Budget HTPC

[Juked07]

Will be used for watching TV shows/movies, internet browsing, no games, nothing demanding. I already have an OS, TV, and peripherals. This computer will (99% certainty) never get a discreet video card, or any meaningful upgrades that would lead me to care about PSU capacity. My mom will probably store some pictures on it, but they won't be ripping blurays or anything really space intensive either. I've never seen them use more than like 200 gb of a hard drive. The TV is 720p, and I don't really have a brand preference. This is in the US, and I will build ASAP.

How do these parts look?

MSI 880GM-E41 AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard ($56 open box)
AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto 3.2GHz ($89)
Mushkin Enhanced Essentials 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 ($40)
Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive ($60)
DVD drive/burner ($20)
Rosewill RNX-N150PC PCI 2.2 Wireless Adapter ($15)
Rosewill R379-M Black/ Silver 0.8mm SGCC Steel Slim MicroATX Computer Case with ATX12V Flex 300W Power Supply ($50)

Total: ~$330

Concerns:
I'm aware that the PSU sucks. But this computer's power usage will be very modest. Is that okay? If there's like a 20% chance it's gonna quit working and I'll have to replace it, that's fine. I'd rather save money now and take a chance. If it's like 90% to fail then of course I'll go with something better.
Never used a wireless adapter before. Just need one that works with some reliability (~25 ft). Is the one I picked okay?
I assume integrated graphics are good enough to watch movies and stuff. Correct? I might play SC (Broodwar) when I come home on it, but computers have been more than good enough for that for a decade and a half..

 

[Loop2kil]

Looks good...cant see any reason to change anything...should serve your needs perfectly....I didn't look it up on my phone but that onboard GPU does offload HD content right?

My htpc is an old s754 sempron/1 gb/hd3450/160gb and it plays anything I through at it.

Sent from my Motorola Atrix

 

[fffblackmage]

Personally, I would go even cheaper with the CPU - Sempron 140 for $38, and see if that would unlock to a dual core. But that's just me.

I couldn't find any info on the PSU from a quick google search, but I would assume it would be ok for this build.

The HD4250 IGP should be perfectly good. It's capable of hardware-accelerated video decoding.

If you feel like a 500GB HDD is still more than enough, then there's this WD Blue 500GB WD5000AAKX for $35 after promo code. (500GB/platter, so it should be decently fast)

Edit: I just realized this isn't for yourself, so I probably wouldn't do the unlocking thing, but you do have the option to save ~$30 by going with an Athlon II X2 250 (you essentially lose the L3 cache and 200MHz). I have a cheapy HTPC with that cpu, and it's been able to handle anything HD so far.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

The CPU is totally overkill - to echo fffblackmage, a Sempron 140 with the 4250 IGP is sufficient for even 1080p HD content. However, the ~$20 for a dual core Athlon II X2 250 is a reasonable upgrade. You should also seriously consider, for the tasks you describe, a Zacate-based platform. $120 for the board and APU (the ASRock model on Newegg works well), $20 for RAM (@GB is fine for an HTPC even with Windows 7), $60 for a 1TB HDD, $20 for DVD burner leaves you lots of options for the case and PSU while still coming in under $300 total. See my recent guide here.

Also, yes, that inexpensive Rosewill WiFi adapter is fine (I've sold many of those to customers and friends); however, if you're patient, you should be able to snag it or a comparable model for $10 shipped as a Shell Shocker deal - Newegg seems to have one on sale at least once per week.

 

[Juked07]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I'm glad to hear that overkill is the main concern. I'm like 200 dollars under what my dad said would be cool, so I'm not hugely concerned about saving him another 20-50 bucks.. I'll show him this thread and see what he thinks though.

Gonna pull the trigger in like an hour. =)