Hi, I am building my first HTPC and after much reasearch I have come up with the following build. I want to use the system to watch streaming sports, Bluray and downloaded HD movies. I will not be using it to watch TV. Any comments or suggestions welcome.
Case » SilverStone Grandia GD04B
Power Supply» be quiet! Pure Power 430W ATX 2.3
Motherboard » Intel DH67BL, H67
CPU » Intel Socket 1155 Intel Core i5-2310, 4x 2.90GHz, tray (CM8062301043718)
Memory » Crucial DIMM kit 8GB PC3-10667R
Heatsink » Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev. B
Optical Drives » LiteOn iHOS104 4x BD-ROM
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That sounds like a great system. For the tasks you've listed, you won't require the Core i5. You could get away with a Core i3 or even a Pentium or Celeron. You might want to consider something like the i3-2100t as it has a bit better power/thermal characteristic. IMO, the stock HSF in the i3-2100 and i3-2100t (the T-variant has a thinner profile HSF) are both pretty quiet and you may find that you don't really need to splurge on the Scythe. The stock HSF on the Core-i5 2500K is not so quiet.
Have you considered going with a low-profile chassis or even mini-ITX? Or are you going for something bigger to have more storage locally?
Storage drive( s ) and operating system are missing from your build list.
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