well, if I threw $5 at a USB cable
its half a meter its not even as long as a standard pc tower is deep
and some support circuitry (the board should provide a few usable things to play with)
the ti usb <> serial chip is interesting but you can buy that separately, otherwise its another msp chip with propitiatory jtag and other functions you need to use their codes for (that they have not released)
the more you know ...