HTPC – Trials and Tribulations

After spending a good fifty minutes at Best Buy this morning, I realized that there’s more to my indecision about a front-end HTPC than just whether or not I should spend the money.

It was easy enough to not even consider Dell’s Studio Hybrid before because the price range, even at the Outlet with the refurbished ones and the recent 20% off coupon, were still too expensive for my taste.

I love how that DVD gets loaded.

However, Best Buy is selling this at 399 recently and considering its pricetag otherwise, this sale makes it a lot harder to resist. I took a look at it. It is quiet enough, very small footprint, and it seems like it can handle Vista.

In the end I just couldn’t buy it. There’s something in me that is repulsed by the idea of spending extra money on less powerful components just for its size. I’m not even positive I’m going to have the front-end HTPC in a visible space.

I’ll update in a bit though, also not crazy spending $100 for an OS on my own if I build my own system again.