From budget to stylin’

The big names in computers all offer configurable home theater PC models in their line-ups.
HP’s Pavilion Elite m9300t series, for example, starts at $800 for a bare-bones home theater PC. Plan to spend closer to $1,600 for desirable upgrades like an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 processor, 512-megabyte NVIDIA 9500GS video card, 1-terabyte hard drive storage and a Blu-ray player and DVD burner combo drive.

Dell’s XPS 420 is priced in line with HP’s low-end home theater PC. A similarly equipped premium configuration runs about $1,700. The only major difference is that the high-performance XPS 420 uses an equally capable 512MB ATI HD3870 video card.

If you feel the need to make a fashion statement, the impeccably designed Sony VAIO TP25 Home Theater PC says it all.

This $3,000 machine has an Intel Core 2 duo processor, 500-GB hard drive and a 256-megabyte NVIDIA 8400M GT laptop video card.

While the components aren’t as beefy as HP and Dell’s PCs, everything is encased in what looks like an oversized hockey puck. Haute couture doesn’t come cheap.

Sony’s higher price is also justified by a Blu-ray burner for archiving video, and two external HDTV tuners that accommodate digital cable via a regular coaxial or cableCARD connection.