Mac Mini or Home Theater Surround Sound?

[phas3]

I need some help guys, I can't quite decide, I have a black macbook now that I'm using to stream to my ps3 so I can watch on my LED HDTV. I was thinking of getting a mac mini, external hard drive, and running Plex on it to make it a dedicated htpc.

But I was also contemplating on maybe just using my macbook with plex for now and purchase this

Sony BRAVIA DAV-HDX589W 5.1-Channel Theater System

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-BRAVIA-DAV-HDX589W-5-1-Channel-Theater/dp/B001W0Y440

macbook is going to run me about 700 with the external hard drive and the home theater path will run me about 400 and i'll most likely get an external for my macbook since im running out of space.

 

[Cave Man]

Just make sure the receiver has an optical audio input.

 

[phas3]

which route do you think i should go?

 

[Cave Man]

Now that Plex has h.264 hardware decoding, it will smoke your MB in video playback with those movies (which is most of them). On top of that, the curren Mini's are far superior to the MB. If you can afford it, go with the Mini.