This is a mix of very old, old, and new. The teakwood cabinet was custom built in Okinawa back in 1971. The turntable, I still have a lot of vinyl, is a Dual CS604 with a Shure VN15E cartridge. The top portion originally housed an Akai GX-280D-ss 4 channel reel to reel tape deck,
http://slbender.exactpages.com/akai4ch.html, connected to a 1971 Pioneer QX-8000 4 channel Quad receiver.
http://www.hifi-museum.com/js/pio/QX-8000_fs.htm. Back then, BCD (before CDs), that was Quad. The top now is home for rarely used components, a Magnovox VCR, a 6 disk Pioneer CD player, and a Teac casette tape deck. The bottom part is storage for records, tapes, CDs, and DVDs.
I replaced the QX-8000 in 1997, about the same time DVDs hit the market, with a JVC RX-884VBK receiver, which is still working perfectly. I've since gone through 4 DVD players. My current one is a Philips DVP5982.
The tower speakers are JBL 940Ts, purchased in 1988. The center is a JBL ES25C. My backs are small Infinity bookshelfs. I don't have a subwoofer since the 2-JBL 940Ts put out plenty of bass. The TV is a 50" LG 50PQ30 plasma. It's a 720P but I view it from 12', and got it for $625. AR at Sears last June. The TV stand is a 52" Techcraft.
I also have a Logitech Harmony 700 Advanced remote I purchased from B&H Photo for $84. AR shipped. It replaced 3 remotes. I don't have a remote on my HTPC. Lian Li's next case up, the PC-C39, remote has not gotten good reviews. I may install one later in my PC-C37 case. Except for the fact that Logitech's Harmony remote V7.70 software does not like Win 7 64bit, the remote works great. One button turns on my TV, AV receiver, and DVD player to my presets.
I just finished putting together my HTPC. Like some of my other toys I'm still trying to justify why I need it.
It’s a Lian Li HTPC PC-C37 case, only ~5” tall so all components have to be low profile. It does though take full size hard drives, PSUs, and DVD burners. It came with 2-70 mm low speed side fans. Enough for cooling since the PSU and CPU heat sink fans exhaust out the top case vents and I have no video card.
It has a Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2H micro H55 ATX MB, $83. shipped from Buy.com,
http://www.gigabyte.us/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=3322, an i3-530 CPU, 4GB DDR3 G.Skill ram, my old Antec Neopower 480W modular PSU, a 500GB Hitachi HD, an $18. from NE Samsung SH223C DVD burner for now (may go blu-ray later), a $12.99 Airlink101 wireless g card from Meritline, and a Scythe Shuriken CPU heat sink. I also picked up with a coupon for $36. a Lenovo wireless combo keyboard/trackball. It runs on 2-AAA batteries and has a mini usb dongle receiver.
I use a 6’ HDMI cable from the MB to the TV for video/sound and a 10’ S/PIF (toslink) cable to my receiver for surround sound through my speakers. I got them from Monoprice for <$10. shipped.
The Airlink101 card has a Realtek RTL8185L chip on it so I used the latest drivers/software from Realtek. I’m getting 5 bar, 84% signal strength about 30' from my ancient Westell 327W wireless DSL modem/router with the 2 dBi antenna.
I'm satisfied with the picture quality from the onboard video so I have no immediate plans to install a video card.
I got fed up with the increasing prices/decreasing quality of cable TV, $75./month for extended basic. I dropped back to basic cable, $18./month, so I don't need a TV tuner card. My wife can still watch her Soaps. I live 50 miles from the nearest TV station and with the hills of WV an antenna ain't gonna work; and Dish/DirectTV told me I can't get the network channels. The local ahole network affiliates in Wheeling are blocking them. I have Verizon DSL, soon to be Frontier in WV, but can't get FIOS. So I stream from Hulu.
Here's some pics:
A little snug but everything fits.
Top vents for CPU and PSU fans. Lian Li didn’t quite get them centered.
My only complaint with the case is the blue LED power light, when on, it's way too bright, but easy to fix; and the price is a bit high. I got it from Chiefvalue for $133. shipped with a $7. off coupon.
The trackball works great, but the keyboard buttons are a bit small for fat fingers. A bit of a power drain, but a backlite keyboard would have been nice.
The low profile bracket that came with the Airlink101 card only had 1 hole for the 2 LEDs. I had to drill another hole to make it fit. For $12.99 shipped no big deal.
I starting to get dropouts when streaming video and internet disconnects with the Airlink101 802.11g wireless card. Signal stength was also bouncing from 64% to 84%. I tried a 5 dBi antenna but no improvement, possibly an external cable connected antenna may have worked better.
I purchased a TRENDnet TEW-648UB IEEE 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 mini wireless adapter for $16.99 AR from Newegg to replace the Airlink101 card. Using a front USB port on my HTPC case I'm getting 100% signal stength and 100% link quality. This adapter uses a Realtek RTL8188SU chip. Downloaded the latest drivers and software for it from Realtek.