Let's be honest... at this point, I want an HTPC that doesn't suck. Tweaking with other stuff would be awesome, but I just don't have time to play hacker. The pi was appealing because it was just enough hackery to make me feel 1337 without any of the actual effort involved in doing something real. There's probably a Roku that will do what I need for cheaper than the Pandaboard. I'm sure I can come up with reasons to do something more bitchin' than that, but I'd have to reach. Does that make sense?
No idea what htpc means or what a roku are. Regardless.... many boards I'm sure could fit your needs. Id suggest the mk802 since you probably wont be needing gpio pins.. the arm soc for those will be in mainline linux in the next few months... supported now in somebodys github