Decided to make a list of high power low cost parts, probably not perfect but it's a good place to start for a medium/low budget pc
here goes:
Case + Power Supply: $100 Antec LifeStyle SONATA II + 450Watt SmartPower 2.0
Motherboard: $136 MSI K9N SLI Platinum Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
Processor: $123 AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Orleans 2000MHz HT 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor
Memory: $170 G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 800
Hard Drive: $90 Western Digital Caviar RE WD2500YD 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Video Card: $150 (post rebate) eVGA 256-P2-N553-AX Geforce 7600GT CO 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
Disk Drive: $40 SAMSUNG Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 5X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache ATA/ATAPI DVD Burner With LightScribe
Monitor: $165 (post rebate) AG Neovo F-419 (R12) Black 19" 4ms LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 700:1 0.294mm Pixel Pitch
Speakers: $55 Logitech X-530 70 Watts 5.1 Speaker
(and/or)
Headset: $38
SENNHEISER PC 150 2 x 3.5mm Connector Circumaural Headset
Keyboard: $47 Saitek PZ30AU Black 104 Normal Keys 4 Function Keys USB Wired Standard Eclipse Keyboard
Mouse: $39 Logitech MX518 931352-0403 2-Tone 8 Buttons 1x Wheel USB + PS/2 Optical Mouse
Total: $1153
here goes:
Case + Power Supply: $100 Antec LifeStyle SONATA II + 450Watt SmartPower 2.0
Motherboard: $136 MSI K9N SLI Platinum Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
Processor: $123 AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Orleans 2000MHz HT 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor
Memory: $170 G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 800
Hard Drive: $90 Western Digital Caviar RE WD2500YD 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Video Card: $150 (post rebate) eVGA 256-P2-N553-AX Geforce 7600GT CO 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
Disk Drive: $40 SAMSUNG Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 5X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache ATA/ATAPI DVD Burner With LightScribe
Monitor: $165 (post rebate) AG Neovo F-419 (R12) Black 19" 4ms LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 700:1 0.294mm Pixel Pitch
Speakers: $55 Logitech X-530 70 Watts 5.1 Speaker
(and/or)
Headset: $38
SENNHEISER PC 150 2 x 3.5mm Connector Circumaural Headset
Keyboard: $47 Saitek PZ30AU Black 104 Normal Keys 4 Function Keys USB Wired Standard Eclipse Keyboard
Mouse: $39 Logitech MX518 931352-0403 2-Tone 8 Buttons 1x Wheel USB + PS/2 Optical Mouse
Total: $1153