I have an i3-2100 running on

I have an i3-2100 running on a DH67BLB3 board with an InfiniTV 4 and BD drive. The system has plenty of power for handling all the HTPC duties I ask of it. The stock HSF has a reasonably quiet noise level. The only reason why you would want a more powerful CPU is if you will be doing something processor intensive such as commercial skip analysis, gaming, etc.

For audio, I am using i3 HDMI audio to an AVR. There’s no need even for on-board audio when that is the configuration. If you’ll be using S/PDIF, you can use the on-board audio. If you’ll be using analog, this is a case where you may decide that a discrete card might be warranted.

You’ll certainly want a discrete GPU if you’ll also be gaming on the machine, otherwise, in most other cases, the i3 IPG is going to perform well for video decoding and presentation.

For storage, I recommend using SSD for OS drives. For HTPC, it will make loading the guide, movie library, rebooting, etc. much snappier. It is a luxury though and not required.

Since you may have extenders and considering DRAM pricing, build with 4GB at minimum.

You’re looking at a very good board/CPU combo for HTPC. I would recommend you also spend a good deal of time looking into chassis that will fit into your living room. Since you’ll probably use it for multiple builds, it is not a place to skimp IMO.

You will need BD playback software. Often times, BD drives come with an OEM copy of CyberLink PowerDVD or ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre, but they will probably be older versions and may not have all the features you need. You can likely get an upgrade price from those OEM copies if you decide you want to upgrade. For 7MC, TMT5 is the most native look and feel though PDVD11 is not bad.

We’ve got reviews on both BD software packages as well Core i3/i5 processors and the DH67BL board, so check those out to get a better feel.