New HTPC build and hello.

[mr.brown]

I couldn't see a Welcome type forum so I thought I may as well make my first post here seeing as I've just built a small(ish) form factor PC. Due to having an Athlon 64 lying around I decided (for cost's sake) to build something around this. So here's what I have accumulated in the last few days:

Athlon 64 3500+
Asus A8V-VM SE mATX
2x1Gb PC3200
Zalman CNPS8000 cooler
Hitachi DeskStar Sata 250Gb HDD
random DVD+- RW
Soundgraph iMon
NSK2480 case

First thoughts are that (with the Fanmate turned right down) the computer is near silent - the quietest I've ever had in fact and quieter than my laptop. Processing power/speed wasn't my top priority as it's just there to act as a storage device for photos/videos/music and as a display device (connected to an LCD tv).

However, now that I've built (in a rush admittedly) I'm getting a hankering for a Blu-Ray capable set-up. I had a PS3 and bought a few BD movies but now the PS3 has gone they're sitting upstairs gathering dust.

I'd love to see any SFF Blu-Ray set-ups if there are any out there?

Cheers

Sean

 

[mr.brown]

Cheers for the reply (it was starting to get cold in here..)

I'm happy with the case but have been thinking about starting from scratch pretty much along the lines you'vw mentioned:

E2140
2x1Gb Ram (Crucial Ballistix or something in that sort of price range - £70ish?)
HD 2600XT card
2x250Gb Sata - I have a Hitachi one already that is far from silent so I guess I need to read up on silent ones.
For the BD I was going to go for the Pioneer 202BK

The only thing I'm stuck on at the moment is the motherboard but I'm leaning toward the Asus P5K-VM as I understand it will make o/c'ing the cpu easier?

 

[mr.brown]

Damn. that's a beast - if only I had the room.

Unfortunately, I'm limited in terms of case height to about 15cm due to my LCD stand (which I'm not going to replace as it cost me loads - and it fits my YSP-800 perfectly )