since noise is an important factor...

avoid fans lower than 120mm. so ultima 90 is a nono. but i would recommend the Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. nice and silent and works well. almost half the price of the ultima and u dont need to buy a fan. dunno if itll fit in the case or not though. else theres the Artic Cooling Alpine 7. its quiet but sadly not a real good performer...i think even the stock intel hsf beats it in terms of temps. as for case fans...undervolting them to 7v would be a good idea.

PSU: the Cooler Master extreme power supposedly has a very noisy fan....something to do with it rattling the grill or something like that. im not too sure....but mebbe a Silverstone Strider 400w should be enough to power ur rig...not too sure about this

rams: need performance rams meh? id rather go for 4gb value rams instead if its just for watching movies man...more bang for the buck. or get 2gb value rams and save some cash.

This post has been edited by mADmAN: Nov 28 2007, 03:30 PM

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIITTTTT A MINUTE!!!

ur building such a nice htpc but using onboard soundcard???

u at least need a PCI soundcard man....do the system and the movies some justice....

suggestion: audiotrak prodigy hifi 7.1 RM390 from bulk order section

wanna be a cheapskate? creative audigy 4 for rm240

oooo....didnt know u already had an external receiver. if got then good

all motherboards has an onboard soundcard....just need to make sure ur motherboard has an SPDIF out. im not sure about the one uve chosen...if specs say got then got la

otherwise a soundcard with SPDIF out is needed