Well, I had to bring my PC into my bedroom a while back, and I thought, "Hey, why don't I use it to play DVDs?" Well, it turned into an obsession, and I've built a nearly perfect PC. Check my signature for the details, but suffice it to say it's fast as hell (for my photo and video editing purposes, the Xbox is all I have for games), and dead silent. I can hear the second hand on my watch across the room in the middle of the night, but I can't even begin to hear this. And thanks to ATI, I've got my own fake-Tivo system. Beyond that, I've modded an Xbox to allow me to stream music and movies to the living room. Of course, I had to silence that, too!

Here's the system's innards... the wires actually run down the side, keeping airflow as clean as possible.


Here's a look at the front. Those LEDs on the Rheobus fan controller are completely annoying. Good thing the Sonata's front cover covers them completely.


And finally, here's a look at the whole system. Believe it or not, I got that 19" LCD for $450 at Circuit City last summer. The price quickly jumped to about $600 and stayed there... lucky me! Oh, and Go BoSox!


Good luck in your endeavors; I hope you end up as pleased as I am!

You seem to have some dust problems
Why not cram those wires between your cd drive and rheobus. I know you say they are out of the way, but why not make it pretty?!

Temps?

The Sonata loves to leave "Antec" dust marks from the rather inconvenient holes in it's sides. No bother to me... they haven't caused any problems yet, and I only clean it every few months. I figured I'd leave the "A" on the PSU as an inside joke for any other Sonata owners!

As far as the wires go... well, I don't usually show off the insides of my machine. What's more, I've found that super-clean wire management makes it difficult to work on the computer when it comes time to start ripping components out. As long as the airflow is sufficient to keep the system cool and silent during the hot summer months, it's good enough for me. I guess I'm proud not to be too needy! Now, wire management on the outside of the computer is a different matter...

(Note the dust on top of the subwoofer, too!)

Oh, temps... I'm showing 45 for the case, and 59 for the processor. I'm told that this motherboard (or maybe this line of MSI mobos) reports a core CPU temperature at a location much closer to the core than most motherboards. This means that the temperature registers higher than on other comparable systems. How much? I don't know, but my system has been running full time crash-free since November/December (well, one PITA software crash from some difficulty with an ATI software upgrade). One of the fans pulls air directly between the hard drives, so the cooling is definitely directed at the most critical part (the Zalman cooler on my video card is overkill by itself). I do a lot of video editing in Premiere without trouble, so it seems pretty stable to me! Oh, BTW, the disks are mounted on sorbothane strips, which removed that last little bit of audible noise from the Samsungs when I installed them (the strips, that is).

Next step is to go to the Yamaha web site and get one of those mini PC-recievers (like a HT reciever but designed to plug into your PC, but with real built-in amps) and get some REAL speakers. The drivers in the Logitech satellites are not that bad. They are made by a taiwanese company called Tang Band and you can order direct replacements from http://www.partsexpress.com but they are not as good as a true two-way satellite speaker. That subwoofer is atrocious, though. It doesn't extend deep enough to be called a "subwoofer" but instead should be called a "super-woofer". The bass is boomy and indistinct, good for impressing people who haven't heard really GOOD bass yet.

Heh... they definitely don't compare to my home theater, but I'll tell you what- these Logitechs are a heck of a lot better than the Altec Lansings I used to have! I don't think there are any really high quality "computer speakers" available... the only real solution for top quality audio is a terratec card, a good receiver, and some real speakers. Luckily, the Logitechs make a pretty solid, and cheap, alternative.