New UK HTPC / MCPC

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Before end of Month.

BUDGET RANGE: (e.g.: £500 - £1000) Is this reasonable? This is kind of open. I just want the best solution possible with still being mindful of cost/benefit of what I am buying. Certainly not looking to spend more than £1500 though, and it has to be special for the budget to stretch that far.

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: watching blueray discs, watching downloaded movies, listening to music, viewing pictures from and SD card or USB, browsing the web on occasion. I have Powerline LAN through the house, connected to a large capacity fileserver.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: None, starting a fresh, but may be able to harvest a case from something.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Doesnt matter, but Dabs is good, ebuyer is Bad, and dont suggest the local computer fair !!. The fewer suppliers the better tho.

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: U.K.

PARTS PREFERENCES: none. again, i'm looking for everyone's help here. they just need to be whisper quiet once assembled, I dont want to have to run the TV at high volume just to hear the quiet bits. - If i have to use Win 7 i will, no way i will even entertain Vista, and I suspect i wont find an XP OEM disk at a reasonable cost now, Linux would be nice due to extremely quick start up times, however, a full tutorial will be needed.

OVERCLOCKING: help?

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: help?

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1080p, it will be connecting via HDMI to my Toshiba 42" 1080p LCD TV.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I would like the PC to be quiet, if possible. Size is not a major concern due to the possibility of the case harvest, but a smaller form factor would be better. What I am looking for here is a shopping list and instructions or a tutorial of some sort. I am an experienced PC builder, but have never spec'd or built an MCPC, HTPC.

THANK YOU SO MUCH IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR ADVICE!

I love the spec ... however i think i will need more RAM, say 8GB will the mobo referred to take it?

Yes, it will take 8GB, no you don't need it. You will want DDR2, not DDR3 though for that motherboard, or you could switch the motherboard out...

Hi, please can you suggest a case which is quiet.
Thanks