New PC Spec quick glance required.

[nickcardwell]

Shall be ordering this in the next few weeks (though it all depends on price cuts from intel!)

If all goes to plan this is what i shall be ordering:

vista Home premium 64bit
OcUK 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-5300C5 667MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Vista Approved Kit - QTY 2 (8gb in total then)
Antec Fusion HTPC Case - 430HE Watt PSU
Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD ATI Micro ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Samsung SpinPoint T HD501LJ 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (QTY 2)
Noctua NH-U9F (Socket LGA775/754/939/940/AM2) Heatsink
DVD-RW (or possibly a blu ray one)
Logitech MX 5000 Laser Cordless Bluetooth 2.0 Desktop Combination - Retail

few questions first off.

1. the hard drives im choosing samsung as i beleive they are the quietest, is their any quieter ones?
2. noctua heatsink, should i be looking at any other heatsinks? will this heat sink fit in the case? I would like the quietest one possible as the htpc will be in the living room.
3. processor if intel prices drop a lot and its worth going for the quad processors, could the htpc psu cope with it ? (ie 430w psu with quad processor and 2 hard drives?
4. Not decided on whether to go get a cheap dvd-rw or wait a while and get a blu-ray writer with dvd-rw
5. is it worth getting the "Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT SILENT 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/DVI " (thinking of the video connetor ie will be using hdmi and not dvi connection) If i do go for this card, is their any other better motherboards to look out for?

PC will be used connected up to a 40" samsung tv in the living room via hdmi shall be used for general useage, playing dvds/blu ray etc.. (very little/no game useage)

Anything i have missed or should be looking at?

thanks in advance.

 

[1337z0r]

If your not planning on playing games, I would not bother with 8GB of ram. I handle vista fine with 2Gb of ram. 4GB of ram is the most you will need. I have the 250GB samsung drives they are very good in terms of speed and they are pretty silent too.

You will not need quad core at all for a HTPC so I would save some bucks as it will not be worth it. I would save the money by getting 4GB of ram and keeping the E6600 and getting a blu ray drive if you have the money to spend.

The system you are thinking of getting 8GB ram quad core ect is to over specced. My system plays HD content fine and streams to my xbox 360 with out any loss of speed on the actual pc.

 

[nickcardwell]

the reason why im thinking of going over kill (quad processor and 8gb of ram) is that the machine has to last a good few years(at least 3-5years) the computer room is getting converted into a nursery

does anyone know if the noctua heatsink will fit in the htpc case?