My suggestion is to keep an eye on HTPC auctions (not buy it nows) on Ebay. For some reason, if you put HTPC in the title of your auction, the computer sells for like 1/3rd of what it would sell for if you didn't call it an HTPC. I just got a really nice HTPC that would have cost me $800 to build (I priced the components out) for $230 delivered. There isn't a ton on there right this second but if you keep an eye on it for a couple of days, something like what you want will pop up. The exception to this is the NUCs. They are really popular right now and auctions for them go pretty high.
I made a list of the processors I would be good with along with the sort of "must have" things. I wanted an SSD drive, bluray player and burner, and a case that would let me put several 3.5" drives in there. I figured if I stuck under $250, I didn't have to worry about getting something with large enough hard drives as I was getting such a good deal that I could pick up two 4 TB hard drives and still be pretty far under budget. The one I got happened to come with all of what I wanted plus a 2 TB hd which I think of as just a bonus.
Then I got something like this for a remote. I tried using a standard non-keyboard remote and I found myself needing the keyboard constantly. The on screen keyboard sucks: