Read the following article from Anandtech to get an idea of the type of hardware you need for a PC that is capable of Blu-Ray of HD-DVD playback:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2886
Basically you will want an C2D E6600 or Athlon X2 6000+ as a minimum CPU. You will also want to have a video card that is HDCP ready (as opposed to "capable"). The monitor you select also needs to be HDCP ready as well. As of the date of the article (2006), the nVidia 8xxx series is better than the ATI X1xxx series as offloading the decoding of HD content from the CPU.
HDCP = High-Bandwidth Digital Copy Protection
HD DVD content will be 1080p or 1080 vertical line using progressive scanning. That means if you were to buy an LCD monitor (as opposed to an HDTV) it would have to be at least a 24" LCD monitor.
22" monitors have resolutions of 1680 x 1050. That means they only have 1050 vertical lines; 30 lines short of being true HD 1080p. 24" thru 28" LCD monitors have resolutions of 1920 x 1200. The native resolution of 30" LCD monitors is 2560 x 1600, but you need two video cards to reach that resolution.
20" LCD monitors will be released later on in the year with native resolutions equal to the 24" LCD monitors, 1920 x 1200.
If you are looking to hook your PC upto a HDTV, then you need to make sure that the HDTV supports a resolution of 1920 x 1080. There are many LCD and plasma flat screens that have lower resolutiuon and therefore they are not 1080p compliant. The video card you buy should also have HDMI output.
The HDMI connections allows for both audio and video signal to pass through from the video card to the HDTV. However, as of now no video card I know of is capable of transmitting an audio signal through the HDMI connnection.
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I am currently outlining my next HTPC to be capable of Blu-Ray / HD-DVD playback, but I don't expect to build it until next year. Here's what I'm thinking:
My current primary rig will essentially become my next HTPC (see sig below). I want to upgrade my E6600 to a CPU based on Penryn which should come out late this year or early next year. The motherboard will also go into the HTPC was well since Penryn will most likely require an updated motherboard anyway.
I will carry over the Soundblaster Audigy 2 from my current HTPC into the next HTPC.
I will buy the 8600GTS (or it's successor) because by default most are HDCP ready. nVidia video cards also tends to use less electricity than thier ATI counterparts. That means less heat. Minimizing heat as much as possible is neccessary since that means case fans would not need to spin as fast to vent the heat. Read as less noise. I would also look for an 8600GTS that vents heat out the rear of the case instead of into the case. Such a card would take up two slots.
Here's an example of a 8600GTS that vents air out the back:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127284
Speaking about heat, you need a case with some good ventilation. The type of case really depends on the builder's tastes. I would perfer cases that uses 120mm fans because they can move as much as an 80mm fan at lower RPMs and less noise. It also needs to have enough drive bays for my needs. After doing some preliminary search, the SILVERSTONE SST-LC17-B is a case that I would consider:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163055
The body is not very wide and it might just be tall enough to fit my Scythe Ninja HSF. If there's not enough room then I just buy a shorter HSF and keep the Scythe Ninja for my Penryn CPU. The bad thing is the lack of 120mm fan support. I'm sure the 80mm fans that comes with it will be too loud for my tastes so I'll spend about $12 - $15 for each quiet 80mm that I will stick in the case. I think that works out to three 80mm fans; two rear and one side fan. That menas $36 - $45 just for quiet fans.
The number of drive bays is important to me, because ideally I would want my HTPC to have 4 hard drives and 1 Blu-Ray / HD-DVD Burner.
-One relatively small hard drive for the OS and programs (probably 160GB or so).
-Another relatively small hard drive used to store ripped DVDs that will be later encoded to DivX or H.264 files and then stored on the RAID 1 array. This is a separate drive because I expect this drive will be worked pretty hard and is most likely to fail.
-Two hard drives in a RAID 1 setup where all my media files will be stored. Should one hard drive fail, I will not loose all my data. These will be 750GB drive, if not 1TB drives. If I were to buy the drives now I would get the Seagate Barracuda ES ST3750640NS 750GB. These are relatively expensive drives in the 750GB category, then again they are Enterprise class drives instead of consumer level drives.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148152
As for the power supply, I would probably go for a Seasonic or Corsair (also made by Seasonic). They are reliable and very quiet, which is important for an HTPC. A 430w or 500w PSU will be more than enough for my build with lots of power to spare.
A wireless keyboard is a must. I currently have a Gyration wireless keyboard and "air" mouse combo. I may go with a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse combo for my next build and use a Targus presentation remote with a mouse trackball in place of Gyration's "air" mouse.
Anywaste, I got lots of time to think about for my next HTPC, but these are just some ideas running around in my head.
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