Ars shows you how to stunt: SFF buyers guide

 
So if you're like our friend Mike A. and are completely unsatisfied with the home theater pc's currently available, there really is only one option: build your own. As we mentioned a few weeks ago Tom's Hardware posted their experiences putting together a proper HTPC, and now Ars Technica chimes in with their SFF system buying guide. It walks you through, part by part; showing you what they think is the best bang for the buck in your small box. Neither the budget nor hot rod they design is specifically for a HTPC, but with a TV tuner and possibly a different graphics card, they'll more than get the job done.

The budget box comes in just under $1000, while the hot rod with more space and speed for your games runs up to almost $1700. For my money, I'd probably wait for NVIDIA's motherboards with integrated high def graphics processors and outputs to become more widely available, so I could avoid buying a separate graphics card altogether.