John,

You actually might be better off waiting to pick up a complete system from someone here rather than trying to pick up components piecemeal. This can be a much less expensive way to get into the hobby. Later on you can do some small upgrades as your budget allows. You can usually sell the old equipment here to help cover the costs of the upgrades. The most important thing, as Ram Puppy said, is to figure out what livestock you eventually want to put in there. There is no "best" answer for any system, but I'm sure you came to the right place to get some help in setting up a system.

There is usually someone selling an excellent system, sometimes with livestock, every couple of weeks or so on here. The advantage is that you can see it set up and running and have a good idea what sort of results and species it will support.

HTH,
Gary