HD HTPC Build

There's a whole slew of small form factor kits that were made for the HTPC role, though be forewarned that the only thing most of those kits do very well is HTPC. If you plan on using your build for more than only HTPC, you're better off with a more standard build keeping HTPC functions in mind.

If you are interested in the small form factor kits, Zotac has some neat little mini-ITX boards that will fit the bill. Also, look for any Atom based boards that have a NVIDIA Ion GPU. If you use your HTPC a lot, or keep it on most of the time, the power savings alone would probably cover the premium price for those parts right now.

If you have to go with the larger boards because of your sat card setup, I would advise biting the bullet and upgrade to DDR3 RAM along with the new motherboard.
3 GB of generic DDR2 RAM isn't ideal for performance, and DDR3 4GB RAM kits are pretty reasonable now with deals/rebates.

I also agree AMD has the best onboard video right now, I just find the NVIDIA Ion interesting since systems built around it use so little power. Intel will shake up the integrated graphics market when the core i3's become available next year, but since you're buying now and not in the future, AMD is the way to go.

Am definately going larger board. partly for upgradability and partly for the odd gaming.
I do use it all the time, maybe 3hours a day, however im not really worried about power consumption.
I am happy to use gpu as opposed to onboard video, whats the better option? as i have had problems trying to get a good usable display with a dvi - hdmi cable?
do i need a board/card with hdmi output?