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Another problem with buying a pre-made system is that with a lot of them you are stuck with proprietary hardware. I had a PIII VAIO and one day my burner just wouldn't open. The drive itself was working but there was no way to open it.
I thought, oh well, I can get a new burner for pretty cheap. I go to remove it and realize that it is a custom sized drive and can only be replaced by sending the whole computer to sony and using their parts. Instead I spent $80 on an external that was pretty slow. At that time I vowed to never buy a factory made pc again.
I just built one and I love it. I got everything from newegg and zipzoomfly. Shipping was free on everything but the case.
Gigabyte Pro2 - 105
AMD 2600+ - 105
2 x 512 MB Corsair RAM - 150
Optorite 8x DVD+/-RW, 48x CD-RW - 110
Asus 16x DVD-ROM - 30
Floppy - 7
Samsung 160 GB SATA HDD - 130
ATI 9600 PRO AIW - 220
Case 40 (+10 shipping)
Soundblaster Sound card - 20
Win XP - 90
Total is just over $1,000. Personally, I'd go with a lower processor and spend the extra money on getting a full GB of RAM. As long as the mobo can handle an upgrade, you can do that in about a year. Chances are that whatever you are uprading from is much slower than a 2600 (or P4 2.6) so the extra power wont even be noticed. I plan on buying a 3200 when the prices are more reasonable.
Another great thing is that you really know a lot about your computer.
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