The Mini-ITX form factor is a great solution for the embedded market, with the obvious benefit of being extremely compact. This would have made it a terrific base for HTPCs as well, but unfortunately more often than not it just doesn't allow for the kind of power people want. VIA's ITX solutions have come a long way, but they still struggle to do much beyond fairly basic tasks.

A mob by the name of J&W Technology are about to come to the rescue here; details and images have surfaced on their upcoming "MINIX-780G-SP128MB" which holds much promise indeed.

This board is a Mini-ITX based 780G offering (one of the fastest IGP chipsets on the market) and with AM2+ support, four SATA-II ports, vacant PCI-E 2.0 slot, HDMI HDCP compliant output with audio-passing, DVI-D, D-Sub, S/PDIF out and 8 channel audio, this board should quickly become mighty appealing to people looking to build up a HTPC.

The board is expected to be released as early as next week. You can find more details and photos here.