skieper

I own a Zalman 9700 which provides great cooling even at a mere 1000RPM, but it's rather loud at higher RPM, and I honestly doubt that it fits in all HTPC. As for the gfx card cooler, providing u have the space to install it (takes up 2 extra slots) I always recommend the Artic-Cooling twin turbo. I have it, at 100% (12V setting) u barely hear it and the cooling (@ 7V setting) is definitly better then stock.

I made an extra side hole in my HTPC to fit a 12cm fan, atm it's a ex-PSU fan, which is very audible, but the plan is to put a Tacens ventus pro instead. I've read very good reviews on the fan good CFM combined with low dB. Noctua is a very good alternative also delivering also great CFM with low dB. I've seen/heard them in a friends PC and I'm pretty impressed. Doubting even to get Noctuas instead of the tacens...
Anyways these are cooling systems I vouch for and I wouldn't tell anyone to get crap. lol.

And maybe some of you will react saying these are expensive, know that I always try to think budget-wise, but that beeing said, I also know that if you want the best, it's going to have it's price.

EvilGenius007

I've added a couple of links since I last bumped this. I'm still looking for suggestions on features folks would like to see added!

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EvilGenius007

Updated recommended builds. Still trying to decide what price-point the "Mid Range" system should target... somewhere in the $600~$800 range seems appropriate, but where exactly is hard to pin down.

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EvilGenius007

The NSK1480 is finally drying up from normal retail channels... if anyone knows of a sub-$150 case (pref. $90-120 range) to recommend, please let me know. There's a couple of solid contenders at the $150 range, but it's hard to get anything definitive below that...

EDIT: Also added sound cards to hardware recommendation.

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EvilGenius007

Suggested builds update. A large number of pricing updates, a few component recommendation changes. Now suggesting the HD4850 or the HD4770, despite the somewhat higher heat, power-consumption & noise the performance increase at the same price point makes it a more attractive buy. Also recommending the 1.5TB LP Barracuda based on price/storage ratio better than the 1TB Caviar Green, but in general the best drive is the largest of the suggested models that fit in your budget (750GB AADS: $70/750GB = 9.3¢/GB, 1TB EADS $90/1000GB = 9.0¢/GB, 1.5TB Barracuda LP $115/1500GB = 7.7¢/GB, 2TB EADS $220/2000GB = 11.0¢/GB).

Also updated the "Ultimate" HTPC to suggest the Co-Op GTX295 so that some of your mobo slots remain free for sound & tuner cards.

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Conspiracy

wow great thread. got me interested in trying to turn an old computer into a rly cheap HTPC

Inuzukakiba2

I looked through your budget build and some of the products are deactivated or have lowered in price.

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EvilGenius007

Hmm... everything was there 9 days ago. I'm sure the motherboard was even for sale 2 days ago. I'll post an update again soon, if you need advice on alternatives in the interim I'm sure people would respond to your requests if you made a new thread.

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EvilGenius007

In honor of 785G release I decided to update the budget build ahead of schedule. No changes (other than pricing updates) were made to the other builds, however I did have to shift recommended optical drives since LG has decided to discontinue it's brilliant GGC-H20L and offer instead a more expensive model that sacrifices HD-DVD playback for Lightscribe capability.

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EvilGenius007

Bump.

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