I will suggest to you what I have, since I am very happy wwith it. My biggest suggestion is on the soundcard.
Guillemot MAXI Studio ISIS soundcard. I don't hear much about them on this BBS although they pop up from time to time. It's an 8 in/4 out card. It only cost me $200 off e-Bay in immaculate condition. They are up there pretty regularly.
AS far as computer is concerned.
I'd grab a PIII 800 or better. - $200-$300 depending
256 Megs of ram. - $200 or so
21 inch monitor (I have one and now everything else seems teeny, smaller could work for you) $250 or so
An ASUS CUV4X motherboard. I'm very happy with this mother board, and it fits the flip chips. 133Mhz bus. $120 or so
Some video card, doesn't really matter. I'd get one with 8 megs. $20-50
A CD-R and a CD-Rom. CD-R's are really damn cheap now (Under $100 if you don't buy a really fast one, or look used)and are so useful! Any generic CD-Rom will do. $100-$150 for CD-R, $50 for CD-Rom.
I don't know what you have as far as other gear goes, but I'd keep my computer with the bare essentials as listed plus thigns like the CD-R and keep the rest of my cash for other things. All together my computer cost me $1300 or so US dollars. I also got the case (Around $60). I run e-Magic Logic Audio Platinum for multi tracking and Wavelab + Cool Edit for editing. (Cooledit can do cool noise reduction type stuff) I can do 16 tracks+ with effects no problem with my setup.
Save some money where you can and buy some good monitors.
Jake
http://www.worthlessmusic.com
http://www.creation16.com