One of the guides we’re asked to do fairly often is a relatively straightforward ‘How To’ article on putting together a nice, low-budget build for a home theatre PC without too much trouble.
Windows Media Centre is gorgeous, but it's not everyone's cup of tea 
The fact is that building your own home theatre PC (or HTPC) isn’t as difficult as many might consider it to be, but when you get right down to it, there will be plenty scared off the idea by the fact that they have to actually sit down and assemble their own PC to do it; it’s a process that many simply aren’t comfortable with (indeed, that’s the reason we’re currently running a series of Build Your Own PC classes).
Many have argued that the easier option can be to pick up a games console and repurpose that to serve as a network friendly media centre… it’s not too difficult and can save you money over building yourself a HTPC, depending on what kind of build you go for and what consoles you’re looking at.
