Good point, I was focusing on i3 for power consumption, I had forgotten it's only a dual-core processor.
Thanks for the QuickSync link, I read about haswell previously but had completely forgotten.
On SSD for OS, does the added expense really make sense for a machine that will be on 24/7? I'm struggling with the justification for this one. Everything else mentioned is on the list.
Grador, I had planned to use Plex for transcoding. As well, it would be great to do test runs, but the old PC has a dated AMD processor and my current desktop is an i7. I'm now thinking to go with the i5 and call it a day. I don't believe any of the apps of interest are hyperthreaded, but obviously this is another area to explore. This will be a Windows 7 system with WMC, Mediabrowser and Plex.
Thanks much for the guidance!