Decided to replace the TIVO and the DVD player with a media-center PC that will also serve as our family web server. It took us a good part of the weekend to assemble, install, and fine tune the system.
Neither the dual-core CPU nor the m-ATX motherboard impressed me as much as the case and the heat sink. The ANTEC Fusion case is designed to look and function like it belongs in the family room audio cabinet rather than under the office desk. The most impressive part is the THERMALRIGHT SI-128 heat sink which incorporates Heat Pipe technology. Vijayakrishnan reminded me of our undergrad seminar on Heat Pipes. Vijayakrishnan's memory is just amazing! This cool technology, which was in early stage of development 30+ years ago, is cooling millions of hot CPUs today.