The chassis

An HTPC should fit in with the décor. Many enthusiasts have turned to small form factor systems such as the Shuttle SFF. While the SFF works well, we argue that for a HTPC, you should consider a micro-ATX or full ATX solution to keep your options open. To start, your selection for mini-ITX and even microATX motherboards is limited. Going with a standard ATX motherboard gives you the option to pick out the right motherboard for your budget and wishes. More importantly, most SFF systems have support for a single PCI add-on card and an AGP card with only two IDE channels. In a "flagship" HTPC, you might find yourself needing more HDDs and more add-in cards.

1) AGP graphics card (+1 if you want a larger heatsink for silent operation)
2) HDTV tuner (or P-I-P tuner to complement the primary tuner)
3) Sound card
4) Wi-Fi 802.11G
5) Dedicated deinterlacer/ scaler
6) Video capture

Though we're not building a flagship HTPC today, we'll still go with a full ATX setup so that we can continue to upgrade the system in future articles. In our system, we went with an Antec Overture with the built-in TruePower 380W power supply.

Antec Overture

First and foremost, we wanted a case that looked nice. Then we needed a power supply that met our criteria put forth in our Power Supply Guide. The Overture scores well in both regards with the glossy black finish and TruePower 380W. Although Antec claims this is a piano quality finish and includes a microfiber cleaning cloth, the finish does have a textured appearance to it. It's great for a computer case, but nowhere near the quality of the piano-black finish on the Swans T200A speakers we’ve discussed earlier.

Pay close attention to the texture

What is surprising about the Overture is how usable it is, and it has a surprising number of usable drive bays and workspace. You have two 3.5" and two 5.25" external drive bays and a rear internal HDD cage with support for 3 drives. The HDD cage also has rubber grommets to absorb vibration. Part of the unique design of the Overture includes the front mounted power supply providing better airflow. Silence is an important element to the Antec Overture series and so the power supply only has a single fan, and the rear case exhaust fan is temperature controlled. We do think Antec is being a bit aggressive with the silencing and found that the system ran hotter than we would have preferred. We encountered overheating problems running a hot Palomino AthlonXP with TV tuners in the system, and so we'd recommend running either high-end copper coolers that can provide sufficient cooling while keeping the noise low, or going with a cooler Thoroughbred or Barton, or better yet an Athlon64 or Pentium 4.

Despite the heat issue with we liked the Overture as a starting point due to its relative bargain price of $100. In the case where you wanted to build a HTPC with multiple HDDs and flagship graphics card performance, the Overture will likely be inadequate for your needs. Two other chassis on our top list would be the Kanam Accent cases (www.kanam.co.kr) that start at about $250 and for the truly flagship solution, an A-Tech Heatsink Case (www.atechfabrication.com) that's custom-built in the USA out of 6061-T6 aluminum. The A-Tech cases start at $375 and go all the way to $680! There is no peer to the A-Tech and it is the HTPC chassis for the Linn, Mark Levinson, or Theta owners out there.

Going with these cases would also allow you to go for a larger power supply, a must if you are looking to max out your HDD storage. Our top pick would probably go to SilenX.com although we'd be just as comfortable running similarly high-end power supplies. PC Power and Cooling units, one of our server favorites, would be too noisy for our tastes.