heh-heh. That was funny. Don't forget that you only have a total of 16 PCIe lanes, and two would be taken up by USB3 and SATA6.
You're correct in your comments, but aiming strictly at a couch web-browser, multi-channel recording device, and BR player, the 1156 (more directly, the H55/H57) and an i3 is perfect for it. Here's a few arguments why.
1) USB3.0 needs the speed for what? hard drives. No one in their right mind (or that isn't rich beyond god) is going to be putting an SSD in an external enclosure anytime soon. So, 250MB/s is perfectly fine because even the fastest mechanical hard drive can't do more than 140MB/s (the new raptors). So, it's completely irrelevant at this point and time AND for his use and probably will be for years until SSDs get over 1Tb (and, by that time, 2Tb for storage) because even a 512Gb $1,000 SSD isn't going do squat for a media PC storing multi-Gb of movies and recorded TV shows. And, don't forget that even most SSDs, other than the Crucial C300, don't even exceed 250-270MB/s. Not saying that in 5 years time that extra 250MB/s won't come in handy, but...
2) For an HTPC, the only thing that should ever go in the x1 slots would be TV Tuners and they don't need bandwidth at all. Heck, the PCI versions work just fine for dual tuners. My old HTPC (a 785G) was mATX with a single PCIe x16, a single x1 and 2 PCI, so I had a PCI AND a PCIe TV tuner (before going with the HDHomRun to replace one of them) and never had any issues. There shouldn't ever be any other type of cards he needs to add, especially anything that needs that kind of bandwidth, to an HTPC.
3) Even IF he decided to use this for something else, and IF he needed a bad-a$$ graphics card, and IF the USB3 and SATA6 each took 2 PCIe lanes, he'd still have a full 14 lanes for the graphics card and it's been proven countless times that two cards in x8 crossfire mode still function just as fast as two in x16 mode, so I don't think an x14 slot will really matter. The only time 1156 is "crippled" is when they attempt to do crossfire or SLI on them. Then, you're restricting the PCIe graphics slot to x7 each...and even that's been shown to only be about 5% slower.
I can promise you that taking this HTPC, give the 530 a little OC, put a 5870 in there, and you'll have a MEAN gaming PC. You, uh, did see this little article (which was done on an 1156)...right?
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i3-gaming,2588.html
The power consumption graph alone justifies it as a great 24x7 HTPC, let alone the fact that even at stock it can bottleneck a 5850. Yes...it's definitely cripped compared to X58 and the 890...no doubt about it. I probably wouldn't buy one, either, except that they're just the perfect setup for HTPCs.
Agreed on the case - just depends on where/how you want to mount it.
Ideally, you would want to treat this like an appliance. Honestly, my last HTPC was so completely overkill that I did end up selling it as a PC (after taking it out of the media case and putting it in a regular case). But, you DO want this to last 5-10 years at which point it would probably only be good for a kids homework PC. If I can record 6 shows, watch an MKV, stream to my other PCs...well...what else would I want it to do? A good HTPC replaces your cable box (unless you can't live without ESPN and are FORCED at gunpoint to buy basic cable just to get it because your cable company stripped it from your QAM lineup) and you don't upgrade your cable/DVR box, right? You just also don't have to pay $100 for a bluray player that's obsolete as soon as the next BR standard comes out. You don't have to pay $120 for a WD TV Live HD box to stream music FROM another PC (this becomes your streaming box). You don't have to pay the cable company $90-$120 a month. And, you don't have to hook your laptop up to your PC to surf the web. So, in a sense, it is an appliance that you hopefully never have to touch (other than to clean the dust bunnies out once a month).
Oh...and did I mention it's still quite fast? LOL.
Dude...I LOOOOVE AMD and would have ZERO issues if the OP went that route so long as he understands that an AMD is the equivalent of having a 15cubic foot fridge running full time (210-220w at idle), while the Intel build is more like a 2cf fridge (80w), and any x2 out there wouldn't be as fast as an i3-530, while the x3s are about as fast (they trade blows).
Definitely not trying to start any flame war or anything. I appreciate the"different tac" arguments no matter how desperate they are. I think the OP will have a very good idea where to go after we're done with him. LOL
That's not even funny. Just bla-bla-bla, commercials. 
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