Please comment on my HTPC
#1
Question 
Hi everybody

I plan to build a HTPC for my home with a minimal Ubuntu installation. I want to watch 1080p MKVs while downloading new movies from usenet in the background (via SABnzbd). Here is a list of components and the reasons why I chose them. I would really like to hear your opinions about this.

Case: Moneual Moncasa 312
209,90€ at HifiShop24
This is a somewhat small mATX case with front-USB/-audio/-cardreader/-firewire and a stealthed DVD drive slot. It also brings its own remote and an adapter for the mainboard power cable. This means I should be able to turn the PC on via remote. Unfortunately it is pretty expensive and doesn't have a power supply or any fans. A standard ATX power supply and three 40mm fans could be installed, but the mainboard I chose only has two connectors for chassis fans. The case doesn't have a display, but that's OK by me. As far as I read in the forums, configuring a display is a bitch and I don't see the benefits of a display anyways. The case is 435mm wide, so it should fit in with standard audio equipment.

Mainboard: Asus M3N78-EM
53,52€ at Compuland
A uATX board with lots of connectors (USB, eSATA, Firewire, HDMI, ...). The integrated 8300 NVidia grapics processor should be able to deal with 1080p (I hope the GPU is somewhat futureproof).

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 215
38,37€ at Compuland
Cheap, low power consumption (65W), not boxed.

PSU: be quiet! Pure Power L7 300W (Black)
30,90 at HifiShop24
Cheap and hopefully silent ATX PSU. I hope the wattage is sufficient.

CPU Fan: Scythe Shuriken Rev.BS S754, 939, 940, AM2(+), AM3, 478, 775, 1366
22,69€ at Compuland
Low height, so it should fit into the case.

Chassis Fans: 40x40x10 Noiseblocker BlackSilent XM1 11dB(A), 2800U/min, 3 pin molex
11,93€ at Compuland
Two of those.

RAM: 2x1024MB Kit Exceleram PC2-8800U 1100MHz CL5, 5-5-5-15
50,01 at Compuland

HD:
I can borrow an old 8GB SSD which should have just enough space for Ubuntu. I will compare it with a standard HD and decide later which one I will buy.

Optical Drive:
I'll just use an old DVD drive which I have lying around.


Atm this will cost me 434,24€ (incl. shipping). So what do you guys think? Any glaring mistakes in my reasoning/choices? Are there better/cheaper alternatives? (I don't like the CPU fan much)

I am kinda worried about my usenet downloads which should also run on this machine. After every finished download a very CPU intensive parity-check/repair operation is started. Will I be able to watch a movie while this happens? The parity check uses the CPU, the MKV decoding uses the GPU so I should be fine, right?
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#2
Nice case, the choice of components looks good to me, onlye the cpu fan might be a tight fit.
Try using the standard AMD fan first and then change it if needed later.

With regards to your last question I can only say:

probieren geht ueber studieren! Big Grin
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Please comment on my HTPC0