Ok so I currently use my old gaming rig as my HTPC. It's loud its bulky and has lots of lights on the motherboard. So I've decided to just redo it. I currently have an Intel Core 2 Duo 6850 which is dual 3.0ghz and its the 65watt model so lower power consumption and less heat. I want HDMI and I want to be able to output LPCM from Blu-Ray TrueHD and DTS-HD MA tracks. There are only a couple motherboards that support this. I've also been looking at a lot of cases and originally I only wanted to spend around 200 bucks. But then I found this case and decided I want to get it. So here is the list of stuff I have and want to buy.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163103 HTPC case its a Micro-ATX nice and small the LCD on it is only a 4.3" touch screen so its nice and discrete and not loud and what not like the larger cases.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131237 This motherboard has onboard HDMI and the onboard video card has hardware acceleration for all Blu-Ray codecs. It also passes LPCM over HDMI so I can get the lossless audio codecs with an HDMI 1.1 receiver or newer. Although my new Pre/Pro I'm going to be getting soon has HDMI 1.3a there is no solution to bitstream the new codecs with a PC yet. Also its really not needed.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185046 The new CPU cooler is very quiet now at a rated ~25dBA but I will put a pot on it and turn the fan down as much as possible as my CPU runs rather cool.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159054 This is the PSU I currently have. I may mod it with a quieter fan or try and find a fanless PSU it depends on how much it bothers me.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227284 The memory I currently have. I'm not sure if it will fit with the heatpipes if it does not I will just remove them and add normal heat spreaders and if heat is a problem I will just underclock it a bit.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106227 The BD-Rom drive. I didn't feel the need for a burner.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115028 The CPU.
I may also had a couple resistors to the fans that are in the case if I find them to loud or maybe just some small pots to adjust the speed. I'll also be adding a Skywalker-1 DVB-S HDTV satellite card and probably a nice HDTV OTA tuner. For now I will be running MediaPortal and PowerDVD for Blu-Ray playback. For 2 channel music I use a Twisted Pear Audio USB DAC that is dual mono config with a Metronome ASRC reclock module. I think this is about everything...if anyone has any suggestions or changes that you think would improve things I'm all ears