Opinions on an EPC

[StarMonkey]

Hey guys,
I was wondering if you could give your opinions on an MCE based machine I'm looking at building and tell me if I've missed anything/any problems you foresee, its for my living room with TV (hopefully soon to be projector) setup.

Silverstone LC11-M Case (with VFD, 300W PSU, remote, PCI E Riser)
Intel D945GPM Motherboard (ViiV board)
Intel Pentium D 920 CPU
1GB 533 DDR2 RAM (2 x 512)
Western Digital 250GB Sata II 16MB cache hard drive
Gainward Geforce 6200TC (Passively cooled)
Hauppage Win-TV PVR 150 MCE x 2
Wireless keyboard and mouse
MCE 2005
Sony DVD RW +- DL
USB Wireless G

I'm not really movable on the CPU/Motherboard (due to cheap availability to myself ).
The dual analogue tuners are because I have Sky (free to air) and would get a second Sky box (if i can split the signal coming in) for watching/recording seperate channels at once.
I think the graphics card is HD ready.
I really want a case with VFD included and a case thats fairly slim
Oh and for sound I'll be using the SP/DIF connector on the motherboard to connect to an amp.

All comments welcome!

Cheers
StarMonkey

 

[Rambles]

Looks good to me - what CPU cooler?

 

[StarMonkey]

The Intel stock one, they're not too noisy. If I find its louder than I want I'll go for a Zalman flower

StarMonkey

 

[Rambles]

Good choice, I use a zalman flower with an AMD board/CPU - the cool 'n' quiet option works very well, near as silent.

 

[Media-Man]

The Intel stock one, they're not too noisy. If I find its louder than I want I'll go for a Zalman flower

StarMonkey

You can (just) squeeze a Zalman CNPS7700 (AlCu/Cu) in a LC11 (120mm fan).
This has the added benefit of keeping your other components cool. It would be an idela to check you have clearance around your chipset cooler though; failing that a CNPS7000-B (92mm version) is a reasonable bet.

 

[StarMonkey]

Hi MediaPC.tv,
If you're the same person as the website I'm getting the case etc from you
Nice one on being the cheapest around! Haven't check your delivery yet though
My problem with the Zalman is that its sooooo heavy, this case needs the motherboard mounted upside down so it puts a lot of strain on the motherboard. Motherboards are designed to flex in the opposite direction to where the cooler is placed (to prevent tracks from breaking).
The other problem is that the weight of the cooler invalidates the Intel warranty
I can't use the 7000b as its for 478 boards

Has anyone used this case and can tell me how quiet the bundled fans/PSU are?

Edit: Turns out the only Zalman compatible with Dual Core is the 7900 which is too high for the case and not marked as compatible with my motherboard.

StarMonkey