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<blockquote data-quote="kaliatech" data-source="post: 24122" data-attributes="member: 15173">Fwiw... I'm running an AMD3000+ (Venice) on an MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum board. Nvidia 6600 card. Hauppage 150.&nbsp;&nbsp; Performance and stability have been great, although I haven't done any HDTV yet.&nbsp; Based on performance load though, I doubt HDTV will be a problem. (Maybe be even multiple HDTV stream capable...but I think single hard-drive would be a bottleneck.)Noise-------From what I've read, the AMD Venice cores run quite a bit cooler than the Newcastles.&nbsp; Don't know if that's an issue for you or not.&nbsp; I started off fairly safe with fans as follows:&nbsp; - Power Supply (SilentX)&nbsp; - Two 60mm case exhaust fans&nbsp; - 1 80mm case input fan&nbsp; - Zalman CPU cooler (speed turned all the way down)&nbsp; - 1 80mm Fan blowing directly over the Zalmnn nortbridge heatsink I put in. (K8N has seriously load tiny fan to cool the northbridge.&nbsp; Zalman makes a heat sink....but based on how hot it got just from touching it (ouch!), I think its necessary to have a fan blowing over the heatsink.)I also had resistors (speed controls) on all the case fans to lower speed and noise. Even so, the setup was a bit too loud for my taste. I've since disconnected all the case fans.&nbsp; Still seems stable and is much quieter.&nbsp; Almost bearable during silent movies... its now the harddrive noise that really irks me.MSI 7.1 Onboard Sound------------------------Fwiw, I've not been able to get the MSI onboard sound to output via SPDIF out to my audio receiver. It should. I haven't had much time to mess with it yet. I'm pretty sure it's an MSI or audio controller driver problem. In the meantime, I hooked up a cheap SoundBlaster MP3+ USB sound controller for outputting SPDIF.&nbsp; Works fine...but I don't know if it supports 5.1 etc.&nbsp;&nbsp; I would like to eventually get the onboard SPDIF out working.Regarding your question specifically though IMO.... depends on what you do with the HTPC and how much you use it.&nbsp; Factors include noise levels, HDTV recording, HDTV output?, etc.&nbsp;&nbsp; Me personally, I would build the media PC to do just enough. Anything extra on the media pc probably goes to waste...versus on your daily driver, it gets used. (Performance that is...not so much features, connection options, etc.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="kaliatech, post: 24122, member: 15173"] Fwiw... I'm running an AMD3000+ (Venice) on an MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum board. Nvidia 6600 card. Hauppage 150. Performance and stability have been great, although I haven't done any HDTV yet. Based on performance load though, I doubt HDTV will be a problem. (Maybe be even multiple HDTV stream capable...but I think single hard-drive would be a bottleneck.) Noise ------- From what I've read, the AMD Venice cores run quite a bit cooler than the Newcastles. Don't know if that's an issue for you or not. I started off fairly safe with fans as follows: - Power Supply (SilentX) - Two 60mm case exhaust fans - 1 80mm case input fan - Zalman CPU cooler (speed turned all the way down) - 1 80mm Fan blowing directly over the Zalmnn nortbridge heatsink I put in. (K8N has seriously load tiny fan to cool the northbridge. Zalman makes a heat sink....but based on how hot it got just from touching it (ouch!), I think its necessary to have a fan blowing over the heatsink.) I also had resistors (speed controls) on all the case fans to lower speed and noise. Even so, the setup was a bit too loud for my taste. I've since disconnected all the case fans. Still seems stable and is much quieter. Almost bearable during silent movies... its now the harddrive noise that really irks me. MSI 7.1 Onboard Sound ------------------------ Fwiw, I've not been able to get the MSI onboard sound to output via SPDIF out to my audio receiver. It should. I haven't had much time to mess with it yet. I'm pretty sure it's an MSI or audio controller driver problem. In the meantime, I hooked up a cheap SoundBlaster MP3+ USB sound controller for outputting SPDIF. Works fine...but I don't know if it supports 5.1 etc. I would like to eventually get the onboard SPDIF out working. Regarding your question specifically though IMO.... depends on what you do with the HTPC and how much you use it. Factors include noise levels, HDTV recording, HDTV output?, etc. Me personally, I would build the media PC to do just enough. Anything extra on the media pc probably goes to waste...versus on your daily driver, it gets used. (Performance that is...not so much features, connection options, etc.) [/QUOTE]

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