What I ideally would like is a compact form factor HTPC setup for multimedia and gaming. My issue is the current A8 Llano can barely play games like Street Fighter IV and forget Dirt 3. The new Trinity is supposed to be a 77% GPU increase on previous A8 Llano. Will this be enough to play SFIV, Dirt 3 at 1080p medium settings 50 frames? Or do I need to suck it up and buy an ATi 6670 or a low profile 7750 (I have not seen any yet but that seems like a really nice card)?
Get a A10-5800K Trinity, and then if need be Crossfire it with a HD7750 (or whichever one is considered 'ideal' to Crossfire with
Definitely worth exploring the APU and a discrete card together, to get the benefits of both worlds. You'll get awesome power for a small form-factor, but good power consumption, same time
Isn't the Trinity A10-5700 more the HTPC cpu with the 65W power envelope? Plus it will use the same GPU as the 5800K. But it would be good advice to go with the A10 and see where to go from there.
I believe the A10-5800K is basically a higher binned A10-5700, runs a a few hundred more MHz on the CPU and a few more on the GPU, and has an unlocked multiplier. It is a 100W TDP part though. You probably can get a higher overclock out of the A10-5800K... (if you wanted to overclock).
Trinity is looking great and will be fun to OC and mess around with. But unless there is a really tight budget id go matx Intel and dedicated GPU which will still be small and idle / low usage power efficient but be able to kick ass when you want to game properly. try getting a new board with lucid hydra