Kindle or TV

Any thought on the Kindle Wireless Reading Device?

Samsung LN40B530 40-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

HTPC: Micro-ATX build to watch HULU & Boxee via HDMI

There are many choices available in the HTPC market for a low power, high throughput, and small footprint machine to watch MKV/Divx/H264/etc., or to stream Netflix. Unfortunately the web is full of posts that say streaming full screen HD HULU has many processors struggling. Adobe claims to have been working on better version of Flash to handle streaming of HD content but will it live up to the demands of HTPC users? Well I am not going to wait around since there is already cheap hardware out there that can handle streaming video today.

I've tried to "build a HTPC using spare parts" which usually leaves me with a system that is not quite adequate and I have finally caved. Its time to do it right by getting newer hardware. My friend Keith and I have set out to find a low cost machine that is low power, highly capable, and wife friendly. We've committed to finding a HTPC that meets our needs and we wanted to share our findings.

Update: Adobe released their Flash Player 10.1 beta and HULU still streams full screen beautifully on the HTPC!

Option 1: Micro-ATX Newegg Parts List

	GIGABYTE GA-MA785GPMT-UD2H Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
	AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.0GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor
	G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
	hec Black 7KJ9 Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case w/270W Power Supply
	Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

For the rest of the parts we are using Windows 7 64bit, Boxee, an old MCE remote control, and an old IDE DVD drive.