Here is a bunch of hardware...

[gremwood]

Motherboard - Asus M2R32-MVP $186.99

CPU - AMD Athlon64 X2 4200+ 2.20GHz $153.99

RAM - OCZ Dual Channel XTC 2048MB (2x 1024MB) $79.97

Video Card - ATI Radeon X1600 Pro / 512MB DDR2 $149.97

Hard Drive - Samsung / SpinPoint P120 / 250GB / 7200 / 8MB / SATA-300 $93.99

Monitor - Hanns•G HW-191DPB 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 5ms $179.97

Case - Ultra Grid ATX Mid-Tower Case with Front USB and Audio Ports and Ultra V-Series 500-Watt Power Supply $99.97

Pretty budget to me, before taxes it's $995. Any suggestions? The hard drive and monitor are optional though, I've got another hard drive and a monitor sitting around.

[Rez Prophet]

use the hard drive and monitor you have laying around and get a better power supply and graphics card.

[gremwood]

use the hard drive and monitor you have laying around and get a better power supply and graphics card.

Minus the monitor and hard drive, I've got enough money for one of these...

Radeon x1650 Pro (http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2571838&CatId=1826)

As for a power supply, I don't know much about what is better.
Ultra X-Finity 600W (http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1273342&CatId=1483)
or
Coolmax CXI 600W (http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1543967&CatId=1483)

Keeping in mind I am on a budget.

EDIT: my old monitor is dead, just using one of those switch cards that i have.

[Crayola]

you will not need a 600w PSU, i would go with a 500

[Rez Prophet]

Or
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=23716&vpn=256-P2-N761-AR&manufacture=eVGA
and
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=17550&vpn=W0101RU&manufacture=THERMALTAKE

[ORION]

http://canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=013486&cid=CPU.84
http://canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=011271&cid=MB.157
more power for about the same price, AMD/ATI fan boys are getting smoked in the benchmarks and will continue to until those two companies get there shit together and drop the new product bomb.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=17550&vpn=W0101RU&manufacture=THERMALTAKE


I would advise against this PSU, I don't trust Tt and I've had nothing but problems when working other peoples PC's that used Tt PSU's

[Knight Templar]

My first Tt died on me in about 2 months, but the second one has been rock solid. I'd never pick it again.

A great tool is the NCIX PC builder, even though the prices are out of date and therefore inflated. Nevertheless, you can get a good look at all the pieces you want on one page, even if you don't buy it from NCIX

For instance, http://pc.ncix.com/pcbuilder/index.php?action=getprice&id=2589728&platformid=1000

The price they list is $1394
but the 6420 CPU is $218 (what's the difference with a 6400? the builder info is outdated)
Asus P5B ATX 965 Mobo is actually $120
EVGA 8800 320mb GPU is actually $299
Mushkin 2G RAM is $99
Hitachi (?) 320GB HD is $83
OCZ(?) 600w PSU is $74
Antec 900 Case is $90
Acer 19inch LCD is $199 (but you can actually get a 20 inch for the same price)

Which = $1182

For $200 more, you get a way better GPU and CPU and of course you can still cut out the Monitor and HD if you want to do this in steps (and that would make the computer $900) (?) is beside products i'm not sure of...

So there are lots of options and I'm sure you can find cheaper parts all around (like () at Canada Computers, which is generally the cheapest place)

[SharpShooter]

Yeah but just do a price compare on the NCIX site to Canada Computers, because you will save a fair bit of money off of the tax discount that you will get (7% Tax) and on a second note you are only paying one shipping charge.

[gremwood]

Hah, Intel's improved. I remember when their caches were small and shit. I'll keep looking for now.

Man, if I saw those two deals (CPU + mobo) I would have listed those. Didn't see them on Tiger, must have missed it.

Edit: What's the difference between E6400, E6420? One is cheaper. :D

[Knight Templar]

I'm too lazy to scour Google more than a couple pages, but it looks like the 6420 has double the L2 Cache, which can't but help I assume

[edit] Man, now I want to build a new computer

[Zimba]

get an antec case with a psu and get a better video card, the 7900gs are really cheap right now

[syndrome]

try directcanada.com for prices