New to htpcs. Need guidance. - Page 3

Well so far here is my new list of hardware, please advice on any fitment problems or a better product. I'm itching to start hitting the buy button but I'll wait at most till next week for any advice or suggestions I may receive and to do more price hunting.

Silverstone Tek GD07B Aluminum Extended ATX
MSI Computer Corp. Motherboard DDR3 2600 Intel - LGA 1155 Motherboards Z77 MPOWER
Arctic Silver 5 Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Paste 3.5g
Intel Core i5-3570K
Cooler Master GeminII S524
8GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-19200 2400MHz Trident X Series CL10 (10-12-12-31) Dual Channel kit
Samsung Electronics 840 Pro Series 2.5-Inch 128 SATA_6_0_gb Solid State Drive MZ-7PD128BW
WD Green 2 TB Desktop Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA III, 64 MB Cache - WD20EZRX
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 660 Ti WINDFORCE 2X OC Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express 3.0
Pioneer BDR-207MBK Black 12X SATA BDRW DVDRW BDXL Quad Layer Bulk no software
Seasonic 660W 80 Plus Gold ATX12V/EPS12V Power Supply - X-660 SS-660KM

Current price if all purchased from Amazon is $1,487.72. I know that's almost 50% more than my original budget but I think that I'll have a decent machine. Any thoughts or suggestions are being waited on.
I already have the software which I decided to go with windows 7 Ultimate x64. The only things I'm not sure is the ram which I know is good but can probably go with something slower to save a little, maybe?
The cd drive is just one of very little that I have found so far and for a $83 price tag it seems to be pretty good baring any size issues. And I have to make sure the video card will fit as well which going by Silverstone's
own advice I'll just loose one hdd bay which will still leave me with room for 3 HDDs and 4 if I get an adapter for the second cd drive bay. Talking about the second drive bay, I saw some remote control adapters that
can be put there to turn the computer on and off with a remote. Any advice or experience with those? Anything I'm missing before I think I've got everything covered and run into any surprises when putting it all together?
I'll be waiting for any replies. Thanks.
Just noticed I may need an adapter bracket for the ssd, Or not?
Edited by jaliscojorge - 1/11/13 at 10:50pm

I'll start looking at 3tb drives. Never even looked to compare prices with the 2tb. I'll definitely keep the ram. I think the motherboard comes with sata cables already but for what they cost at monoprice it wouldn't hurt to have any extra or 90 degree ones either. I'll have to find out about the ssd bracket.

Well I found this 3tb hard drive at Amazon. Says it's made for video surveillance. Any reason why it wouldn't work as a normal hard drive?
Check this out on AMZN:

Seagate SV35 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6-Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive for Video Surveillance ST3000VX000
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007JUFKLI/ref=cm_sw_r_an_am_ap_am_us?ie=UTF8

Oh no, the case I chose is no longer available anywhere I look and the gpu is out of stock from amazon. I'll have to crack the egg to see what's available there. As long as the case is black and supports usb 3.0 and can fit a full atx board and a 13" video card I'll consider any recommendations.

If I can't find and htpc case to fit the parts I want I'm going to go with a gaming rig case like the one you suggested Catalytic. But first I'm going to try my best to hunt for a htpc case first. The one I had chosen was the Silverstone GD07B. Which even in Silverstone's own website claimed it could accommodate a big gpu. Hopefully within this week it'll become available. Fingers crossed. If not coolermaster here I come.

Cooling is a concern. I just wanted the case to fit in with the rest of my components but if it means it will sacrifice the life of the insides then I'll have to either forget completely the gaming part and and pass on the gpu card and keep it strictly media oriented, or find a case that will look good in my living room even though it's not an htpc case.

Well luckily today I checked back in with amazon and the case is available again. Hope it still is by this weekend because I'm literally holding myself back from pressing the purchase button but just don't want to jump the gun. According to the reviews it should have plenty of room for everything on my list and be able to keep things cool as well. Maybe I should just buy it now before the out of stock message appears again? Decisions, decisions.

I was really set on the gtx 660 ti gpu but came across the radeon hd 7950. After searching and reading quite a bit of posts mainly at toms hardware the answer isn't clear as to which one is a better card. Any thoughts from someone here? Also I found the i5 3570k for $189.99 at micro center but with in store pickup only which isn't a big deal for me but I have to figure the total cost with taxes to see if it's still less than the price on amazon?

We'll I'll be sticking with the 660ti but am now looking for a different cpu fan most probably from noctua because I'm liking them. The Gemini is 3mm to tall for the case.

Hmmmm, scratching head. I remember seeing it was 140mm tall but I checked the coolermaster website and you are correct renethx. It's only 105mm tall. Because of thinking it wasn't going to fit and too avoid having problems with ram/cpu cooler space issues I had thought of going with the samsung DDR3 1600 mhz 4gb X 2. But if I switch back to the GeminII S524 it's supposed to accommodate the heat sinks on the 2400 mhz g. Skills. Should I get the g. Skills @ 2400 or stick with the samsung @ 1600 mhz? The price is like double for the g skills that's why I'm asking if the price is worth it?

Another question comes to mind about GeminII, since it hovers over the ram will it cause any conflict with the disk drive?

Thanks renethx, I'll definitely check them out. So would you say the price for the 2400 isn't worth it? Plus I like the cl9 on the ones you recommend.

The Gemini could be positioned in different directions but haven't looked at the case and motherboard to see if it would work any other way than above the ram?

Don't know if you've heard the fan on the GeminII but most reviews say it's quite while a few complain that it's noisy. Should I just get a low noise fan or try it as is and see for myself if one is required?

I will be connecting this htpc to a onkyo tx-nr 818 if I got the name right. As to what I've read so far with the i5 and the msi mpower motherboard alone I should be able to pass through the audio with the hdmi connection and enjoy lpcm or true hd or whatever audio format I choose. Am I correct and would it also be possible using the gtx 660 ti or am I confused and would need a separate sound card to achieve a full audio experience? I think I'm right about not needing one but just want to make sure?

Just picked up the i5 3570k for 204.00 with tax included at micro center. YES, $20.00 savings
Compared to amazon and newegg that is.
Edited by jaliscojorge - 1/20/13 at 10:40am

I found the CLP0602 BigTyp Revo from thermaltake. Not sure how quiet the supplied fan is but the size isn't too big and according to reviews I've read it can handle modest overclocking. No actual user reviews that I can find probably because it seems that it's a fairly knew product?

Finally ordered all the parts. Went with the noctua nh-l12 for cooling.
Gskills cl9 2133 sniper ram since I don't plan to overclock high.
Got the seasonic X660 to have ample and reliable power.
Samsung 840 Pro 128gb ssd and a wd green 2 tb hdd to avoid any problems with the 3tb drives that I read many having problems with internally. Might add a 3tb later?
Gigabyte 660ti since it isn't the most expensive and not to shabby in performance.
Along with the msi z77 mpower and the i5 3570k I think it'll suffice for my needs.
All to be put inside the slick looking and to my advantage kid proof Silverstone GD07B.
Now just to wait for the parts and start assembling them and hope not to break them in the process :-). I'm still wondering if I should get a keyboard that tailors to an htpc or not? Not in a hurry to add a tuner card thanks to hulu. Any advice to ease or warn me for the assembly or software setup are welcomed. Haven't read assasin's guides all the way through yet. Guess I can do that while I wait for the parts to arrive.

Thanks, I have all the parts now to find a few hours to put it all together and then some to set it up too. This weekend isn't looking very good either :-(. Unless I go with a sleepless night.