Help:building an enono tower

hi everyone, i've been reading threads in this forum for quite some time now and i realized two important things:

1.) I'm a complete newbie when it comes to choosing the right parts to build a good pc; and
2.) I badly need help from the experts around here.


...so here I am hoping to hear some suggestions in building a $450-worth tower that would have the following specs in general:

*quad core processor
-because I believe most hard/soft-wares will be built for quad and more cores in the near future, although I was previously aiming for the E8400, but after reading from the forums here, I'm now really convinced I'm going for the quads.

*a good motherboard that could support future upgrades
-I'm not into overclocking, as I have mentioned earlier, I'm a complete newbie and I'm scared of burning away the little cash I have. As long as the mobo supports my processor and can support future upgrades in terms of memory and graphic cards, as I'm planning to upgrade slowly if possible.

*mid-range(price-wise) memory
- just enough memory to run most available and commonly used applications/games.

*graphic card
- in this bracket, I'm totally clueless.

***Im not a hardcore gamer nor am I really into video editing so I guess I just need something in the middle...I'd really appreciate any help...or am I asking too much?

THANKS!