[jasmill1969]

I decided to go with the system below which is similar to scphantm with a USB3 mobo that bluray suggested. This is going to be a Windows 7 system.

1 x ($29.99) MEM 2Gx2|KST KVR1066D3N7K2/4G R $29.99
1 x ($64.99) HTPC CASE XION| XON-810PCB-RD R $64.99
1 x ($69.99) VGA XFX|GT-520M-CNF2 520GT 2G R $69.99
1 x ($74.99) MB ASUS| 880GM-E41 880G R $99.99
1 x ($99.99) SSD 40G|CORSAIR CSSD-F40GB2-A R $99.99
1 x ($104.99) CPU AMD|PH II X4 840 3.2G AM3 RT $104.99

UPS tracking shows the parts on the truck to be delivered this morning so I decided to take the day off of work and I'm listening for the doorbell!!

I was going over in my head the steps I'll need to take and then I had on oh shit moment. I don't have an optical drive. How the hell am I gonna load an OS onto my HTPC? I noticed that most of the builds I see have no optical drive included. SO, my question is, is there a way to get the OS onto the HTPC without a DVD drive? Flash drive?

[Kirky99]

I usually borrow one from another system for the install...

[wsume99]

Installing Windows 7 from a USB drive is simple and it is a little faster as well.

Check out this article (which can be found with a simple 'install windows 7 from usb' Google search) for the details: Use a USB Key to Install Windows 7—Even on a Netbook

[eskro]

How to install Windows 7 from USB