There is no rush to build your HTPC, so take the time to carefully research components to make sure they are all compatible with each other.
Your HTPC is an ever-growing project that needs updating from time to time.
Do not try to finish this project on the spot, because you will most probably be upgrading it after a while.
I would suggest assessing carefully all the “internet forum advice”.
There is a lot of good advice out there, but you need to do your own research to find out what you really need and not buy something you will later regret.
Even if you follow my recommended component selection, you should still need to understand basic principles in component selection as presented in this course.
Don’t Buy the Latest Parts
It is better to wait at least 6 months after the release of new components such as a CPU or graphics card.
When I first purchased AMD A6-6400K Richland processor, it was not supported by the latest OpenELEC operating system at that time, but I needed to find a special OpenELEC version that included the necessary drivers.
Nowadays, it works flawlessly with the latest versions of OpenELEC.
The same happened again, when I first bought an AMD AM1 platform based AMD Athlon 5350 APU.
The drivers were not mature enough and I had some occasional freezing before more solid drivers became available.
Don’t Try to Future-proof
Future-proofing your system is very difficult.
You can buy components that will be fine in 3 years, but it is not possible to buy something today that will be really good when you eventually need it.
So, if you want to build a HTPC that is ready for the future, unfortunately, the components needed for that are not available today.
For example, I would not suggest trying to future-proof your system for the ultra HD 4K resolutions if you don’t need that capability today.