building a HTPC

[rambunktor]

hi all,

i'm going to be building a HTPC using this case:

Antec Fusion Remote HTPC Case - Black (No PSU) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-091-AN - £120.74

and was wondering if you could help me in deciding what I need to get

potential mobos:

Asus P5QL-EM Intel G43 Micro-ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-305-AS - £86.24

OR

MSI M3-F Intel G31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-114-MS - £38.98



Processor

intel Core 2 Duo E7400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.80GHz (1066FSB) - Retail - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-271-IN - £113.84

or one to suit micro atx board powerful enough for bluray and vista home premium

RAM

Corsair XMS2 DHX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX Dual Channel (TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX) - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-184-CS - £37.98


I already have a LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive - Retail - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-074-LG&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=

and an admittedly quite poor Sapphire RADEON HD 2400PRO -512 MB - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-11...H6NS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1242916783&sr=8-1


Please can you let me know what you think of the motherboards, if there's a better intel one you can recommend (has to be micro ATX) and advise what sort of processor I should go for? this will be a media centre. I have a couple of spare SATA II HDDs that can go in here

I need min 4x SATA ports and 4gig of decent DDR2 RAM to start, think the Corsair XMS2 would do the trick. Would also like on-board sound, anything 5.1 or above is good for me

Also, can anyone recommend a quiet PSU?

It won't be used for any serious gaming, just running vista home premium 32bit and, maybe in the future, running a dual tuner TV card

the above are only suggestions, but I would definitely like to stick with this case - unless there's a better fetured one for the price!!

budget is flexible

many thanks

 

[rambunktor]

thanks plec

and would you recommend the cheaper board?

 

[rambunktor]

one of these? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-019-BQ&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

don't reckon i'd need more power than that

the asus will give me more options in future if I want more power

nice one

 

[rambunktor]

do you think the scythe is better than the zalman?
I've just sprung for home premium, though I did consider mythbuntu for a while

thanks for the speedy help!

 

[rambunktor]

hi again

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-003-OB

just seen this, how good is it versus the board, cpu and ram above? would this work well for an HTPC?

finally, does anyone know how quiet the fan in this kit is?

all n00by questions, I know, but I'm quite skint at the mo and am trying to make this project cheaper

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alternative would be to build a media server PC to keep in the other room and use my xbox 360 to stream everything to my TV in the lounge that way. If I were to do this, how fast would I need it to be? would like to be able to put a TV tuner card in there at some point

many thanks in advance

R