Budget HTPC which can also act as a server/ backup <1000 dollars

Antec Mini P180 Black Steel MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... ($79.99)

Antec earthwatts EA500 500W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.0 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC "Compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... ($69.99 + Free Shipping)

Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... ($199.99 + Free Shipping)

GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... ($109.99 + Free Shipping)

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-4GBRH - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... ($94.99 + Free Shipping)

(2) Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... ($169.98 + Free Shipping)
RAID 1 - Redundancy

LG Black 8X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-ROM SATA Internal Combo LG Blu-ray Reader & 16X LightScribe DVD±R DVD Burner - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... ($129.99 + Free Shipping)

COOLER MASTER Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7 compatible RR-B10-212P-GP 120mm "heatpipe direct contact" Long life sleeve CPU Cooler - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... ($29.99)

EVGA 01G-P3-1155-TR GeForce GTS 250 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail*
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... ($134.99 w/ $20 MIR)

Total: $1,019.91

*What kind of gaming do you plan on doing? This would do alright for most games, but if you aren't playing anything resource intensive, then a 9600 would be fine and would save you some money.

You will be hard-pressed to fit all that hardware in an HTPC case, I suggested a microATX case that has great sound proofing, and a small footprint.

Edit: Forgot to suggest a Tuner, the one linked above is great, though you mention blu-ray watching, do you already have a standalone blu-ray player or do you need this HTPC to be able to play them? If its the former, then dropping the blu-ray reader to a dvd-burner and adding the tuner keeps you at the same cost.

The problem with low-profile HTPC cases is that you rarely get more than two internal hard drive bays. Three internal bays on a low-profile case seems to come with a premium to cost. Also, when you start cramming in a lot of hardware, it's going to restrict airflow and your system is going to start heating up. If you are dead set on a low profile HTPC case, though, I'd recommend using your current system as your file server and having just the minimal hardware in your HTPC (one hard drive, low-end graphics card or just onboard), no sound card (on-board is generally good enough).

If you're not gaming on this system then you certainly do not need any of the above suggested cards, but I would still go with a discrete card (like the HD4350, low-profile/passive cooling) or at the very least have one on standby.

Case: Moneual LAB Silver Aluminum MonCaso 312S - $199.99
Power Supply: Antec Earthwatts 430 - $49.99
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H - $89.99
CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz - $62.99
Memory: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 - $70.99
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 250GB Drive - $47.99
Optical Drive: LG Black 8X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-ROM - $129.99
Graphics Card (optional): ASUS HD4350 - $37.99
TV Tuner Card: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 Media Center Kit
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista w/Tech Guarantee - $109.99

If you hold off on the graphics card, you'll have enough in your budget to include a Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM 1TB SATAII - $89.99

With the graphics card and minus the 1TB hard drive, total is $929.90 + S&H
With the 1TB hard drive and minus the graphics card, total is $981.90 + S&H

This one seems to meet my criteria perfectly. The only thing is the video card doesn't seem to have HDMI, but I guess I could just use DVI => HDMI converter. I really like the case, and it seems like it would fit everything comfortably. What do you mean by "in-the-clear" QAM channels? I will have a cable service but their DVR sucks and can only hold like a half hour of HD stuff. Thanks again, this really helped.

In the clear QAM channels are channels that the cable provider doesn't require a set-top box to decode. These are the same channels you would get if you plugged a cable signal directly into a HDTV. You won't get any of your premium cable channels without setting up the existing cable box to run through the computer and using an IR blaster.

I just suggested that GPU because it was in the combo with the CPU and motherboard. I'm not sure why you prefer Nvida. I would actually suggest a 4850 with integrated HDMI. Any of these would work:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=E...