HTPC Build - mATX vs. Mini-ITX

[EvilGrin]

Hi guys, I'm looking at spending ~£200 on a mobo, case/psu and processor (I have hdd, ram etc. good to go). I'm having difficulty deciding on whether to go down the round of AMD mATX platform or Intel Mini ITX...

The PC will replace my current HTPC (An ageing socket 754 Athlon 64) and will be used to play x264 codec high def content at 1920x1080 and possibly in the future blu rays as well (if I find a reason to go that route instead of using my PS3). I doubt I'll be gaming on it much, if at all, so the main concerns are HTPC connectivity, display quality and have enough power to play x264 issue-free.

From OCUK, these are the parts I'm considering:

mATX Build:

Antec NSK 2480 Desktop Case - Black/Silver (380W Earth Watts PSU) £89.99
(£78.25)
Asus M4A785D-M Pro AMD 785G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £57.99 (£50.43)
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 240 2.8GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £45.99 (£39.99)
Sub Total : £168.67
Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 15.00% VAT : £25.30
Total : £193.97

Mini-ITX Build:

Zotac GeForce 9300-ITX WiFi Mini-ITX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £113.99 (£99.12)
In-Win BM639 Mini-ITX Case - Black (120W PSU) £56.99 (£49.56)
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5300 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail £52.99 (£46.08)
Sub Total : £194.76
Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 15.00% VAT : £29.21
Total : £223.97

Which one do you think guys?

Cheers!

edit: For the mATX I'd actually likely go for the Antec Fusion Remote instead as I've found it for £69.99 instead of the NSK 2480 listed above

 

[EvilGrin]

Well, we're going to be changing our TV unit soon, so the space may be a mitigating factor indeed. Mind you the Fusion Remote isn't huge either, so it might fit perfectly. However as you guys suggest an intel board, I can't honestly find a decent mATX intel board that's cheap enough with a comparable integrated graphics card, which is why I was look at AMD.

The Mini-ITX case looks pretty sweet as it can hold a 5 1/4 optical disk along with a 3 1/2" hdd and a 2 1/2" hdd. Expansion beyond that would more than likely have to be through E-Sata though.

As for the sound side of things, I'll have that going via optical to our external 7.1 amp, it's too old for hdmi unfortunately.

 

[EvilGrin]

Hm, any specific board recommendations in the G33-G45 range which have a decent onboard graphics? I'd definitely prefer to keep an integrated graphics card rather than another card, mostly due to the fact that combined, we're talking roughly £80-90, which is getting towards the cost of the Mini-ITX anyway...