Finally after 8 Years - My First (HTPC) Build!

[IdontexistM8]

Yes after nigh on 8 years of being a member of this august and esteemed board I'm going to actually build something

Having previous tinkered with Xboxes, chosen external enclosures/drives and investigated laptops I've decided to finally get out the Philips screwdriver set and don the anti-static wrist strap.

What I'm looking at is a quiet/silent HTPC for XBMC, online streaming and possibly some emulators. So pretty much similar to what I've done with the original Xbox for years but in PC form.

My proposed setup is. . .

Case - Antec ISK300-65
Board - Asus E45M1-I DELUXE
Memory - Kingston or Crucial 8GB DDR3 1333MHz (so cheap, seems rude not to go to 8GB)
SSD for OS - Kingston 64GB SSDNow V+ (doing nothing after coming out of a laptop which was upgraded to a Crucial M4, was going to go on eBay but then I thought why not?)
HDD for Media - Samsung HM641JI 640GB (currently in a small enclosure attached to TV's USB slot)
Fan - Might see how the stock runs on low because of the passive board but I'm happy to accept advice for an alternative. I've seen a few possibilities but I must admit I've not overly up in the latest 80mm fans, since the last fan mod I did was about 5 years ago!
OS - Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit / OpenELEC Fusion Build
Wireless Keyboard/Mouse - TBC, suggestions welcome.
IR Receiver/Remote Control - Ditto.

Not getting an ODD at this time as I don't really need one what with having a Panasonic Blu-Ray/HDD Recorder already, plus I've a few external enclosed drives for OS installation and any disc backing up I might want to do in the future.

I think my main potential stumbling block will be the bios but I'm going to take it nice and slowly. I'm aware the Asus board comes with a lot of 'extras' however I don't know if any of the settings/software are actually useful.

Also the PC will be in something of a tight fit with not much room between it and the Panasonic recorder. The Antec case is about 8-9cm deeper than the Panasonic and the height difference between the two is 4cm so the fan output should be just about clear enough. I probably have enough room to set the case back slightly if needs be.

I'm just about to pull the trigger on the case and board, so does anyone have any specific advice? I think I've got things pretty well covered however I'm sure if there's something I've missed someone else will spot it.

Thanks!

[MikeC]

Hardware choices look fine to me... but every computer needs some breathing room to stay decently cooled. You might have to juggle the positioning a bit. Try it and see what happens in actual use conditions (ie, you won't be running prime95 routinely in a HTPC).

I recommend trying XBMC Beta 11.2, btw. Excellent media PC interface. It's been working great on my HTPC; the graphics demands are way lower than the last version (10?), easily handled by the AMD 785G IGP (and Athlon2 X2). Leaving XBMC on & switching back to the Windows desktop is perfectly doabale. With previous versions, Windows would slow to a stuttering crawl if I tried this.

A keyboard w/ integrated rollerball is ideal for me; I've tried several. Am using IOGEAR GKM561R right now. Its roller wheel is a little glitchy, but this might be due to abuse -- wireless media keyboards do get dropped sometimes. I have wondered about a smaller one from IOGEAR -- GKM681R.

[Scrooge]

On the control side, my approach has been to use a wireless keyboard/ mouse combo for setup and the like, and PC Remote (I use WP7, but I understand iOS has similar tools) to control it for general playback functions. It's much cleaner and less geeky than a full keyboard when dates are over, and the KB/M get tucked into the drawer of the coffee table when not in use. I spent a bunch of time looking at the dedicated wireless media keyboards and came away completely unimpressed by their utility for price and size.

[Abula]

Sorry wrong thread.