h61n or upcoming h77n?

[RedZoneOS]

I've been anxiously hovering around these boards for a while, learning and hopefully helping on occasion. I tested my ep45-ud3p board successfully using the wonderful guides on here while I eagerly awaited the new gigabyte board and core i3 announcements for my mini htpc build.

I am ready.

However, the new h77n announcement is a bit underwhelming. Not sure if its worth the wait or maybe I buy the h61n and save 30-40 dollars. This setup will likely be a basic HTPC, designed to stream itunes music, videos, and occasional netflix/youtube. Probably very little of anything else. It will be connected via HDMI to my 50" plasma, and via optical cable to my Denon a/v receiver.

Questions:
1. Sata2 versus Sata3. I have a vertex 3 SSD that I am planning to use. will the performance difference justify the added cost (h77 versus h61)
2. Am I missing any other significant difference between these boards that may affect me???

 

[thelostswede]

1. Yes, it'll almost double
2. Native USB 3.0 support (the USB 3.0 ports on the H61N-USB3 aren't OS X compatible), onboard mini PCI Express slot into which you could easily swap in a compatible Wi-Fi card, ease of install with an IB CPU which when the Core i3-3225 launches means much better integrated graphics (although I'm not sure how much better in OS X), two additional SATA ports (at the cost of one eSATA port), support for faster memory and memory overclocking...