Not really in keeping with the forum, but it might help...
You could always consider a separate Blu-Ray player, might work out that your HTPC spec becomes a lot cheaper.
Regards speakers (this is my area of expertise), assuming you don't already have a receiver, seriously consider going second hand... decent Yamaha HDMI-capable amps for a reasonable sized room will cost about $100-150 on eBay, and then you can spend a tiny bit on some simple speakers now, or even beg/borrow spares from friends, and upgrade those later.
You really just need some tolerable bookshelf speakers and a decent subwoofer to begin with, I can't imagine spending more than $50 on the lot.
I'm using $110 Onkyo stereo (hifi) front speakers that I got for free, and they're OK but a bit tinny. If you can find some old floorstanders they will provide 10x the punch. And they look 100x cooler. I've got an Eltax active sub ($100 new in 2002) but you don't need one if you have floorstanders unless your room is enormous.
If you go for a separate centre speaker (advisable) this will chuck out the most sound from your movies. So needs to be the biggest expense. Side speakers in a 3.1 setup only produce music. Surrounds just mess with your head to make it sound like you're in the movie but in reality you only have 2 ears. A couple of tiny satellites would do the trick.
redsoxboi21 Wrote:If I have an SSD, where will I put my movies? I don't have a server and don't have money for one atm. Would an External HD do?
Yes. USB2-SATA caddies about $40 on eBay although at the moment there's a major hard drive shortage - so check Amazon for external drives, and be quick about it!
