Thanks. Sorry didn't reply over the weekend, but I've just moved house and not got the pc hooked up yet!
I've got plently of hard drives in my current rig that have my mp3s and DVDs stored, so I can move one of them to use as the OS drive and buy a larger drive to use for storage, so that's not a problem.
Yes I would like to use a "proper" HTPC case but they seem extremely expensive - typically £100+ - as I would really need to get what one site calls the "WAF" - "Wife Acceptance Factor"!!
Not fussed about using the XP2600+ - just thought it might be worth considering as I've had it lying around doing nothing for a while.
So assuming the system isn't used for games (I've got a separate system for that) what would be the cheapest I could get away with?
Something like this, or do you reckon I can get cheaper?
BU-032-OK AMD Athlon 64 3000 Retail / Asus A8N-VM CSM / 1GB Geil PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit - Bundle (BU-032-OK) 1
CP-117-AM AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3000BPBOX) (CP-117-AM) 1
MB-119-AS Asus A8N-VM CSM Micro ATX (Socket 939) PCI Express Motherboard (MB-119-AS) 1
MY-005-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL) 1
£159.85 £159.85
CA-053-AN Antec NSK2400 Desktop Case - 380W SmartPower PSU (CA-053-AN) 1
£46.95 £46.95
GX-087-LT Leadtek GeForce 7300 GT 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-087-LT) 1
£47.95 £47.95
GX-074-LT Leadtek Winfast DTV1000-T Digital TV Tuner Card (GX-074-LT) 1
£29.95 £29.95
CD-036-NE NEC ND4571 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Beige) - OEM (CD-036-NE) 1
£23.95 £23.95
HD-018-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA) 1
£43.50 £43.50
SC-040-CL Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Sound Card - OEM (SC-040-CL) 1
£15.95 £15.95
SW-008-MS Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre 2005 Edition - OEM - 1Pk (M93-00200) (SW-008-MS) 1
£64.95 £64.95
SW-009-MS Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre 2005 Remote Controller (SW-009-MS) 1
£19.95 £19.95
Subtotal £453.00
VAT £79.28
Total £532.28
And that doesn't even include a keyboard or IR receiver for the remote, or software other than the OS!