Building Computer- Ideas?

:-/ hello. I've been saying I'm gonna build my college desktop for ages now, and I need to do it before school starts in September. So, I wanted to know if anyone had suggestions for components I should use.

I was going to choose the monitor myself, and I was planning on picking the case depending on how much space I'm going to need.

I wanted the computer to be performance heavy (great graphics card and fast hard drive but with still lots of memory).

I also don't know much about computers so this is a learning experience, so don't laugh at my ignorance.