[blockofwood]

Hello,

I am looking to buy or build a HTPC that is passively cooled.
It will be sitting right next to my TV so I would like it as small as possible.
I am VERY new to the field of HTPC so all and any advice will be appreciated.

I posted here a couple days ago and found out the ACER REVO would not handle what I wanted. (I thought about buying a PS3 till I learned it no longer works with hulu.)

My goal is to be able to stream HULU and Netflix to my TV.

I plan on installing an external e-sata drive on my desktop upstairs and connect them with wireless n. (and this brings up a point... instead of an external drive, could it be on a NAS?)

And of course, I would like to take all my dvd's and put them onto the drive to watch on the TV.

thanks peeps!

[The Guv.]

My CarPC runs passive but has active cooling which kicks in at a set temp (the boot of a saloon car in the sun is more likely to get too hot for passive cooling!).






In the living room it's fine passively cooled, the board is a Zotac 9300-ITX Core2Duo jobbie and the heatsink is SOLID pure copper rather than cheaper copper coolers that have copper components stuck together which doesnt perform nearly as well as solid copper. The cooler is made by Dynatron (IIRC) and I got it on ebay for a staggering £5! I could probs get more than that selling it as scrap metal! lol

That setup worked so well for me I'm making my 2nd for my VanPC!

But for the HTPCs I've just made use of old shuttle PCs I had hanging around, they're not silent but the fans in the projectors are louder! So doesn't make any difference.

[TugboatBill]

If you're looking to passively cooled then atechfabrication.com is the place to go:

http://atechfabrication.com/products/min...t_2500.htm

http://atechfabrication.com/heatsync_700...r_form.htm

http://atechfabrication.com/heatsync_300...r_form.htm

I used to own one of their cases (one they don't make any more) and the construction is the best I've ever seen, well ahead of Silverstone, Lian-Li, Antec, etc.

The only issue is you have to pay for that quality, it isn't free.