Computer for my living room

I need a computer for my living room. The one I had in my entertainment unit went tits-up the other day. It couldn't even get past the boot screen (after the POST)...sometimes it would bluescreen too! To be honest, I wasn't totally happy with it anyway; the fan noise was extreme.

So, now I'm looking for a combination of a machine of modest performance and a quiet case that doesn't end up costing me a fortune. The old chip was an Athlon 1800+, but as long as it'll play XVid videos and DVDs it's fine with me. I can reuse most of the other hardware, such as the DVD-ROM, RAM, and video card, so all I really need is the board and chip, and case.

Anybody have any suggestions for components that would fit the bill?

Originally posted on Thursday, 2005-03-10 at 10:31:30.