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    Building a HTPC

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    Finally Assembly

    Finally assembly went extremely smooth thanks in part to the two custom length power cables.  The only fully exposed power wire is the 12v CPU cable.  The plug position placed the cable either across the Northbridge heatsink or directly in front of the exhaust fans.  Considering my options it was chosen to leave the cooling route as open as possible.

    The whole install took about five hours start to finish including the various mods and getting an OS installed.  
    System Shopping List
    Motherboard:  Gigabyte GA-880GMA-UD2H
    Processor: AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition
    Memory: 4GB G.Skill
    Heatsink: AMD OEM Dual Heatpipe
    PSU: Thermaltake TR2 650w
    Video Card: Palit GTS 450
    Storage: 2x Seagate 500GB 7200rpm SATA3
    Case: nMediaPC 1080P
    Optical: LG Blu-ray SATA
    Intended Upgrades
    Heatsink:  Scythe Big Shuriken
    Audio: AuzenTech AZT-FORTE X-Fi Forte 7.1
    Keyboard / Mouse: Logitech MX 5500 Revolution
    LED Screen: nMediaPC programmable LED
    Fans: 2x 15mm 80mm fans on thermal sensors
    Building a HTPC can be a fun and rewarding process provided you put forth some planning.  While this particular build may not meet your needs from a hardware and form factor standpoint it happens to be perfect for me. 
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