I finally decided to make the plunge and build myself a HTPC. I purchased the Fractal Design Node 304 because it is not uber small and will fit well in my tv cabinet.
I want to stay under $400 for the power supply, mobo, cpu, ram with the ability to upgrade to a dedicated GPU in the future.
I am located in Canada, so be aware of pricing and availability.
I plan to use this pc to watch movies/streaming video and play some games using steam in home streaming on the 55" tv. (does steam streaming work well?)
Here were preliminary Motherboard options if i went the AM2 direction
Hardware: We recommend a minimum of a quad-core CPU for the computer running the game. The client has more modest requirements, but should have a GPU that supports hardware accelerated H264 decoding. Any recent laptop or PC should meet the client requirements.
Network: We recommend using a wired network for the best streaming experience. People have had some success with powerline networks and wireless N and AC networks with good signal, though your experience may vary.
Game Settings: To improve your streaming experience, you can go into your game settings and lower your resolution and turn off vertical sync.
Steam Settings: In the In-Home Streaming settings you can change a number of things that can affect your experience. You can change your preference for speed vs quality, limit the network bandwidth, and adjust the maximum capture resolution.