Morning!

I have been scouring the web/forums for info to build up a Linux HTPC/home file server and I think I am going in the right direction. I placed my newegg order this morning (See part list below) and I wanted to get confirmation from yall before I tore into my order when it arrives. It has been 5+ years since I have built a machine and I am not too confident that I am doing what I need.

If all is looking good, I will go back to scouring for software information. We have 4 laptops (both Mac and PC) in the house that will be using this machine as the central file server, and I am planning on installing Ubuntu and Boxee as the main software for TV use. Not sure I need much else. The HTPC will mainly be used to play movies and anything else I ca get Boxee to pick up.

My current HT setup: Rotel Receiver, B&W Surround, CPS, 46” Sony 1080P, DirecTV. I am planning on canning DirecTV when my contract expires in a few months.

Parts list below:
Case: LIAN LI Black Aluminum PC-C37B Micro ATX Media Center
Mother Board: ASRock A790GMH/128M AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Processor: AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Processor
Video: SAPPHIRE 100253HDMI Radeon HD 4650 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
HD: Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
BlueRay: Sony Optiarc Black 2X BD-ROM SATA Model BR-5100S
Remote: Anyware HA-IR01SV Infrared Certified MCE VISTA Remote Control
Mouse/Keyboard: Logitech EX 110 Black USB or PS/2 Cordless Standard Cordless Desktop Keyboard & Mouse Kit

I know there were some issues with 64-Bit and Ubuntu in the past but I have found some workarounds. A big part of this build for me is staying 100% in open source software.

Thank for any advice yall may have...cheers!

Why do you ask us *AFTER* you've ordered parts???

You will have problems with ATI video card, and you will need to use Windows software to rip blu-rays.

Otherwise, the build looks solid.

I wanted to see if I could do it all by my lonesome...kinda a good faith, heads first jump into it.

I may be able to get the card swapped before it ships (or order a second card today and return the other one). Which card would you suggest? I decided on that card because it fit into the budget ($50-$60 range)

Highly not recommendable to go with a Radeon, given that nVidia's 9x00 cards can do video decompress/render and mpeg2/H.264 accel in hardware. And frankly I don't trust some of the brands you mention.

My (silent) system is as follows:
- Silverstone GD02-MT (http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents.php?pno=gd02mt&area=usa) with (working) case display which shows comprehensive system status using conky;
- Asus P5N7A-VM (http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=8YiUFvK51IergAqY&templete=2) with onboard nVidia 9300, E8400 3GHz processor, & 4GB Crucial RAM;
- Seasonic SS-300ET (http://www.seasonic.com/product/pc_atx.jsp) with Active PFC 99%
- Thermalright XP-120 (http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/cpu/xp120/product_cpu_cooler_xp120.htm?art=MTQyMywxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA= =) with LGA 775 adapter kit for CPU heatsink, no fan, and HR05-IFX (http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/chipset/hr05_ifx/product_chitset_cooler_hr05_ifx.htm) for IGP with ArcticCooling AF-8025 (http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=3_46_62&mID=142) fan with PWM control and liquid bearings, daisy-chained with 2 AF-8025 case fans, auto speed-controlled thermally by CPU fan header;
- 2 ea WD WD20EADS 2TB drives in a RAID10-Offset2 array with bitmap indexing, for the redundancy of mirroring and the speed of striping, and fast resync;
- SIIG 3.5" flashdrive for CF, SD, MMC, SM, MSPro, etc;
- Logitech Edge wireless keyboard with built-in mouse (vital);
- Hauppauge HVR-1250 for OTA HD recording;
- R5000-HD (http://www.nextcomwireless.com/R5000/home.htm) for DishNetwork satellite HD recording;
- MythTV 0.21-fixes, compiled with R5000 and H.264 patches;
- Planar PD8150 HD projector shooting on my Mega Screen 12' screen of my design.

You want a fast processor and disk system for quick transcoding and commercial scan, and you want an nVidia 9x00 to offload video processing from the CPU, but it is advisable to put a substantial heatsink on that chipset for long life.

I was able to switch over to a new card before the order shipped. Spec's/Price were fairly comp.

MSI N9500GT-MD1G-OC/D2 GeForce 9500 GT 1GB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16

Thanks for the suggestions. Anything else I may need to switch out?

Good call, i was just about to recommend a 9500GT.

Everything else looks fine to me.

So, has it been delivered yet? :)