcvr RRC-127 for Win 7

Now I worry 380W won't be enough to power all that, will it ?

 

There's a lot of untapped potential in the world of internet video streaming, with service such as TED, revision3, netfllix etc. Boxee is a wonderful software that delivers that content in a TV-viable UI. I also like to digitize my content off DVDs and CDs, hence the 2TB drive. Plus I figured someone, somewhere, figured out how to ripp stuff from Blu-ray by now. And as far as I know that role is exactly what an HTPC does .

Well that's good news for the PSU, I had trouble finding a PSU in mATX form factor who offered more than 400W anyway. I favor mATX because I genuinely like the case model, it looks like more like a piece of A/V tech than a computer, and fit more in a living room. The smaller fans in an HTPC means less heat and noise too.

Edit: Just out of curiosity how much would a TVtuner card cost ? Although the ATSC over-the-air transition won't be complete here until late summer, plus the only channel that would interest me is the CBC which already "broadcast" most of their shows through the internet. My other option is cable and will most certainly use encryption. I just don't see the advantage of using one.

 

3.3 Rana ghz for a htcp? A 840 X4 propus costs about the same. it gives you 4 cores with oly 0.1 ghz less. It also uses 95 watt.

Add graphics card for light gaming. As an amd fanboy I suggest 5570 to 5670.

 

Since this is a HT system, I would recommend that the CDs be convereted to Flacs, seeing as you have that much space. Most newer HT receivers should not have a problem with flacs [although you may wish to check] and you can network your PC directly into a HT receiver provided it has the networking card installed. Some people claim that there is no difference between MP3s and Flacs, but testing proves there is:

I tend to agree with this, and replaced all of my lossy files with flacs, including those ripped from vinyl, except for use with my Creative Zen, which does not support Flacs. If the music is only played in a car system, or on an iPod or other mobile device, there will be no difference that can be audible to most people, but on a quality home theater system it may be an issue. Again, there are many factors that can affect the overall sound quality and often there will still be only very small differences. However, if you have the space, why not go for what is the best quality?

http://www.stereophile.com/features/308mp3cd

 

Most of my music is already in flac or PCM (i.e. raw) format, as a snoby audiophile I'm well aware of the evil of lossy encoding The extra space was mostly for movies anyway. Anyway, thanks for the tips, the phenom II X4 840 seems nice, plus it can fit on the mobo, which always nice.