Oh no! My old HTPC died today, need to build a new one ASAP! ~$500-550

how did you old htpc die? maybe we can salvage parts.

I know you said that you have a preference for Intel but I just built my mom a PC using an Athlon II X2 260 and it runs super cool and quiet and will stream HD no problem.

I was actually able to build her system for about $325 and it would have zero issue doubling as a HTPC.

Here's what I used:

1 x BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
1 x COOLER MASTER Elite 460 RS-460-PSAR-J3 460W ATX12V V2.31 Power Supply
1 x AMD Gift - Software Download Coupon
1 x AMD Athlon II X2 260 Regor 3.2GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ADX260OCGMBOX
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
1 x MSI 24X DVD Burner Black SATA Model DH-24AS
1 x G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBNS
1 x SAPPHIRE 100323L Radeon HD 6570 1GB DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
1 x COOLER MASTER Elite 360 ATX Mini Tower Computer Case

It was a 3 year old $500 gateway laptop. The display died on it I think, was planning to fix it and give it to the wife to use. I doubt there was much that could be used from that.

Also I should add, I really don't need this system to have much HD space at all, just enough for OS and other apps. 160g?

You need a llano then. there are nice bundles on newegg.
also see if you can find those nice akasa htpc cases that come with a psu on them.
4gb of 1600 mhz memory and a nice little hdd of about 500gb and you are good to go.
If you can wait for another few hours i will make you a template if somebody else hasn't... when i go home...

That is great thank you so much

Case - hec Black - 45$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Mobo - ASRock A75M-HVS FM1 AMD A75 - 70$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

CPU - AMD A6-3650 Llano 2.6GHz - 120$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

-or-

CPU - AMD A6-3500 Llano 2.1GHz - 90$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

RAM - Crucial Ballistix sport 4GB (2 x 2GB) - 20$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

DVD - SAMSUNG 8X Slim Internal DVD Burner - 21$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
(Unless you want a blu ray)

HDD - Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB 7200 RPM - 85$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
(If you got a sata drive, even the one from your old laptop, better keep that for now)

Also i couldn't find any bundles. Check if there is one and i missed it.

Awesome! Thank you for your time. So that case comes with the PSU already yes?

yeah it has it's own psu to accomodate the needs of space. if you would try to put a different kind of psu it wouldn't fit in there. as for quality, hec is known for sturdy makes.
I also like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
They have a little more powerful psu but they are a little bigger. Choose the one you like the most, though careful about the fact that the two later ones don't have slim 5.25" bay so you would need a normal dvd drive. The foxcon will probably make some noise, in time, with the two small fans.

Thank you for the advice.

Related question:

Currently compiling components for an HTPC build and unsure if I need a video card.

My optical is a Blu-Ray, and I want to connect the PC to my TV via HDMI. If my motherboard has an HDMI ouput, and I get a video card that does not have an HDMI output, can I just connect the HDMI through the motherboard?

Or, if I do NOT get a video card and my motherboard has an HDMI port, must the CPU I purchase have some sort of special HD capability?

i personally suggest u stick with intel. my a8 apu recently died on me after just 5 months.
maybe u can get pentium g860 (don't be fooled by its name, its a sandy bridge @ 3gigs) and amd 7750 should be really well for u. toms has one on their website too.
even if u buy apu buy a fm2, fm1 is eol