Home Office PC advice/recommendations?

Hey everyone! I was wondering if you guys could give me some pointers on what kind of setup to grab for an HP build. > Just looking for something classic—mostly for streaming movies and doing a bit of light browsing, probably running XBMC on top. My biggest priority, though, is keeping things quiet; I really don't want a machine that sounds like a jet engine taking off in my living room!

What kind of budget are we working with here?

mellowskipper91 said:What kind of budget are we looking at here?

I was thinking somewhere in the ballpark of $667

1 x Intel Core i5 CPU Onboard Series micro ATX mb 1 x Micron
1 x 4GB DDR3 1600 Mhz (PC3-12800) CL11
1 x Western Digital Blue 1TB 3.5"
1 x Corsair Qs-102, USB3.0, White
1 x MS FSP200-50GSV-5K 85+ SFX, bulk power supply
1 x LG DVD±RW 24x GH24NS95 SATA black bulk

$649
futura-it

I'm actually using that exact same setup for my home media center. I might swap in a slightly pricier, faster drive though—maybe a Western Digital Blue. Just a heads-up: that Corsair case won't fit a 5.25" drive, so you'd need an external optical drive instead.

You could also go even smaller with an ATX build—well, technically a mini build—but just keep in mind you'll want to stick to HDMI since the VGA output on these tends to be pretty subpar. You could look into some Spire cases like the 210, which handles a 5.25" drive, or the 502. Also, whatever you do, make sure you grab DDR3-L RAM with the lower voltage for both setups. And if you go the smaller route, don't forget you'll specifically need SO-DIMM RAM.

1 x Asrock AM1B-M, AM1, DDR3, 2 slots, 1333,1600 MHz, PCIe x16
1 x AMD X4 5350 Athlon Processor 2.05GHz 4 cores, 2MB L2 cache, 25W
1 x 4GB (1x4GB) Kingston DDR3, 1600MHz, CL11, Value
1 x Toshiba 500GB, 5400rpm, 2.5", SATA 6 Gb/s, 8MB, 7mm height
1 x Linkworld 920-03C-C2121-200W • Mini ATX Black Case, 200W
1 x 60GB Kingston V300 SSD, 2.5" 7mm, SATA 3 6G, 7mm to 9.5mm adapter

craigslist.com $681

without the SSD
$555

Why on earth would he need an SSD for an HP build? 😬

And on top of all that, the V300 is totally trashed—it’s basically sitting right there in the same tier as an SSHD or those Western Digital Blue drives. Honestly, I wouldn't recommend anything from Linkworld to anyone; sure, the cases are fine, but those power supplies are ticking time bombs regardless of how much juice your rig actually pulls. To be blunt—and I hate to even say this—I'd say even MS Industrial makes better stuff.

http://www.bestbuy.com/configurator
Nice

or maybe this