Well I thought it was about time to upgrade the MythTV box.  Poor thing couldn't play HD content and no AGP cards exist that can.  So it was a total rebuild.

The new specs are:

Intel core i5 650 (3.2Ghz Dual Core HT)
4Gb Corsair XMS3 DDR3
Asus P7H55-M PRO

Now to unpack:

The CPU:

CPU fitted:

Now for the heatsink:

heh.. I stood back and laughed at this :)

Something tells me this thing isn't going to fit.  OH ARSE!

Nevermind I thought, after rushing out and buying a cheap tower just to get me by.  Surprisingly, it was too big for that as well.  Looking into it, the heatsink is designed for large gaming cases.  Oh Fook.  So back I went with the case for a refund.
Being the stubborn git I am, I refused to be beaten.  I was using a "Scythe Mini Ninja Socket 478/775/754/939/940/AM2 Heatpipe Cooler" and thought if I could just adapt the fittings from the new "Scythe Mugen 2 Rev B For Socket 1366, 1156, 775, 478, AM3, AM2+, AM2, 940, 939, 754 Processor Cooler".
Call it an utter fluke, but the socket 1156 bracket fitted perfectly on the mini ninja.  None of the other brackets fitted at all.  PHEW!

Now to get this baby installed:

The harddrive is a 5400rpm 1Tb Western Digital eco.  The 2 x 120mm fans run on the slowest speed.  I need this PC to be very very quiet.  And it is.. very!

In conclusion, this is a very quick system now.  What used to take almost an hour to compile on the old P4 3Ghz, now only take a few minutes (and yes, I use Gentoo!)
HD 1080p playback is perfect.  To say the IGP (integrated graphics) is built into the CPU, this is amazing.  I'm very impressed if I do say so myself!

Update:  I've now installed RAID1 and an extra 4Gb RAM!.