Reading more carefully the posts above, especially Steve's, I see that actually I have little option but go for Kaveri. Weren't it for 'Dark Mod' gaming, I should chosen an i3, perhaps even the 35W part. According to TM article , the 54W TDP i3 i two time more efficient than A10-7850K at mutimedia, ...

Sorry for hijicking someone else's thread, but I am in a similar situation (a 2008 HTPC build, with Antec Fusion + Noctua case fans + 4850e + Scythe Big Shuriken on a 780G-based Gigabyte board). Plus a cable tuner card and 6GB Corsair XMS - but on XP (with a a RAM+PAE disk for the 3 gigs that windoz...