Short answer: You should get a fast dual-core chip.

Long rationale: Though there is software out there that will take advantage of many cores (very high end software like Maya, After Effects, Avid, 3dsMax, etc), you are not likely going to be using those applications heavily enough on a machine you also game on and use as an HTPC (if this were a work-only setup the answer would be different). The vast majority of compilers, the software used to turn human programming into machine code, are not really very good at multithreading yet (that's what matter most for +2 cores). In addition, most programmers don't take a lot of advantage of the multithreading options available, in part because the compilers aren't great at it either (chicken/egg problem).

So, if you're going to have a machine execute code quickly, but it's not really going to utilize more than two cores efficiently for 85% or more of your computing tasks (including OS level tasks that you "use" all the time), why pay for more cores? Worse still, why spend more money for slower cores (or a huge premium for cores of the same speed as a dual core system)? Buy a good, fast dual core processor at a reasonable price. $168 or so for an E8400 at Newegg looks like a good sweet spot right now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/WCPG/article.php/10705_3815986__3

As far as HTPC goes, I ran cable through my PC with DVR functionality and flawless DVD playback using a P-III 450 starting six or more years ago. The trick was I had a DXR-3 piggyback decoder card for the MPEG-2 streams and an ATI all-in-wonder to handle all the TV encoding stuff. Processor can have almost zero involvement in HTPC operations if you have the right video hardware. The only processor involvement might be in running the GUI for whatever media center/DVR software you're running. This is where you spend your money on a video card (and/or add-in cards to support it). Don't buy a $500 GPU just to have high frame rates in games. Instead, spend the money on a decent graphics card ($150 is often kicked around as a good price point, assuming you aren't into high-stakes tournament play), then spend another $100-$150 on a high end HTPC card, like a Hauppage 2250 (Can surely be found for less elsewhere). Now the processor doesn't matter for your HTPC needs at all.

http://registration.hauppauge.com/webstor/hardware2.asp?product=hvr2250

If video and graphic design are actually money-makers for you, then you can feel free to change my suggestion for the main GPU in your machine. In this case, you may want to go with a workstation class graphics solution (actually the chips are almost identical, you're paying for the driver testing and hand-picked testing/selection of best parts). Sky's the limit for the expense on those GPUs, $300 to $3,000. Here's how I usually tell clients to decide on that though. Will you go to the trouble of writing off the card or entire machine on your taxes, and/or depreciating it over multiple years, because it's a work expense? If the answer is no, then you're not doing enough work with it to warrant a workstation-class GPU and the premium price tag.

I do very much the same thing; video, graphic design and web design. I teach that to high school students. We have a lab of xw4100 HP workstations, which have 2.8Ghz P4 processors, 2GB of RAM, and Nvidia 280 Quadro GPUs. Video rendering is admittedly a little slow, but the kids don't miss a beat in Photoshop or Illustrator, or Dreamweaver. And they can edit projects very happily in Premiere, it's just the final render that is about 35% of real time. For a 5 minute project, that's not too bad.

So for a basic all-around machine, get a dual core. My assistant just switched back to one (E7400), because his Q600 quad core was too slow for many of the tasks he was doing. The E7400 is noticeably quicker on the same tasks. If I can offer more information, please let me know.
Source(s):
Processor at Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

Weekly price comparison of CPUs:
http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/WCPG/article.php/10705_3815986__3

Hauppage HTPC Info:
http://registration.hauppauge.com/webstor/hardware2.asp?product=hvr2250

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