Hello.
I'm setting up a Home Theater PC with the following:

Creative Audigy 2 sound card, Creative 6.1 6600 speakers, Hercules All-In-Wonder Radeon 7500 graphics card, Westren Digital 1200JB hard drive (120GB ATA100 8M cache). Now, I'm having a hard time figuring out what core components to go with, how about these:

Intel P4 2.0Ghz (Northwood core, 400Mhz FSB, 512k cache, 0.13 micron, 478 Socket),
Intel D845PESV (400/500Mhz FSB, DDR333Mhz, AGPx4, PCIx6, LAN onboard),
Samsung 512MB 333Mhz PC2700 DDR

Now, as I unerstand it, the above pritty much match: the motherboard's 400Mhz FSB fits with the processor's 400Mhz FSB, the motherboard's DDR333Mhz memory fits with the Samsung memory... Is there something I'm unaware of, or is this all OK? Do the core components and the other ones match reasonably??

also, I'd like to get a couple of opinions, if there are any, about this setup... performance-wise as intened mainly for music, DVD's and TV time-shifting or recording.

For a case I thought to go with Hec MidiTower CI-6A19 300W, will that be enough? will the heat produced be adequately absorbed by the standard fans? will they make too much of a noise??

thanks.

from "about to buy a system" Jopp.

Get these things:-

AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (boxed)
2 x 256 MB Kingston PC2700 CL2.5 DDR
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe/ASUS A7N8X

AXP 2100+ is slightly faster than P4 2.2 GHz (with RDRAM, and you are going to use DDR)). If you buy ASUS A7N8X Deluxe, then you don't need to buy Audigy2. It's onboard audio is outstanding and it has fireware ports, too.

<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/community/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=26708#26708" target="_new"> Go to my CPU Vendor Poll </A>

You could get the 1.8A and overclock it to 2.4GHz on a different board. That would give you the same speeds as a stock Intel 2.4MHz 533 bus CPU. Now, it's important for you to know that those bus speeds are inflated by a factor of four, in BIOS you would see the 400 bus listead as 100MHz (which it is) and the 533 bus labled as 133MHz (also true).

Anyway, I usually recommend people check out the Micro ATX desktop style cases at Newegg, as horizontal cases are available in styles that more closely match your home theater equipment.

You are right to assume that DDR333 is slower than the "400" bus. It runs at 166MHz as opposed the the 400 bus's 100, but at DDR instead of QDR. There's not a lot you can do to get around that problem yet.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

I've been thinking about a HTPC also. Noise is an important factor whatever other system componets you build the system from make sure they're quiet. I recently built an XP1700+ retail (boxed) AMD system that made an awful racket. Suggest you go with a bare CPU and a quiet HSF. I just installed a Zalman 3100+ HeatSinkFan (HSF) and it's virtually noise-less. Check out the recent review by THG on HSFs for other ideas. The next component to think about for noise is the power suppy (PSU), you may need to upgrade to a low noise PSU vs the stock one that comes with the case. Then if you're using it for PVR, think about the hard drive noise. I think the AIW 7500 does not have a fan so you're ok there. Also, agree that Newegg has some nice black desk top microATX cases that would work well for a HTPC.