I built a full system about a year ago that is versatile and wife friendly. It is upgradable and I never have codec issues.
1. I chose an iCore 3 because of the quiet nature and the HD-friendly power.
2. Motherboard - I chose ASUS P7H55D-M EVO LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX because of the HDMI + DVI and the optical sound in addition to its no fan quiet design.
3. Case - This is always the tricky part. I chose the Antec Minuet350. It works even though it is not the best looking case. I prefer my old ASUS barebones for looks, but they stopped making the book pcs when the eee became popular.
4. Software - you can choose windows media center or something like sagetv. I prefer GBPVR. It is simple, intuitive and still actively developed. There is a great and helpful community to assist.
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I built a full system about a year ago that is versatile and wife friendly. It is upgradable and I never have codec issues.
1. I chose an iCore 3 because of the quiet nature and the HD-friendly power.
2. Motherboard - I chose ASUS P7H55D-M EVO LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX because of the HDMI + DVI and the optical sound in addition to its no fan quiet design.
3. Case - This is always the tricky part. I chose the Antec Minuet350. It works even though it is not the best looking case. I prefer my old ASUS barebones for looks, but they stopped making the book pcs when the eee became popular.
4. Software - you can choose windows media center or something like sagetv. I prefer GBPVR. It is simple, intuitive and still actively developed. There is a great and helpful community to assist.
Try Evernote. It lets you markup everything and make notes on images, documents and everything else. It is multiplatform too.
http://www.evernote.com/
Good luck.