Need Help Choosing Hardware for a "Green" Mini Computer

Hi Seven Forums,

Last year I built my first PC running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit. I really enjoyed it and I'm looking to build another computer. I'm looking to build a small, quite and low energy consuming computer.

I'm aware that it's small size and hopefully low power consumption that the choice of hardware, performance and speed will be constrained. I would however pay a premium for better components to get the best performance and speed to power consumption ratio.

I don't want a fan and I don't need an optical drive. I would like usb 3.0 as I have a few 3.0 externals and HDMI out but it's not esseintal

Size wise I'd be looking for that would fit into a briefcase or bag. The smaller the better. I would spend £1000 up but I don't think I'll have to (hopefully).

What would you buy if you were me?

I'm asking this here as I read this forum a lot. I would like to say I'm not dead set on usising Windows I may use Linux sorry.

Thanks

Fanless (passive) heatsinks to my knowledge are pretty darn large to make up for the lack of active dissipation of heat with more surface area. I think selecting a CPU based on TDP might be a good idea for a fanless system, might not heat up as readily, given wattage tends to have a relation to heat.

But the easy part is to choose an SSD as opposed to an HDD, as there are no moving parts, plus they're faster.

I don't know how easy it'd be to duplicate this as a build-it-yourself project, but you may wish to give this a look:

Sapphire Technology Web Site

(Sapphire Edge HD3 mini PC. Tiny.) I'm not sure if it's available yet, but its selling price is supposed to be around £300. That's without an OS. It uses a 320GB spinner for its HD, so an SSD would make it more responsive while using less power.