Pre-built HTPC Question

I'm looking to buy a HTPC alreay built. Nothing crazy, I just want to have something sitting there that I can boot up and copy shows and movies to and have them play via HDMI on my tv. Don't need TB storage drives, or insane stuff.

Anyone know of something like this pre-made? Or would it be cheaper to build it myself?

http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-zino-hd-410/pd

I would recommend building your own, just slap a core i3 in there with 4 gigs ram and either a 200+gig SSD or a 1TB HDD and a nice case

http://www.google.com/products/cata...sa=X&ei=yQmjT_SeC4r50gHP0qEK&ved=0CK4BEPMCMAI

http://www.google.com/products/cata...a=X&ei=4QmjT8PAC7K00QGOwqS9CQ&ved=0CH0Q8wIwAA

http://www.google.com/products/cata...&sa=X&ei=EAqjT7GPIoLz0gGA9LAM&ved=0CH0Q8wIwAw

As a DVR/HTPC or just a media playback device?

If the latter just use a WDTV HD live type device you can playbock files off your server or whatever.

If for recording, any lightweight system will handle that the real money cvomes in on the card you use for TV input.

You can do cablecard tuners or simple clearqam (very cheap but not able to record anything but free to air content) So for Fox, ABC CBS and TNT type channels, you are good to go.

If you live near a large city you can get an antenna and use ATSC signals to pick up your local HD TV stations and get higher quality than you would over Cable but with possiblity of distance/EMI or inclement weather disrupting yoursignal. This has the benefits though of higher quality and no monthly service charge from the cable company. (Or having to fight with them to rent a cable card and them telling you they dont do that even though they do they just dont know they do).

Ceton makes some nice cablecard tuners up to 4 channels simultaneously I think and prices have really dropped as well.

there are also prebuilt options but they are not HTPCs exactly...media playback or PVR/DVR type things like the homerun HD

When I was looking into to them, I was having a hard time finding mini-ITX boards that I liked (especially if you want expansion options), might want to look at some of the micro-ATX boards.

I'm just looking at it as a media playback device. But as I type that, I'm thinking I'd like to be able to download from the internet right to it to avoid the extra step. So probably more like an HTPC. Not looking to record anything, just download and play videos. I don't need a dvd or blu -ray drive. I have my region free blu-ray player for that.