[JThiessen]

Originally Posted by TexasSP

Honestly for a home theater unit I would build my own desktop with two terabyte plus raided hard drives. Or buy one. It's just simpler that way and if networked in your home you could still access materials off it from your laptop or any other PC.

I fully agree with this - but that will come later in the process. I wouldn't even be considering this if my current machine hadn't failed.

It's really the heat generation that I'm concerned about. Don't care about size and weight - its always sitting right next to my laz-y-boy and only there. Even my Inspiron has been affecting my due to heat (HAD to have jeans on to have it sit on my lap, and even then, I'd end up with a red spot on my leg from the heat).