Hey guys,

I'm looking at setting up a HTPC and wanted to check by people who know what they are doing about a few specs.

Mostly, could an AMD x2 245, 2gb DDR3 ram with a motherboard with an on-board ATi HD4200 graphics chipset run 1080p? If not, what is the cheapest cpu/graphics card I could add to make it run 1080p?

EDIT: Currently thinking of using of putting on Ubuntu with XMBC if I go with a nVidia graphics card, then multi-task it as a file server and unplug the dodgy NASrun

if your going to have a media centre, you might want to put a graphics card in it, the onboard will struggle with 1080p video. you can get a 5450 for about $60 wich should handle full HD fine

the processor is fine

try to get some high quality ram, something from corsair or OCZ and 4gb is probably going to be better if its going to be a media centre and a file server

xbmc has problems with linux, your best bet is to go with windows 7

i have done a few htpc's, usually works well to have wmc autostart and use it for live tv, and then use xbmc to manage tv and movies, using xbmc integration
http://xbmcwmc.teknowebworks.com/

i got a lot running through my sleep deprived head right now, written as little as much as possible while trying to keep it short and simple, let me know if there is anything else you might be unsure about.

hope i covered everything

Thanks for the feedback

I was half-tempted to put in a tuner, but given that we already have a high-def tv and 2 PVRs Dad just wants this box to be able to stream high def content from around the house and work off the Logitech Harmony 800

Current specs I'm looking at

Gigabyte GA-MA74GMT-S2 mATX Motherboard
AMD Athlon II X2 245
Kingston ValueRAM KVR1333D3N9/2G 2GB DDR3
CoolerMaster Elite 341
ASUS Geforce 210 512MB Low Profile

Still tossing up harddrives
And I have my old 650w psu (bit overkill, I know, but if not this, it will probably not be used again)

One of the main reasons I was leaning towards Linux was this thread http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=67350

my exp with xbmc on linux has been great!. If you do choose that path pop in an nvidia gfx card so you can offload 1080p to the GPU. At this stage XBMC does not support gpu offloading for HD content on windows.

In terms of the remote, the above post will work, but on windows XBMC will handle WMC controls automatically. So you just have to program your harmony remote to use windows media center controls (I did this on my dads media center and it works quite well).

Considered something like this?:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=735
Cheap ($200), easy, quiet. Streams high def over network, can even do it via wi-fi.

I had considered that Alioth, but the original thing he wanted was just a file server to replace the current NAS, then he realised that I have high def content on my computer that he wouldn't mind watching on that tv, and he knows that I'm not dragging my PC back and forth.

My current thoughts is the specs above with 2xSamsung F2 Ecogreen 1.5TB drives