i just built the computer of my current dreams using parts from newegg.com zipzoomfly.com and a hard drive from staples with a $30 rebate, but you could just as easily get teh same price from newegg ($65 for 80GB with 8MB cache)
anyway, here goes,
P4 2.8 ghz with 800fsb, HT enabled, $180
Abit IS7 mobo 800 fsb ht compatible, $95
ram: i got the cheapest pair of 256 pc3200 chips i could justify at about $90, kingston value ram kit. If i wee to buy again, i'd probably get something wth a 2.5 cas but what i have is very stable if you aren't overclocking.
DVD rom/CDRW combo drive, I really like this thing and at $40, it's a steal ($10 rebate from zipzoomfly)
sapphire ati radeon 9800pro $210, but i just saw it for $199 on
www.slickdeals.net after $50 rebate from best buy.
17" crt monitor. I can't STAND the look of LCD screens when i am editig pictures, so i stuck with the $89+10 shipping CTX monitor from newegg. I really like it.
keyboard and mouse yu could get for $15-30 depeding or reuse yours.
speakers: i'm reusing my packard hell speakers from 1995, but i'm goig to buy some 4/1 flat panel/subwoofer combo soon for $30 from compusa
case: i picked out a 400watt midtower from newegg for $26+12 shipping. I actually like it, very roomy, but i did cut myself a couple times with the rear. No big deal, just gtta be careful. Mine came with 2 side fans.
I bought a modem bc i use dialup, but if yuou have ethernet/whatever, the lan hookup is on the mobo, as is the sound card, 8 usb ports, 2 firewire ports and 2 optical ports for sound if you're going that far. The sound on this thing rocks.
so i came up with abut $800 +/- $100 for a very stable system that flies for me. original glquake runs at 300 fps in 1024/768 32bpp mode. i haven't tested it thoroughly yet, but it seems to be very stable running winxp pro.
Word of caution. If you have winxp now and you want to put it on the new computer, you're going to have activation issues...i spent 2 days getting them solved...microsoft help wasn't very helpful....
ummm...so that's my rig for less than $900
www.cyberpowerpc.com has a really nice configurator for whatever you want and prices are pretty comparable to what you would get doing it yourself, but maybe a bit more expensive and you're not as flexible. Then again, you could save a bit by buying your graphics card from newegg instead of them.
still, you have no idea hw happy i am with what i put together and it's probably the most stable computer i've owned...except for when i screwed up the bios. don't touch the ram timings if you hvae cheap ram
lasereth helped me out quite a bit, his recommendations are always good.
I also thought about the IC7 mobo, but the IS7 tested higher in a lot of applicatios and is about half the price. if you want, you could put the extra towards more ram. 512 is nice, but i recently creamed photoshop with a 500 mb tiff.
also, he's definitely right about the software you get on other computers. I seriously think makers like dell, gateway, etc, charge more for software than they do for hardware, or else it's about even. seriously, how many word processing/database programs do you need
I know office is not worth the extra expense for my computer.
Anyway, goodluck, i hope it all works out. I know you can build a great computer for less than $1000 easily.