Cheap media player - for plex / Sandy Bridge :)?

Hello!

I want to have a very silent (or passive ^^) system running for my TV:
It should be cheap, too.
So what du you think should I use?
I like Gigabyte and Intel for having this Hacki running.
So should I get me an new sandy bridge motherboard, with HDMI on it and a CPU with the INTEL HD 3000 Grahpic Card on it (But those CPUs are more or less too powerful for what I want it to do).

Or should I get me "old" parts with a graphic Card with which the Audio is also working over the HDMI Cable - this is very important.

Do you have any ideas?
Thanks for every hint!

Your's sincerely,
Acris

Low power 35W i3 processor, Noctua NH-D14 with no fan, SSD drive (30GB for OS and then external storage in a NAS or other machine), use integrated GPU in CPU (Wait for 10.7 is released on DVD for native support. Will it ever?). mini-ITX motherboard.

Pentium G620T, 35W - Low power BUDGET!!!!
Core i3 2100T, 35W - Budget
Core i5 2390T, 35W - Better performance
Core i5 2500T, 45W - 4 core best low power performance but not at all needed for a media machine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Brid ... processors

If you want a low power (less heat, probably no fan = silent) i would go for Core i3 2100T because Pentium is to budget for me but to play some media it will work. If it can play 1080p I do not know. My old Core 2 Duo 2 GHz MacBook from late 2006 can run 720p but not 1080p.

At least 4GB ram. It is to cheap today.