Your setup is extreme overkill and why run JRiver over Kodi? Any Intel LGA 1150 chip with on-board graphics will be more than sufficient for use solely as a 1080p HTPC. You would be gaining nothing with a 4970k or R9270 over a cheaper CPU only setup unless you decide to re-purpose the hardware later. You would be wasting a ton of electricity too. A better choice strictly as a HTPC only PC would be possibly something like the
ASRock N3700-ITX or the
ASRock N3150DC-ITX.
First of all, I cant stand Kodi. I prefer JRiver (been there, done that, tried it a few times over the years when it was still XBMC, then later when it changed to Kodi).
Second, I bought the 4970k for $150, specifically for the on board 4600 graphics. Why? First reason was that Haswell fixed the long standing issue of the 23.976 bug that has plagued Intel for 5+ years. Second, I wanted the horsepower to be able to run JRiver with Red October High Quality mode, which uses MadVR.
Lastly, although I appreciate your intentions, Id like to get back on track with my questions.