That really sux cause my HTPC with an A64 3000 1G RAM, 7300GT and onboard sound works perfectly for any multimedia task I throw at it (cept next gen DVDs). TV (DVR) and DVD playback are supurb for me under MCE. But be warned... this is not my first HTPC, I've made MANY and I learned a lot each time. 'HTPC' unless purchased from a vendor preconfigured, is a hobby.
Don't get too discouraged about the Blu ray issues, its pretty new stuff and you sir, are an early adopter there.
I can't speak to the sound card issues as a long time ago I abandoned using "high end" soundcards. I'm a gamer but I still don't see the point as the motherboards I've used have always seemed to serve me well enough (spdif). Plus Creative and their history of poor driver support really pushed me over the edge, I will never again buy ANYTHING with their name on it, ever... Lastly the 8800 really seems to be a pain from what I've read. It has insane potential but everything I've read says Nvidia has dropped the ball on it's drivers (as well as Vista drivers overall). It's really hard to believe too as I've had probably a dozen (or more) Nvidia powered video cards over the years as well as a few from ATI and there never was any doubt who made the better drivers pre-8800.
Which HTPC software did you end up going with? I'm curious to know... do you duck out of that software to fire up the Blu ray software or does it work inside of the other?
