If you’ve been a follower of Krunker for some time, then you’ll know by now that I’m a big fan of home theater PCs and in particular Windows Media Center systems. Several years ago, I put together an awesome XP 2005 Media Center system using a Pentium M processor and it served its purpose wonderfully for at least two years – that is until Windows Vista came out and I needed a faster system underneath. Sadly, that machine is no more and in many ways, I’m no longer a proponent of putting the computer in the living room. Why you might ask? Well.. it boiled down to a simple idea – the Xbox 360 makes for an awesome Media Center Extender experience. So much so that I’d rather have an Xbox 360 in the living room than have a full fledged PC in there.

Of course, there are still many things that an HTPC can do that a Media Center Extender can’t do so.. if you’re still insistent on putting together an HTPC system, you might want to check out this article at PC Magazine entitled “Built It: A Living-Room Media Center PC”. It’s certainly not the prettiest looking HTPC system out there but it should be a good guide to creating one.

So what do I do these days? I have a Windows Media Center PC sitting in the home office connecting to Media Center Extenders around the apartment. There’s an Xbox 360 sitting in the living room and one Xbox 360 sitting in the bedroom and those two consoles provide everything I need in a home theater PC environment. Sure, I can’t do Blu-ray but.. that’s what the PS3 is for. One of these days, I’ll write an article describing my digital home setup.

[Check it out]

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