Whole house HTPC questions

[Jarod888]

Currently I have Comcast with a dvr which is hooked up to my main TV in the living room. I record a lot of shows. The main problem is that I am running out of space because I have approx. 100 saved episodes of various wood working shows, (New Yankee Workshop, Wood Smith Shop, American Woodworker) They are taking up about 65% of the DVR which makes it dicey if I want to record anything in HiDef. I am not going to be getting rid of the DVR. What I would like to do is add an additional HTPC in my office which will serve as a second DVR for recording the wood shows and other stuff that, although I am interested in, I don't watch very often. I also want the ability to watch items I record on the HTPC from any TV in the house. I also have a lot of my DVD's ripped. Some are ISO's, some are just the VOB files. I would like to be able to watch them as well. Along with my movie collection, I have about 2 TB of music that I would like to be available. I have not gotten into the ripping of Blu-Rays or HD-DVD's yet, but that is probably next, I need recommendations on how to do this, guides, software, etc.
Currently I have a lot of spare parts that I think are mostly adequate for a HTPC. There are some things that I will need.

Current List of Parts:
Intel Core I3 540 w/ stock cooler
Gigabyte p55a-ud7
Gigabyte p55-ud5
16gb corsair CMP 1333C9 Memory
8GB Sniper f3-1066 cl9d Memory
FirePro V4800 3D Graphics Card
Ceton Quad pci-e tuner
3 X Samsung HD204UI 2 TB drives
Corsair 950 TX Powersupply

I3 540 Purchased from a member here at [H]
The UD7 is a refurbished MB directly from Gigabyte. My original one was DOA
The UD5 is a used MB from Ebay No idea on usage, but it boots fine, etc
Both sets of memory have very little use, basically brand new.
FirePro Card is used but in very good shape
Samsung Drives, Brand new. Badblocks Destructive write passed.
Corsair PS Basically brand new, but way too overkill, plus it is loud and not modular.

My thoughts:
Power Supply needs to be replace with smaller, quieter, modular one.
Need a decent looking case that will fit ATX board, probably black, has to accommodate 3HD, + boot drive + Blu-ray player. Can not be more than 17 inches deep, ideally would like between 15 and 16.
Need recommendations for boot Drive. Thinking medium capacity (256gb SSD).
Need recommendations for BluRay Drive
Your thoughts on cooling; stick w/ stock, replace?
Video card; is it needed, is it the right one?
I would also like recommendations for software and set up beyond the OS. I will be using Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 X64. Also, I will be installing AnyDVD HD if that makes a difference.
Thoughts on keyboard / mouse / remote.
This machine will be in my office if that helps. It will be connected to a 32 inch Panasonic LCD TV. The other TV's in the house are a 55 inch LG LCD and a 42 inch LG LCD. The living room TV currently has the following items hooked up to it: Cable Box, PS3, HD DVD Player. I have room for 1 more HDMI connection. The other two TV's have plenty of HDMI connections.

As far as streaming, what is needed for the living room TV and the bedroom TV? I am thinking I am going to need 2 Xbox 360's. Thoughts? House is wired for CAT5e. I have a motorola surfbaud 6120 modem and a Netgear 3750 router. I would prefer to keep everything wired, so it is likely that I will need switches. Please recommend decent ones.

Final thoughts:
I won't be getting rid of Comcast or the current DVR. I know I need to get an M card for the Ceton. Please provide any recommendations of parts needed, things I missed and software recommendations. Would like to purchase from Amazon. I have a very powerful desktop for ripping and encoding movies, ripping MP3's / Flac, etc. This PC does not need to be powerful, nor does it need the ability to game, but it does need the ability to stream media, record with the ceton, and play Netflix and Amazon Prime media. This PC needs to be rock solid and reliable.

Cliffs:
1. Have comcast w/ DVR -- Keeping.
2. Want ability to record wood shows on HTPC and stream to any of 3 TV's plus stream current media library to any TV's in the house.
3. Have a lot of parts for HTPC, need recommendations on upgrades and finalization of build.
4. Need help with streaming to multiple TV's. Recommendations? Guides?
5. I don't mind spending some money, but I would like to keep this on the less expensive side.
6. Many thanks in advance! Also sorry about some of the paragraphs of text, but they provide important info.
7. Time Frame is probably over the next few months.

 

[Dangman]

PSU: Go with the Seasonic SSR-360GP which will be more than enough power for your planned seutp (and modified setup):
$50 - Seasonic SSR-360GP 360W PSU

It's not modular but it doesn't have too many cables and so should be relatively easy to tuck away. Especially since you're going with an ATX case. Speaking of which....

HTPC case: Normally I would not be recommend this case due to pricing and features/specificaitons but since it has free shipping at the moment, it's not as bad as usual of a buy IMO:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811204037

There is this higher quality Silverstone case as well:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007UIX1ME/?tag=extension-kb-20

Though to be honest, IMO, not many ATX HTPC cases are worth getting since their mATX cousins tend to have better cooling. Or at least a better cooling to noise ratio from what I can see.

Boot drive: Samsung 840 250GB.

Blu-ray drive: N/A

Cooling: Replace if you're sensitive to noise. However, which HSF you should be getting will be dependent on what case you're getting.

Video card: Depends on whether or not AMD disabled the ability to decode HD content on those FirePro cards. If AMD did do that, then yes you should be looking at a cheap card as a replacement. The HD 6570 is a solid choice.

 

[valve1138]

Since you have the Ceton card already, fire up Window Media Center on the main HTPC.

Then get some used XBox 360s's at gamestop for $120 a piece and the Media Center remotes for them. They make great extenders. Far better than the Ceton Echo's.

This is essentially what I run.