Case and cooling for HTPC

[gopalag]

I know there ant many threads of the same topic, but mine is a little different.
The present hardware I own is a 50" samsung DLP HDTV (has DVI cable but no HDMI, 720p native), Onkio 5.1 receiver with speakers, regular DVD player, Harmony 660 remote, coolsat 5K FTA satellite receiver, motorola VOOM HD receiver.

My motivation
1>price performance....
2>Able to download HD content (TV serials, movies..etc) from internet and watch on my HDTV
3>Able to record HD content for OTA (eg. TV series lost or 24...) and save in MPEG4 (may be off-line)

My HTPC list:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Orleans 2.0GHz 512KB L2 Cache AM2 - $85
Mobo- ASUS M2NPV-VM Socket AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6150 Micro ATX -$85
RAM- OCZ S.O.E 512MB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) - $55x2
Case- Antec nsk2400 -$80
Tuner- AVerMedia MTVHDA18 PCI Interface AVerMedia AVerTVHD MCE A180 -$75
HDD- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 SATA 3Gb/s -$75 ( newegg item# N82E16822148144 )

Software:
Microsoft MCE (Already have a copy from previous PC)

Does this list makes sense. Also am i missing anything? Do i have to increase my budget? more questions:
1>With the ASUS M2NPV mobo do I need to buy another SPDID module separately?
2>For HD DVR to work with MCE, do i also need to buy SD tuner
3>Please give recos for software too. I will be running MCE.
4>What cooling do i need for this.

 

[Zepper]

Welcome to the AT Forums.

Have you looked at the nMedia (division of Enermax) 300 series (or other) cases? Pair one with an Enhance ENP-5140GH PSU from eWiz via Froogle (save a buck or so) and you'll have a good start.

If there is room for the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64, then that is a hard to beat HSF for the Provantage.com price. You'll have to work out the rest of the cooling when you've got it in your hands as most of the HTPC cases need a bit of work on that score. Working outside the box like this can help.

.bh.

 

[gopalag]

I guess i should post this in general hardware for batter results...

 

[Zepper]

This is the weekend for many so it will be slower in general. And it's just barely evening in most of the country. Just give it a little time and they will come. In the meanwhile, Thermaltake has recently come out with some nice new HTPC cases.

.bh.