Need advice on cheap motherboard and CPU for HTPC

[2DIE]

have 2 old PCs and a lot of spare parts from a recent build. I was about to throw out the old PCs due to lack of room and my brother asked how much would it cost to make a HTPC for him.

How much could I make a cheap HTPC for? Hoping for as cheap as possible.

Things I would need:

Mother Board:
CPU:

Not sure if he will need a video card for just watching movies on VLC?

All the rest I could salvage from the old computers, it would need to be a ATX or mATX board.

Preference for AMD but not a necessity.

 

[rwpritchett]

If all you need is a motherboard and CPU, then just grab yourself an FM2 board and a trinity CPU. No video card needed. It will do everything you need for HTPC use.