[mythtv-users] help needed speccing out small silent frontend.

[Ryan Duffy]

Hi,

I'd like some ideas for a small silent low-power frontend, if anyone has any experience they'd like to share. 
I've only ever built tower PCs before so not sure what to look for in a small HTPC. 

The Gigabyte H55N-USB3 looks like a good motherboard with a bit of future proofing, but might be a bit cutting edge for linux (i'd like it to work now rather than in 3-6 months time). Has anyone tried this board? 
My worry here is that on-board graphics would probably only come from using the right sort of Intel CPU, and I think I've read that they're not good enough for hardware accelerated video. Is this true?
Perhaps some other sort of motherboard then.

What about silent and efficient PSUs? 

Built-in wireless N would be nice, but not essential as I have a suitable USB stick to provide this.

Budget not really a consideration, but I'd like it to be cheap but fast enough. As I'd only use it for tv, plus a bit of web browsing I guess an SSD might be unnecessary. I'd just put it in standby when not in use so it would start up instantly anyway. 

I'd need a case too. For silent operation, I suppose the case might be important so that the PC is well cooled. 

Any thoughts?
Thanks.