Is now the time to build an HTPC?

[tshort63]

I've enjoyed building PCs and have designed but never ordered a couple of HTPCs but each time I get ready it seems like the technology or components mutate -rather than evolve. With PCs things get smaller, or bigger, or faster or cheaper but the basics stay fundamentally the same.

What has me stumped -for now- is how to deploy a 5 TV system with Windows Media Center and "extenders". I am fine with the Ceton quad card, and cable cards from Comcast seem simple enough but when I start looking at adding extenders making my TV set-up another network I begin to question my sanity and/or if I fully understand where this technology is drifting. I assume there is not an answer (and if there was that person would be off with a successful start-up and not on the board) but can anyone shed light on where this technology is headed?

If it helps here is what I currently have with U-verse: one central DVR, one main TV with four other remote TVs with set-top boxes. Would I change that out for one main HTPC and 4 remote Cisco-Linksys Media Center Extenders? It is not so much the $$ as it is not wanting to buy the last dot matrix printer only to see ink jets come to the front...

Thanks for any thoughts....

 

[Mr Pizza]

No, this is not the time to build an HTPC. HTPC's need a decent graphics card and yes, there are many options, cheap too! But they will get cheaper. The Radeon 5XXX series are coming out around October 12th and by mid-October the 5XXX should be way down, build your HTPC then. It's not that long of a wait, nothing else is really coming out for HTPCs soon after that.