Here's an update. I ended up getting this:
MSI A88X-G45 Gaming Motherboard
Future proofed myself with this board, since it's FM2/FM2+, plus it has 2 PCI Express 3.0 slots for SLI/Crossfire so at some point I have an option of getting dual video cards and it's ATX form factor.
AMD A-10 6800K Richland APU
After seeing many benchmarks done on the IGP using old Richland A-10's APU and the new A-10 Kaveri 7850K APU, I decided to go with Richland because it was somewhat cheaper plus the IGP performance was identical. AMD announced a new line of CPU's which are supposed to be what Bulldozer wasn't, and I hope is going to use the FM2+ socket, at this point I will have a dedicated graphics card and I'll upgrade to this new CPU.
Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133Mhz
Fast, cheap, and the motherboard is 1.6V on RAM as well.
Mushkin Enhanced MKNSSDCR120GB-7 2.5" 120GB SATA III SSD
Should've gotten the 240 Gb version, kicking myself for this, regardless, fast and cheap SSD.
Fractal Design FD-CA-CORE-3500-BL-W Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
Awesome case, good cable management, nice finish both inside and outside. Really smart design ideas, such as 2 slots for 2.5" SSDs behind the motherboard tray, plus the 3.5" bays support 2.5" drives too. The window is cut out only to show the motherboard, not the drives, can support giant CPU coolers and even bigger video card (albeit only one), second one is standard size (4 drive bays in front).
Corsair CX600M 600 Watt PSU 80+ Bronze Certified
Another thing I should've thought through better. Anyway, I picked this PSU before I decided on a motherboard with support for 2 video cards. If I ever get SLI, I will have to upgrade this as well since very few cards will run on Crossfire/SLI on a 600W PSU.
I am still waiting on the case, but other than that I put everything together already and installed Windows 8.1. With MSI Windows 8 Fast Boot enabled, my monitor takes longer to come out of standby than the system takes to turn on. By the time the monitor goes on, it's displaying the Logon screen (which is sick). Also, I am using an old 1280x1024 LCD, and I have played the following games on it so far:
Dirt 3 - 39 FPS average in Benchmark
Playing with High/Ultra settings, 2x AA, 1280x1024
Battlefield 3 - 33 - 45 FPS in MP
High Preset, 1280x1024, 2x AA
ArmA 3 - 31 - 48 FPS
Normal Preset, 1280x1024, No AA
F.E.A.R. Online - 40+ FPS
Max Settings, 1280x1024, No AA
Watch Dogs - 28 - 37 FPS
Low/Normal Settings with Textures set to High, 1280x1024
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag - 35+ FPS
Normal/High Settings, No AA, 1280x1024
Heroes and Generals - 28+ FPS
Low/Normal Settings, No AA, 1280x1024
CS:GO - 60 FPS Locked (VSync)
Max Settings, 2x AA, 1280x1024
I am listing the FPS values from memory, so they might be slightly off, but the bottom line is, this APU and Motherboard handle games pretty well at a resolution larger than 720p. At 720p you would get better FPS due to the fact that it would be rendering 300 vertical pixels less which would be a decent performance boost. I would definitely go for this configuration exactly for a Media Center box.
Overall, I am very happy, again, gaming performance is awesome for an IGP, however I do have to mention that I did overclock the IGP to 1086Mhz (from 800-something default) which was a big boost as well. If I go higher on this, I will start getting "Video Driver Stopped Responding" messages with games closing on me. Not sure if I should increase CPU voltage maybe or something as well, would appreciate feedback on this.
Next, I will throw in a dedicated video card into this thing, and then it will handle games like a champ.
I paid $465 for the core components, plus another $59.99 for the case (was on sale). I would say I definitely got the bang for my buck.
Thank you guys for the advice, especially on the motherboard. It really influenced my decision towards choosing a better one and was generally very insightful.
