Netherlands
If you are still looking for a good mobo consider gigabyte p35-ds4, i'm using this board with a q6600 htpc. very stable board with all the functions you need. the onboard audio chip is brilliant (at least untill the next hdmi 1.3 audiocards will come to the market). If you have the choice use a ati 2600xt videocard with the hardware video universal decoder. ati drivers are far better for htpc's and it will be able to route future sound direct through hdmi/dvi. another advantage is that the mobo works very well with MP hibernation modes.
I decided for a quadcore because of the fact that i'm also using my htpc for video editing. the q6600 runs very stable at 3ghz, another thing to consider.
I'm using the ahanix mce701 case with 7"lcd. If you plan to use a case with lcd, which is great if you don't like doing everyting from a big screen television, make sure not to by a nvidia card. different resolutions suck with nvidia. i'm using a 8800gts640, which is a fine card, however I would rather change it for a 2600xt ATI
Good luck!
I decided for a quadcore because of the fact that i'm also using my htpc for video editing. the q6600 runs very stable at 3ghz, another thing to consider.
I'm using the ahanix mce701 case with 7"lcd. If you plan to use a case with lcd, which is great if you don't like doing everyting from a big screen television, make sure not to by a nvidia card. different resolutions suck with nvidia. i'm using a 8800gts640, which is a fine card, however I would rather change it for a 2600xt ATI
Good luck!