HELP! Shuttle NF2 or Antec PII 630?

[AbRASiON]

I'm looking at building a wicked box sometime between January and April and I'm lost with what to do!

I was thinking an Antec Performance II SX 630 (it's basically the 660 AMG but in grey) has dust filter, nice design, strong, neat and attractive, plus not too big so it shouldn't be too noisy overall..

I was considering a small watercooling kit (Aquirius II, reviewed at overclocker cafe) or a well designed heatsink and 7volt case fans (I'm sick of noise!!)
(My p/s is a thermally controlled one, quite quiet toppower 420w reviewed @ dansdata) - also I'd be looking at an SATA drive (prolly seagate 120gb with fluid bearings)

Alternatively just a well designed quiet heatsink and not overclocking a t-bred b ridiculously, something in the 2.1(true)ghz speed at most.

However I wouldn't mind an Nforce 2 XPC (shuttle) which has just been released (like 20/12/02 in France there's info @ barebones.com) just window mod that and slap in a Sony DRU 500A could be nice too.

Anyone think there's a chance of the Nforce 2 coming down to sub 220$ US levels, because right now I can get this nice Antec case and A7N8X for about 170$ US total, but 300$ for the XPC seems too high.....

 

[DaveSimmons]

Another choice out next month is Antec's new "Sonata" quiet case with 120 MM fan mounts , reviewed at SilentPCReview.com.

I was thinking of getting a SB51 for a home theater PC, but am leaning towards the Sonata for the full set of slots instead of only 1 PCI + 1 AGP, the choice of any mobo, bigger / quieter fans, and standard-sized fans and power supply. Using the Sonata plus a normal mobo is also about $100 cheaper.

When I throw cost to the wind I also think hard about going with the Cooler Master 610 mATX case, a nice design to go in a home audio rack.

 

[AbRASiON]

I just replied to the other thread on that quiet Antec, it's the most ugly POS I've ever seen, the only thing I like is the 120mm fan and the sideways drive cage.

I'd rather not even consider it- I'll put up with the "noisy" Performance II SX 630 and just use high quality fans at a lower voltage to ensure it's a quiet box.