Building an HD HTPC.

Id go with the E21xx series and overclock to save money on CPU.
Power supply should be fine.
Get a Blue ray burner instead of combo. It looks like HD-DvD has died.
Vista has better MCE than 2005.
The TV hookup might cause you trouble. You need a Video card that can do video and audio through DVI-HDMI, or your TV has to have a HDMI port with seperate analog audio next to it. If you go DVI to HDMI on a regular HDMI it will cause problems because it will look for audio to and put out static or squeal if there is no audio. You could go with this. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814500006

FYI:
Dont expect to get HD Tv to come through the computer from cable or Satellite so you can record. There is no way to do it.

I have no idea what "cap" is. I assume copying or something. Well if you are a pirate you arent gonna have the basic HTPC setup. I suppose they record via their suppliers DVR box take it apart and transfer the HDD content to another HDD in a computer.

Anywho who gives a crap. The OP wont be going through great links to steal HD content. To try to hook HD content from satellite to a computer is not legally done so get a life. Otherwise explain to the OP how it can be done if you are so highly intelligent. Goodbye!

I should clarify that this system is already built with XP MCE installed but I'm upgrading the video card, sound card and hd optical.

I was going to output video only through the 8800gt with a dvi to hdmi adapter. and the audio through the sound card via optical spdif which will go to my audio receiver. I'm not really interested in recording hd video, I allready have a Bell HD PVR satellite receiver for that. I might record some SD stuff but recording isn't really a big deal, I'm more concerned about HD video playback.

I should note that I'm already outputting the video via dvi to hdmi using a x1650, and my sound outputting through mobo onboard sound optical spdif and it works perfectly. I'm just wondering now if I can do the same thing when playing back HD video with an 8800gt and auzentech X-Fi prelude, the prelude has optical spdif output.

you can buy hi def cable recorders from dell for like 50 bucks !
look into it ------

^or a silent with HD decode ( I believe you can get silent 3850s from Saphire).

I agree on the videocard overkill, I wouldnt go higher than a silent 8600gt, unless gaming is also a priority. keeping an 8800gt cool and quiet is a steep task. If you use a receiver for surround then the audio over hdmi isnt a big concern unless your receiver has hdmi in for audio and switching video to the display. If I remember right, dvi is hdcp compliant if the card supports hdcp and then a dvi-hdmi cable will suffice for the video and onboard optical to the reciever handles the audio. Works great in my mce05 setup but Im not outputting hidef yet. My standard def dvds look great on my 720p lcd upscaled with a 7600gt.