[jag0]

Hey All,
So a bit of quick backstory. Previously I had a 2.4 C2D Mac Mini, running OSX 10.5. I also had a Crystal HD installed in it. For the most part it performed nicely. A few glitches here and there, but overall it was a good experience. What i especially liked about it was that i could connect to it using screen sharing from my laptop, so no need to have a keyboard and mouse attached at all. Sadly this box got fried and so it is no more.

So now I'm faced with the decision,

1. Do I buy a cheap Core Solo Mac Mini and transfer the CPU, RAM and crystalHD over to it, and resume where I left off?

2. Do I buy a new htpc and forget about the mac mini?

I'd really appreciate any and all help in deciding what options for SMALL, Quiet, clean htpcs exist. I've been reading quite a bit about the Zbox and a few other options, but I'm a bit hesitant due to what I'm seeing about lag in switching menus etc. I really don't want to be messing around with Linux (yep I'm a tad bit lazy/spoiled by the OS X world), so i figure windows 7 is my bets bet for an OS.

So with all that said, any and all recommendations for a new HTPC are welcome, and then I'll run with it and do the followup research!

Thanks guys!

[poofyhairguy]

I like the Mini plus the Crystal card considering that made you happy. Personally I switched over to Linux so I can enjoy 24p content this year, but if your TV doesn't support that I will admit that the OSX Plex Harmony mode is awesome and easy.

Only thing I will say is get the 1.66 Dual core mini, not the 1.5ghz core solo mini. The core solo really sucks with OSX...