Quote:
Originally Posted by
santiagodraco /forum/post/20857880
A few thoughts from someone who has done exactly what you are trying to do on two PCs now.
First, you don't need a mid-tower case by any means, a normal HTPC case will work, either half height or full. However a full height will be better as you can use a more powerful graphics card.
Second, i'd go SandyBridge and an i5 2500 cpu. Better overclocking and overall performance.
Third if you want you can go half height and use two 6570's but expect to have some fan noise.
Go with the OCZ Vertex 3 120gb imo.
If you are adventurous and don't mind spending a bit more... consider water cooling. You'll be able to have high performance without the noise. A truely gaming capable HTPC without watercooling will NOT be silent. You can come close but you'll have to sacrifice performance.
Here's a link to my two HTPC projects.
HTPC 1: Living room HTPC in a Lian Li case with wc for two Radeon 5870s and one i7 930.
HTPC 2: Master beedroom HTPC in a MonCaso 312 case with wc for one i7 2600 and 2 HIS Radeon 6570 half height boards.:
Not everything I did here you need to do but it's just to illustrate that you can build a silent super high performance HTPC/gaming rig if you are willing to invest in the proper parts and approach.