I'm starting to put together the next version of my home Media Center. If you're living in the U.S the following list may sound a bit of a "that's all"-ish, but consider the following:
- Electrics in Israel cost mostly as at least double than they do in the US (very high import taxes)
- Our living room only provides a 3.3 meter viewing distance from the TV
- TV: 32" AOC, HD Ready, 6.5 MS, 1:1200
Machine: Main points:
- I'm building it from scratch with the following parts
- The goal is to achieve a receiver like look and a very very quiet system that does not interfere while watching a movie in the living room (this will be sitting next to the TV)
- Should run Vista with Media Center; Games- not that much.
- I'm looking for feedback on this list
- Casing: ThermalTake VC4001SNS Mozart With Media Lab Silver (has a remote and a scrolling VFD panel so it looks like a receiver).
- CPU: INTEL P-D LGA775 2.8GHZ 820 800MHZ FSB 2*1Mb DUAL CORE BOX 3Y
- Memory: 2 X DDR2 KINGSTON 512MB 667MHZ NON-ECC CL5
- Motherboard: ASUS P5B-E P-4/P-D/Core 2 Duo P965 DUAL DDR2 GIGA LAN 3Y (because it supports a coaxial 8 channel audio out)
- CPU Fan: ARCTIC COOLING AC-FREEZER-7-PRO FOR INTEL 775
- Hard Drive: SEAGATE Barracuda 160GB SATA2 NCQ 7200RPM 8MB 5Y (Already have an existing 120GB Hard driven which I will add)
- Graphics Card: GIGABYTE GV-NX73T256P-RH GF 7300GT PCI-E 256MB GDDR2 DVI+TV-OUT 3Y (So I can run Vista Easily)
- Speaker system: CREATIVE I-TRIGUE 3600SE BLACK (can't find a good review for this anywhere - thoughts? will it fit a living room? strong enough?)
Your thoughts are welcome.