I am in the process of planning a new PC for my bedroom. Currently I own a Core Duo laptop, which is perfectly enough for me in terms of performance, but it's very noisy and doesn't play nice with my HD monitor.
Researching my options I found a review about the new Celeron processors and their low power usage and decided that the E3200 is probably just perfect for my purposes.
I am now looking for a cheapish but reliable motherboard to go with it. I want to have DVI output on it as I trust that more than a D-Sub. I am now looking at the Gigabyte GA-EG41MF-US2H and the MSI G41M-FIDP as candidates, or maybe something from Intel. I couldn't find much information about either, especially about undervolting possibilities (in case the Celeron needs a little help with running passively).
For the rest of the parts, I'm considering some Geil Green RAMs, a quiet HDD (haven't decided yet between a 2.5" notebook drive or a Spinpoint EcoGreen F2), and a mATX case on the smaller side - current find is the Sharkoon Rush case, but it needs more research before I decide. I haven't researched PSU's yet (maybe a picoPSU? depends on the case), and no ODD is needed as I prefer it external.
Do you have any advice regarding this setup? No parts are 100% decided yet so any input would be helpful.
(PS. I did look into the AMD option, thought it was fantastic value, but I don't think I need the extra performance. I also looked at the Atoms, but they are a hair below what I need - I love Flash games.)
Bedroom PC in planning
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How much expansion room do you need? Are you going to be adding a second 1+TB hard drive later? Will you need a video card installed down the road?
If not, have you considered mITX? What is your budget?
Antec ISK-300-65 case/psu
Intel mITX G41 board
Intel E3200
Quiet 80mm fan w/ softmounts
OCZ/Intel 60-80GB SSD or Single-Platter 2.5" drive
That setup would be on the expensive side, but money well spent. The Antec Case and Intel mITX board are reviewed on this site.
If not, have you considered mITX? What is your budget?
Antec ISK-300-65 case/psu
Intel mITX G41 board
Intel E3200
Quiet 80mm fan w/ softmounts
OCZ/Intel 60-80GB SSD or Single-Platter 2.5" drive
That setup would be on the expensive side, but money well spent. The Antec Case and Intel mITX board are reviewed on this site.
I don't think I will need a second hard drive - I couldn't fill a 320GB one to half in the last 3 years so even 500GB should last me quite a while. 
I would like to keep the option of installing the video card later, though. I don't know much about the IGP in the G41 chipset, and want to have a plan B in case I don't get along with it.
I did consider going mITX, but most boards seem to lack a PCIe x16 slot for a video card... This rules out the mITX Intel board too, I think. The only one I found was the GF9300 one by Zotac - which sounds fantastic although a bit expensive - , but can only get the PCB version without wake on USB here, and that's a no-no. I also read some reviews stating the the GF9300 chipset had some rare stability issues, so I will probably avoid it.
It's kind of hard to say any budget numbers as prices in Hungary are different from what I see on eg. Newegg. But I looked up your suggested items and they were just right price-wise, with the exception of the SSD drives which are unfortunately out of my range.
I will go read the Antec case review now, thanks for the suggestion.
Newb question, but how do I tell if a hard drive has a single platter? Retailers don't seem to add that bit of information to their descriptions.
I would like to keep the option of installing the video card later, though. I don't know much about the IGP in the G41 chipset, and want to have a plan B in case I don't get along with it.I did consider going mITX, but most boards seem to lack a PCIe x16 slot for a video card... This rules out the mITX Intel board too, I think. The only one I found was the GF9300 one by Zotac - which sounds fantastic although a bit expensive - , but can only get the PCB version without wake on USB here, and that's a no-no. I also read some reviews stating the the GF9300 chipset had some rare stability issues, so I will probably avoid it.
It's kind of hard to say any budget numbers as prices in Hungary are different from what I see on eg. Newegg. But I looked up your suggested items and they were just right price-wise, with the exception of the SSD drives which are unfortunately out of my range.
I will go read the Antec case review now, thanks for the suggestion.
Newb question, but how do I tell if a hard drive has a single platter? Retailers don't seem to add that bit of information to their descriptions.
For Seagate and HITACHI, I was able to find the number of platters in their downloaded *.PDF data sheets.
Seagate Momentus 5400.6 250GB 5400rpm
HITACHI Travelstar 5K500.B 250GB 5400rpm
I don't have any personal experience with these drives. I'll keep poking around and trying to find out if Samsung and WD have confirmed 250GB single-platter 5400rpm 2.5" drives.
Seagate Momentus 5400.6 250GB 5400rpm
HITACHI Travelstar 5K500.B 250GB 5400rpm
I don't have any personal experience with these drives. I'll keep poking around and trying to find out if Samsung and WD have confirmed 250GB single-platter 5400rpm 2.5" drives.