The onboard graphics should be enough for most everything (besides playing graphic intensive games). My laptop (a Macbook Air) has a 1.7ghz i5 SB cpu and the onboard Intel HD 3000 graphics card and I've had no problems playing 1080p content on it. (I'm not quite sure about blu ray playback as it doesn't have an optical drive and I don't think blu ray playback is supported in Mac OS X anyway.)
My desktop also has the same onboard Intel HD 3000 gpu(with the 3.4ghz i7 2600k SB cpu) , but my mobo doesn't support onboard video so I can't test it.
Onboard graphics should be enough though and later he can always add in a budget discrete gpu if his needs change.
starcraft: "I and every PS3 fanboy alive are waiting for Versus more than FFXIII.
Me since the games were revealed, the fanboys since E3." 
Skeeuk: "playstation 3 is the ultimate in gaming acceleration"
