HTPC

I have decided that it is time to make a home theatre PC. Not that I have a hometheater, far from it, as can be evidenced by the SD plasma and PS2 running as the DVD player.

In any case I want to be able to watch TV on the couch. The second reason is my gigantic case is actually running out of room and I need another computer to stash some more storage space into.

I have done a lot of research and have decided on intel because its going to be cooler and therefore need less fans, better sound and they just 'feel' more reliable than AMD's.

Proposed Parts:

• Intel i3 530 $140
• Gigabyte H55M-S2H $100
• Corsair Select Value DDR3 1x2gb $70
• WD 2TB green $180
• Wifi Card $45

All this will cost me around $500, which is a good starting budget, I know these sorts of projects tend to get quite costly over the long run so I don't want to blow my budget on the initial purchase.

I was going to put all my HDD in the one box, but then realised that running 10+HDD whilst trying to watch a movie is not going to work. So I will need to build a server, which I will build after setting up the HTPC.

To save some money I will initially use some old parts:

• Case
• PSU
• DVD drive
• HDD

At the beginning I am going to use an old wired Keyboard & Mouse, obviously I will need to purchase a wireless set and a remote. Having looked into the items that I desire this is going to cost me an additional $500 on input devices alone. So I will have to work out their importance and buy them in that order.


I think the first major upgrade will have to be the case as I suspect my Mum in particular will be dissatisfied with having a noisy beige box sitting in the lounge room. There is no budget for the case as its going to be the ‘face’ of the show and is what will sell the idea.

I realise its going cost a lot of money but once setup it will be pretty awesome and hopefully should last quite a while.

New Keyboard

My keyboard at work is stuffed because of the backspace getting stuck. So I decided to get something more comfortable and ergonomic since I sit here for most of the day and dont want to develop a blood clot in my wrists. There isnt much to choose from and most of the ergonomic ones are quite weird and I dont have the patience to develop a new typing style, and since I wont be using an ergo at home (I game) its too difficult. Just like when I went through the phase of using my left hand for my mousing at work and right hand at home for gaming... eventualy you do get used to it but the main problem is that you are shit at both left and right hanndedness. So you end up sucking at games and eveything. Its also weird trying to explain this to you coworkers that you want to develop your ambidexterity. I currently have the Logitech 600 media keyboard and is quite nice to use, has medium keys, like a hybrid between regular keys and laptop keys. In that respect its perfect. Its quitet and has a nice wheel to control the volume of music and some nice internet buttons AND the dual function keys which are acutally usefull. On top of that its nice looking and doesnt take up too much realestate. Some fancier keyboards take up way too much space. Its also only $30. Its also not too bad for gaming, havent had any issues on that front.

Initial installation works great out of the box. Most importantly its nice and comfy, the mouse is tehawesomz on the fly dpi change :-p

However, after restarting about 78 times the keyboard is not recognised in setpoint, the mouse is so I could change the settings, but not the keyboard. Hopefully I will find a solution soon.

Click Click Schwooghhhhsss

Got my broken camera back today. The function selector could not be fixed which is a shame. But I now have a working camera so now I can get back to taking pictures of upskirts kittens and fields of wheat.

Conversely my GPS has decided to shit it self and have no sound. Which because I have it on the power saving mode, the screen is often off and the first thing I recognise is the sound as I don't look at it constantly. Having the screen turn off is quite helpful as you are not constantly looking at, even though its a straight road with no turns for the next 8.3km.

And tomorrow me and a trolley will attempt to move my bookcase back upstairs. If I die you can have all my books. They will not be any use to me as I will be dead and have no bookcase.

The Ultimate Collection

1 Transformers Collection.

$1,000,000