Building your own Desktop PC Powerhouse (HTPC)

Venturing into the market trying to buy a desktop? Here is a quick write up of my recent experience. 
In a world filled with mobile computing gadgets such as Laptops to netbooks, smartphones to touch / tablets and from iOS to Andriods of the world - I thought of building up a desktop - the old fashion way (if you know what I mean)!
On a hot summer afternoon - I ventured towards Nehru Place, New Delhi to figure out a powerful yet pocket friendly desktop which would also double up as a HTPC. Ofcourse before I went out, I had spent long hours doing my ground work research to find out what is the best find configuration.
Here it goes:

• AMD Phenom-II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition (3.2Ghz)
• MSI 880GM-E35 Motherboard with ATI 4230 HD graphics
• 8GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance 1666 Mhz RAM
• 1 TB Segate SATA HDD (x2) so basically 2TB
• Logitech MK250 Wireless Keyboard Mouse Combo
• Dell 24" HD LED Backlit Display (ST2420L) 
• Netgear PCI Wifi Card This damn thing sucks! So got it replaced. Guys don't buy this plz
• Standard Cabinet (with 500 Watts SMPS) Big Mistake! Buy a good cabinet with a branded power supply. I upgraded this off late. Read on for more details.
• Buffalo External USB DVD Writer
• Microtech 650VA UPS

Wallahhh...home sweet home...20 minutes and my desktop was up and running.
Now there must be a whole bunch of questions in your minds:
1. How much did it cost?
2. Why not Intel i-Series?
3. Are there any cheaper alternatives than a 24" Monitor?
4. What would be the performance of this configuration?
etc etc


I am running some benchmarking tests - and the results will be shared soon friends so keep reading :)  
  
------------------ UPDATE [19-July-2011] -------------------------------


Well we learn from our mistakes - so did I. Here goes my updated on what all I had to change since my initial configuration.
1. Upgraded to a 8GB DDR3 RAM - so basically I have 2x 4GB DDR3 Memory modules working on Dual channel now.
2. WIFI Card -> changed it today to a Linksys WMP54G V4.1 however I am still facing some issues making that work with stability. There are not too many PCI Wifi cards in the market with work with 64bit machines so be careful. The USB wifi devices suck - have pathetic range since the antenna is inbuilt hence I won't suggest you to buy that.
3. 1TB Sata drive extra (just in case)
4. MSI AMD Radeon HD 6450 Card @PCI Express 16x speeds with 1GB DDR3 dedicated
5. Cooler Master Elite 335 Cabinet with CM 400 Watt power supply
6. Cooler Master TX3 Processor Heat Sink


After the entire setup is done - you will realize that your system is limiting to 4GB of RAM even though you installed 8GB. Why is that?
Well its because of the operating system being 32Bit which won't support more than 4GB even with Win 7 Ultimate edition.
So I had to upgrade to Windows Home Premium 64bit Edition for now.
All the device drivers works out of the box with no hiccups - besides the damn Wifi card (as expected). So what is that?
Well its because the Wifi Card manufacturers such as Netgear, Linksys etc are yet to roll out 64bit device drivers for their hardwares. Though I somehow managed to make the Linksys WMP54G work - but its still unstable. Makes the system hang...working on it. 


For people curious to know:
My AMD Phenom X4 Quad is running @ 39'c when Idle
and 49'c when pushed. So both the cabinet as well as the TX3 along with the extra 120mm Cooler Master Cabinet fan is doing its job pretty well.