[OMGJeff]

greetings to all,

I would like to get my first HTPC up and running within 7 days from today. (this doesn't include all the media cataloging) as I have this amount of time off as vacation.

My budget is £700 but obviously wouldn't mind paying less if the build suits my needs.

Basically, needs to be/have:

• Windows 7, XBMC, Aeon skin
  
• 1080p playback flawlessly, including files of high bitrate (40-70mb/s)
  
• light gaming, (emulating old classics and some pc games like trine, duke nukem HD, MAYBE just cause 2 thats a MAYBE all at 1080p)
  
• quiet as possible
  

All advice etc welcome and glad to be in these forums!

[poofyhairguy]

You didn't mention size requirements, so I will assume there aren't any.

With a light gaming requirement an ION system is still on the table- I love my Zotac ION box. The ION can take all the bitrate you can throw at it.

If that is out of your budget (or the quiet requirement is extreme), then go with a Micro ATX setup with a recent Nvidia GPU (say a 210 GT) and all 120mm fans...

[ItzMar]

Im thinking about getting an Acer Revo and I think that it may fulfill most of your needs on the cheap side.

[OMGJeff]

With a light gaming requirement an ION system is still on the table- I love my Zotac ION box.

Do you have the most recent box? As in a ZOTAC ZBOX HD-ID11 bareboned and then install hardrive and memory on top?

I would have thought something like an ssd purely for booting and 2-4gb RAM?

by the way, if this is the machine that you have is their limitations with the RAM as I read somewhere that there is only one dim slot? so 2GB max?