A Dell is easily worth it for non-gamers and non-computer enthusiasts. For those that want more performance for the price, then custom building is the way to go.
www.newegg.com is the best custom-building PC site out there. They have an excellent RMA service, and pretty damn good prices. The big issue here is the RMA service: if something comes fucked up, you get another, no questions asked. A majority of companies on the Internet have NO return policy.
Here's a couple of setups I'd go with:
Athlon 64 Setup
GIGABYTE GA-K8VT800M Motherboard - $96
Athlon 64 3000+ Retail - $227
Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, PC3200, 256 MB x 2 - $124
Lite-On 52x32x52 CD-RW - $38 OEM
Samsung Floppy Drive - $9
Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive - $82
Whatever Case You WantŪ $50
ENERMAX EG365P-VE(FCA) 350W Power Supply - $59
SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP - $229
The total on the Athlon 64 computer is $914 before shipping.
Intel Pentium 4/ 2.4C GHz 800MHz FSB, 512K Cache, Hyper Threading Technology - Retail - $163
ABIT 875P Chipset Motherboard for Intel Socket 478 CPU, Model "IC7-Max3" - RETAIL - $186
Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, PC3200, 256 MB x 2 - $124
Lite-On 52x32x52 CD-RW - $38 OEM
Samsung Floppy Drive - $9
Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive - $82
Whatever Case You WantŪ $50
ENERMAX EG365P-VE(FCA) 350W Power Supply - $59
SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP - $229
The Intel system is about $940 before shipping.
These prices are a month or so old, so they're actually cheaper now. If you got either of those computers, it'd be hundreds (if not a thousand) dollars cheaper than Dell. Try pricing out a PC on Dell for $1,000 -- you'll get incredibly lower performance and a whole lot of software packages that you don't want to waste money on.
-Lasereth