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Well take that. A funny thing happened on the way to cutting-edge, however. As we started identifying the components and parts and controllers and cardsmany of which are being released just as you read these wordswe began to realize that we were on the bleeding-edge. When we set about constructing this years home theater, we used the phrase cutting-edge as our guiding light. In this story, you will find:.

This essentially eliminated all Atom-based configurations as well as anything using integrated graphics (at least right now). Heres the full breakdown, compliments of our awesome photography department. In building our 3D HTPC, our two primary motivations were minimal acoustic interference and full home-theater functionality. (For a complete PC-building walkthrough, point your browser here.). No one wants to hear the shrill whine of a fan when Michael tells Fredo, You broke my heart. And if an HTPC machine cant play a 1080p trailer, stream HD video, and play Blu-ray 3D, its a fail. Our final 3D HTPC is slightly tall but not deep, and our InfiniTV CableCARD tuner snapped into it without any problems.

MSIs 890-GX offers support for 140-watt chips (including hexa-cores), USB 3.0, and SATA 6. This gives us a wealth of options for add-in cards and we dont have to sacrifice any features. We considered Mini-ITX and other proprietary mini mobos but ultimately settled on MicroATX for our HTPC build. For RAM, we decided that 4GB of OCZ DDR3/1333 would be more than enough. It also features two physical x16 PCI-E 2.0 slots and a single x1 PCI-E 1.0 along with a legacy PCI slot.

Ideally, youll have an 802.11n router with a gigabit switch, and a DSL or cable modem in a home runa central location where all your cables (Ethernet, coax, and telephone) terminate. We recommend CAT5e cable: Its perfectly adequate for a gigabit Ethernet network, its a whole lot cheaper than CAT6, and your home will likely never need a 10Gb Ethernet network, anyway. Thats difficult to pull off in a home thats already built, but you really should consider at least stringing Ethernet cable from your router to your home-theater PC.

If you go this route, make sure you buy devices that comply with the HomePlug AV standard, since it delivers theoretical data rates of up to 189Mb/s. HomePlug AV is also the basis of the still-evolving IEEE P1901 standard. Power-line network adapters send data over your homes existing electrical grid: Plug one adapter in an AC outlet near your source (e.g., your router), plug a second adapter into an AC outlet near your HTPC, and data travels over the electrical wires. Most companies building Wi-Fi routers also offer HomePlug AV products, including Belkin, D-Link, Linksys, Netgear, and Trendnet.

(While you could store this content remotely by mapping a folder on a NAS box drive or server to a drive letter on your HTPC, we dont recommend it.) You should store all your other types of media (movies and music ripped from disc, digital photographs, and so on) on a remote server or NAS box. The typical home-theater PC enclosure doesnt allocate a lot of room for hard drives, and youll need the bulk of whatever local storage you do have for recording TV programming.

We were, it turns out, just a little ahead of the curve on this one. Big-screen HDTVs are great, but nothing says home theater like a video projector and a Really Big Screen (RBS). Hopefully, our grief will be your good fortune, if what we learned makes your quest a little easier. Finding the right displaysboth a big-screen flat-panel TV and a video projectorended up posing the biggest challenge in building our home-theater rig.

That said, a TV delivers higher-quality visuals during daylight hours without forcing you to invest in room-darkening shades or heavy curtains. A televisioneven a 50-inch plasmajust doesnt compare. Watching a Blu-ray 3D movie with a video projector is a visceral experience that is the closest youll get to a movie theater. On the other hand, Panasonics Viera is capable of delivering 1080p resolution; we couldnt find any consumer-oriented 3D Visioncompatible video projectors capable of that at press time. In our opinion, the ideal home theater will be equipped with both display devices.

The universal remote remains an intriguing and essential accessory. RF support means you can even hide your home theater components from view. After all, how are you going to turn on and off your TV and receiver? Our answer is Logitechs Harmony 900 ($400). Add-on devices allow you to control Windows Media Center, Xbox 360, or a PS3. This programmable, touch-screen remote allows you to quickly and easily specify home theater functions such as Watch Movie or Watch TV. Press the button associated with a task and the remote turns on all appropriate devices and sets them to the appropriate audio and video channels.

The perimeter of the device contains D-pad-style click buttons that let you navigate through Media Center, Boxee, or XBMC interfaces. The navigator is simultaneously a stylish-looking remote control and touchpad. A keyboard alone shouldnt be your only interface for a home theater PC, so we complimented our DiNovo Edge with a GlideTV Navigator ($150). In the center, the concave touchpad allows you to maneuver your mouse.

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