So my dad is looking at getting a media center PC, and he had some computer guy (actually the same guy that put my computer together) to recommend stuff and quote prices. They're looking for relatively good perfomance, but mostly they want it to be quiet (because it's going in with the home theater stuff). It'll be used for some video editing, DVD burning, etc. as well as regular word processing and web browsing. Anyways, here are the specs; see what you guys think.

Mobo: Intel 955XBK
Processor: Intel 820 2.8 GHz dual-core
RAM: 1GB DDR2
HD: Maxtor 300GB SATA
Optical Drive: 16x16 DVD-RW with lightscribe
Graphics: ATI All-In-Wonder 2006
Case: Antec P150 Mid-Tower case with 430 W power supply
Wireless keyboard and mouse (any suggestions here?)

My dad was thinking about getting a seperate sound card (Sound Blaster XI Platinum) because it's for the home theater but if the integrated one on the motherboard is good enough he might not.

WRONG FORUM.

Onboard sound sucks. I don't know about the Sound Blaster XI Platinum, but it sounds like a lot of Creative marketing. The best deal would be an Audigy 2 Value or Audigy 2 ZS. The Value can be had for about $40.

Intel? INTEL!? Get out of my sight you bumbling moron! Um... Anyway it looks good. too bad AMD doesn't have anything in that price range though.

If this is an HTPC, you definitely want a good sound card. Consider an Xfi Music, if you can find one cheep.

It depends on what kind of equipment it will be hooked up to. If your speakers or reciever has an optical input that can accept DDL/DTS, then all you need is any generic optical output. With the proper software (e.g. PowerDVD) the DDL/DTS encoded data will be passed through the optical out. Although you may want something with a decent bit-perfect output for music and non-DVDs. In that case the Chaintech AV-710 would be good. It has great outputs on 2 of the analog channels, but the rest blow. The digital out is fine, however.

I can always count on you to force traffic my way. :p

In this day and age, and with the RAM prices, I'd seriously suggest 2GB ram if he is going into any video editing, and what not. But of course, that is just me, and my opinion is that RAM is cheap and there is not reason you shouldn't have 2GB if you buy a new computer.

But like I said, this be's me's opinion!

2GB makes video editing so much more pleasant.

Also, burn that damn Intel chip and motherboard to the ground, and get yourself a decent AMD processor. This is the type of system that might even fare well with dualcore. (Video editing, recording/using windows, etc)