Hardware Hacking

The Components of an HTPC Project

The bulk of the work for planning an HTPC project involves making a detailed list of components

that will go into it. In some ways, this is similar to building a custom PC from parts purchased at the

local computer shop or by mail order. However, in other ways it’s a bit backwards from what you are

used to, depending on the factors you consider most important. It’s possible to build a variety of con-

figurations, some of which will separate some of the functions to a central server and allow you to

access them over a network. Until we get into that discussion in detail, I’ll refer to the box attached

directly to the ...