So my living room computer - the 8 yr old Dell - crapped out. I have an Apple Powerbook I can use & my wife also has a MacBook, but I like having a desktop in the house. So I was going to just get one of those iMacs, but then I thought, why not have one of those dudes at MicroCenter build me a custom PC - an audiophiliac one at that - at a similar price? (I suck at building anything.)
So I thought maybe I'll revive the project from last year, of building a noiseless PC, to use as source in my living room system, with Plinius 8150 as amp. But since I know nothing about building a PC, I'd like all y'all's input on components.
First, I'm pretty sure I'd like to use Lynx AES16 soundcard. Pricy, but I've heard great things about its jitter-reduction, and I'd like that extra peace of mind when I have the data handed off to a DAC (not chosen yet.) I'm also leaning toward getting one of those fanless/noiseless cases from Zalman or mCube or something. I'm also leaning toward keeping the hard disk SSD only, and storing the data on a NAS in another room. So the bulk of the expense would go toward case, SSD memory, and soundcard. I'm not a gamer nor a power app user (i.e. Photoshop, etc.) so I don't care much about the fastest & the latest.
So is this feasible? Is it an overkill to go completely noiseless, sans fan? Also, I want to get rid of the big ass plasma I have and put in some LCD monitor that would double as both computer screen & TV... do people do this kind of thing? If so, I'd love to get your recommendations. Also, as for the OS, Windows XP 32bit, or Vista 64? I've heard the XP 32bit's superior for audio purposes.
Anyways, thanks for your help, dudes.