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Once you have installed and connected all hardware you should obviously not forget to fix the VGA connector to the graphics card as we do want that LCD panel to work. Right is time to close the chassis up, before doing so please test to see if the PC POSTs and then it's time for an installation of Windows Media Center Edition, the latest chipset/audio/graphics drivers and related software. Or whatever your software you'd like to use of course.

It's pretty snazzy when you see that chassis come top life for the first time. To the upper left the HD Pioneer Plasma screen, and below it a Onkyo TX-SR875 7.1-Channel Home Theatre Receiver. We are connecting the HTPC though HDMI to the AV-receiver (HDCP 1.3a compatible) and the receiver leads HDMI towards the telly.

For the AV Receiver buffs still in doubt, that's 200 Watt per channel of the most delicious sound you've ever experienced, combined with the proper speakers of course.

First some pretty fluffy photo's of the setup at work before we dive into the touch-screen LCD; which is a paradox of it's own, to be honest. Once you've installed all drivers and iMon software, you'll probably spend another half hour to setup the proper resolutions for the screens, underscan/overscan. It's the pain and suffering every HTPC builder will experience. But once you have things going properly ...

We can startup Media-center and do our first test. We startup a recording of CSI in High Def - Dolby Digital. See now that looks brilliant. I opted a GeForce series 7 graphics card over Series 8 as it has a very important feature .. image sharpening. I just love that feature and do not understand why it was removed from series 8. Of course if you want full HDCP compatibility .. you'll need to go for a newer GeForce series 8 graphics card. Again .. the pains you have to deal with when you decide to build the HTPC yourself.