Home Theater and Server PC

I had a similar plan (can't afford it) that would run Windows Server 2008 w/Hyper-V. Vista Premium/Ultimate would run as a guest OS.

My planned hardware centered around an Intel Core2Quad Q8200, a Supermicro motherboard (only Intel board I could find that supported Server 2008 out of the box) and 8 Gig of RAM. Add in with that a mainstream graphics card (ATI Radeon 4650), a discrete sound card for DVD/Video playback and a TV Tuner and you should be good to go.

At least that WAS the plan.

-Wolf sends

The tricky part is the getting it really quiet. The more you want it to do the more fans and power supply you need. You can't get a cable or sat box to integrate either so are limited to clear QAM cable or OTA channels. Take a look at this as an alternative
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=572
and get a good ht receiver and speakers.

I was thinking the same before but I went with NAS instead. So my HTPC can be shutdown when needed. Any files that I want for fast access goes to 1.5 TB with the HTPC, anything ealse like photos and audio files are on my NAS.

I don't mind building a server for my home but it still require monitor.