Puget Systems Serenity Review

[Activate: AMD]

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Systems...ntially-Silent

Anyone else here read?

I appreciate the job that Puget has done creating a well thought-out, silent system and I understand why they won an Editor's Choice Award. However, I feel that an $1800 HTPC fundamentally misses the mark. I was intrigued by the review because I basically built myself a very similar system about 3 years ago. I chose to put a low-powered CPU, cheap mobo and ram, the same Scythe HSF, a pair of WD 2TB HDD's, a small SSD, an inexpensive antec PSU, and a passive 5550 GPU in an internally identical case (fusion remote) All-told, the hardware cost me about $600, probably less. Add Win 7 home premium and my Ceton InfiniTV4 and i probably spent $1000 total. Now, I know the Puget system has a much more powerful CPU, but at absolutely no point did my HTPC have any issue with anything I threw at it. Light gaming was possible, if not particularly worthwhile.

I just question the need to spec out a $1400 system for media playback tasks, when you could build an effective HTPC for hundreds less, especially if you choose not to include a CableCARD tuner. IMO something with a low-end i3, a cheap mobo, a cheap ssd, a cheap (well, not since the flood) slow platter drive, a cheap (but quality) PSU and a decent sound-dampened case would be a far better fit for a much wider audience

[John C]

Wow. Incredibly overpriced for an HTPC, you can certainly build a silent or near-silent one for 1/2 that, that would perform at least as well for HTPC duties.
Mine is built on an older G35 Asus mATX motherboard, Wolfsdale e6300, 4 gig of DDR2, HIS 5670 vid card, and the Ceton InfiniTV4 cablecard tuner. I have a 320 gig HD as the boot drive, and a 2tb green drive solely for TV storage. It is in a Silverstone GD05B case. Works great, has hiccuped on nothing I have thrown at it, and far cheaper.
And for $1800, or even $1400, it should have a premium case, NOT an Antec. (a decent-enough case, but not worthy of a premium computer, IMHO)

[Activate: AMD]

Wow. Incredibly overpriced for an HTPC, you can certainly build a silent or near-silent one for 1/2 that, that would perform at least as well for HTPC duties.
Mine is built on an older G35 Asus mATX motherboard, Wolfsdale e6300, 4 gig of DDR2, HIS 5670 vid card, and the Ceton InfiniTV4 cablecard tuner. I have a 320 gig HD as the boot drive, and a 2tb green drive solely for TV storage. It is in a Silverstone GD05B case. Works great, has hiccuped on nothing I have thrown at it, and far cheaper.
And for $1800, or even $1400, it should have a premium case, NOT an Antec. (a decent-enough case, but not worthy of a premium computer, IMHO)

yup, almost an identical setup