Need new P4/Celeron Mobo - no frills setup

[metroplex]

I'm looking to setup a home theater PC and need to figure out a mobo/CPU combo that's bottom dollar, reliable/low power consumption, but also packs some punch... sorta like a compromise between a 9mm Parabellum and a .50 BMG.

What mobo brands should I go for? Asus, Abit, or???

And which CPU?
The Celeron 2.4 GHz caught my eye - it's inexpensive and if its anything like the Celerons from the days of yore (P2 and P3 based) then it should be what I'm looking for.

BTW this PC will be strictly for recording TV shows, playing them back, and watching DVD movies. The PVR card will have hardware MPEG 2 encoding and decoding so that means very low CPU utilization.

Basically this is a bottom dollar PC that isn't a POS slapped together but it's also not state of the art.

My budget is to keep it below $400 USD because the PVR card and software will cost me roughly $250. So I want the total budget to be below $700 USD.

PVR: Hauppauge PVR-350
Video card: Probably GeForce 4 MX440 (What's the diff between 440 and 440SE?)
RAM: 256MB PC2100 DDR or PC2700 DDR
HD: IBM 75GXP 75GB donor from my current PC, ATA100/7200 RPM
DVD: whatever cheap 16x DVD-ROM drives are available
Sound: on-board or a CMI based sound card, these are really really good for the price. I have 2 of these already

If I go with a Celeron or a P4, what CPU cooler is the quietest? I don't want a loud PC at ALL, this has go to be as whisper quiet as possible. No overclocking will be done, and no hardcore gaming either.

Thanks in advance and I realize that there are lots of similar posts but what I'm asking is (IMHO) more unique than some of the other requests.

 

[newbiepcuser]

Dell.

Watch for hot deals. You can probably get Pent IV deal under 500.
Dell PCs are super quiet.

 

[Vette73]

If you want a cheap system and don't mind GF4mx graphics, then get a nForce2 board with IGP and a Athlon XP. Much cheaper and faster.

 

[metroplex]

woooo i like the sound of the nForce2 but the AMD part bothers me. What is the quietest fan that will cool down that Athlon XP w/o overheating?

The P4s and Celerons should run ice cold most of the time.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: metroplex
woooo i like the sound of the nForce2 but the AMD part bothers me. What is the quietest fan that will cool down that Athlon XP w/o overheating?

The P4s and Celerons should run ice cold most of the time.

Get a Retail cpu. Comes with a AMD heatsink that is pretty quiet. Also the Shuttle MN31N board (which has onboard graphics AND dolby digital Soundstorm sound) has dual video out onboard.

 

[metroplex]

The retail AMD heatsink is the 60mm fan right? They're noisy as anything IMHO - unless the new ones are quieter?

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: metroplex
The retail AMD heatsink is the 60mm fan right? They're noisy as anything IMHO - unless the new ones are quieter?

New ones have copper bottoms and are pretty quiet. I forgot who makes them, but they are no louder than a current P4 fan.

 

[metroplex]

Do you know which Athlon XPs would have this new fan?

 

[orion7144]

Dell has a deal right now for under $400 for a P4C 2.4gig. Like the post above this is the best bang for the buck you can get. Just pop in you card and have at it. Here is a link to dells site.