some advice on complete systems...

You may find an nforce micro atx board with built in video for a little over $100. Or you can check out newegg's refurbished section for good deals on customer returns with free shipping. Pricewatch has plenty of low cost generic duron systems listed under "pc windows". Newegg also has 2 sis 650 boards with integrated video for about $88. Combine that with a p4 1.6a and the total cost is about $215-220.

well, thats one thing that i will be doing myself.. building it!!
i have a trade account, so i do get haardware cheaper, some more than i personally would have thought, but others not so much.. but like i said in my first post, build the 'brain' of the computer around a good motherboard, abit kt7a for example and then add cheaper parts, like a duron, geforce 2 mx and if then i want to go faster, just add a faster cpu, geforce 3 ti 200 for example.. thats how i was thinking.
i doi believe that monitors are a tricky subject, as some people look at things differently, for example, i like belinea monitors, whilst some people dont. ever since i have had a computer, i think i have always had a monitor, bar the fact when i had cheaper amiga systems.. a 17" belinea diamontron monitor was the first monitor i had.. excellent monitor.
i belive that there are three basic things to a pc system that you need to get right and then you can work on the rest...
motherboard, cpu and graphics card. get those right and you are on the way of success. a friend of my dads bought a pc from pc world, xp 2100, geforce 2 mx 64mbs, you know a nice ish system, but the only problem that i can see is that the motherboard that they probably put in the darn thing would hold up the performance some what and the same with the geforce 2 mx... its a good BUGDET card, but not something that you would want with a top of the line XP cpu !! or is it that im crazy???
well, thanks for the advice, could you add anything much else?
cheers!!

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

im not meaning to be so 'specific' just a broad sight of what they might think, that this is good. nothing brillaint needs to be used, something average, but something that will perform just job/s well.
the mx that you own is something that i personnally wouldnt use as it holds the whole system back for what i want a machine to be, fast in ever aspect. but not going silly. a 2.1ghz intel 4 to me, sounds about as quick for somethings as a decient xp cpu with a good motherboard. im not picking on intel or saying that amd are better but when i couple a fast motherboard, ie ddr and a intel or amd at a high speed ie. over 1.4ghz i would personnally put in something more powerfull, for example a geforce 2 ultra at minimum or in my preferance, a minimum of a geforce 3 ti 200. its something that will perform very well and is a lot faster than the ultra in many tests when partnered with other good hardware. i nearly get 5000 3dmarks in 2001se, which i think is bloody brillaint, for the cpu and the graphics card, especailly when directx 8 isnt supported.
my girl friend and her son, dont play games like i want to play games and they dont need to encode video captures into mpeg1 so they dont need things like a geforce 3 ti 200 or even an geforce 2 ultra, i even think that a geforce 2 gts would perhaps be too much. but building a system around a good motherboard like a abit kt7 and having a even a geforce 2 mx makes it good when having say a duron, because when you step up the cpu power, the graphics card will get better without doing anything bar changing the cpu.
i thank you and anyone that comments on this issue im having, but please can anyone put some raw specs down like
duron @ 800 and 128mbs pc133 memory with a abit board with a geforce 2 mx or something like that?
it would help me out a hell of a lot!
i want it to perform, but not so great that everyone will be going cor blimley gov, or something like that.. just enough so it performs well and its more than what they need..
games that they might play, sega rally 2, unreal tournement, colin mcrae rally 2, need for speed... is that going to help more? please can someone help me here?

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...