What a messss ... (or, the ultimate quiet HTPC)

[lirsch]

Well, after reading reviews and googling for about a month I need some pro-hero help in order to build my ultimate quiet HTPC.

I've gathered many components from many sites, all of them should be very quiet (most of them <20db) and most important - get along together in the same case

My HTPC should function as a full multimedia center -
- Very silent (most improtant)
- Full HD movies (attached to a 42" Full HD LCD)
- Compatible to the newset audio codecs (attached to Onkyo 607 receiver)
- Great looking (to get my wife's approval)
- Smooth running of Windows 7 + XBMC ( + photoshop editing)
- Can run mid-level graphic games

My budget is ~1500$-1700$ so It's not very limited

These are the components I've gathered until now, I need your help in to decide which ones can get along together, and if not, which components should I replace and with what ...

(Note - some of the components are not really known so you can google them)

CPU:
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[Finraziel]

I'm not very experienced with silent computing yet, but for the media keyboard I would look at the enermax aurora micro wireless, or if you want something smaller and less likely to stand out on the coffeetable, the logitech dinovo mini (though obviously you can't type on that as you normally would).
I have the logitech mediaboard pro myself which is a good budget option, but it lacks a windows key, the mediacontrols don't work on windows (it's really meant for the PS3), the lettering isn't entirely standard and the build quality could be better (it's easy to twist if you just grab it at the ends and turn). I'm looking to switch to the enermax myself.
As for memory, I don't think timings and all matter as much as people often think for performance and it doesn't sound like you're trying to get every last drop of performance anyway, so basically any set would be good, I'd just get the cheapest of a known brand (like kingston valueram or something like that).

[Jim Overflowed]

Just a few remarks:

- A i5 750 is pretty powerful for a HTPC. You could consider a dual core cpu as they use less power, which makes it much easier to make the system quiet. Something like i5 650 or still lower can still run mid-level games and performes good enough for HTPC photo editing in my opinion.

- Scythe mini fanless will only work on a quad core cpu if you got a real good case organization and great airflow, which is going to be very hard in a HTPC case. Read the SPCR reviews about the other coolers, they are all good enough if they fit in the case

- Any memory is fine if your budget allows it. Slower memory will likely perform just as well as expensive memory though.

- Go with a ati radeon 5xxx card for sure. They are the most power efficient cards for their performance. After that it's balancing gaming performance with silence. You could considder a 5770 for a bit more performance if you put on a custom cooler like the arctic cooling accelero. A faster gpu and a slower cpu will generally give better gaming performance fot the same power. If you go with a passive gpu, planning airflow in the case is important and not always easy.

[psyopper]

Seems to me that you've picked up some low profile cases with some rather tall coolers (the Zipang being odd one out).

I would also recommend an ATI 57xx series card for low power, video capability, gaming and audio bit-streaming directly to your reciever. Probably one of the Powercolor passive cards, though they'll be harder to cool efficiently in those smaller cases you have selected. Aftermarket coolers might not work so well in the smaller cases as they are usually larger than the cards they are attached to.

I might suggest a lower power processor like the i3-530 which will be easier to cool, with the mindset that in a HTPC you are offloading most of the work to the graphics card any how.

I would think about an mini-itx board with lots of SATA ports to set up a multi drive storage system (RAID or not) for your DVR needs. The smaller board will save you some space and help make things easier to cool, or buy you more room to tuck drives. Make sure it has a PCI-e port (not a standard PCI) to stick your video card on.