weight bench suggestions?

Well, you will have your Weider, Marcy, Golds Gym, and Powerhouse stuff that you find at Big5, Sports Authority, ****s Sporting Goods, etc. Those are beginner sets mainly for the weight rating on them.

By overhead rack, do you mean a powercage? Most lifters use those because you have built in spotters and can do many workouts. Most also have a chin up bar on them which is a plus. For serious lifters, the cage will be the most important piece of equipment.

I use a squat rack at home with a FID (flat, incline, decline) bench and a olympic barbell set. That allows me to do chinups (my specific squat rack has a chinup bar) all types of bench presses, squats, and seated shoulder press.

If you have a busy local craigslist, try there first. So many people buy their equipment and never use it. You can get like new stuff for half the price. My whole setup costed 20% of the price new.

If he is a beginner he won't need anything special. Just a simple bench and a barbell set. If you want to grab something that he can do many workouts on and would outlive him, a power cage would be a good route to go. Brands like Powertec, Body Solid, Parabody are all good heavy duty .

If you're talking about those bench setups that also have a squat rack built-in, that can also work. IF he plans to go heavier and lifts without a spotter, consider a cage