Monitor calibration

If your monitor is any good it will have built in hardware calibration, if not your just altering the graphics card of your machine. Eye-1's are ok but check if your monitor comes with its own software rather than eye-1's, if so run that with the Eye-1.

so basically a mid to high end Eizo CG/CE series with ColorEdge built in , the high end NEC's with SpectraView Profiler Software, or the Lacie monitors(you still need an eye one or similar to measure).
you will be spending £600+ to get one of these monitors.

as for a decent and cheap monitor?
maybe one of the better dell's but often you can't turn the brightness down low enough to calibrate properly. most people just turn the brightness up to the max but if you are working on images it should be lower, (120cd/mm). if you can stretch to it a mid range Eizo?