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Do a Dell but just buy the basic computer and add the parts like memory and video card once it's home. Dell charges too much for the parts and they tend to be the cheap versions. The only problem is that you won't be able to upgrade the video card with the newest best thing due to crappy power supplies the have in them. The Dell I have has about a 300 watt power supply and I got an X1950 GT to run fine but later I bought an ATI HD3870 and it was a "no go". Ended up building a computer from scratch around the card.
Another approach: Find a cheap refurb Acer on Woot.com or wherever and just upgrade parts till it's what you want. The Acer's are full of "off the shelf" components so it's just a matter of picking the part to upgrade and heading over to newegg and looking for deals. I did this approach too and it was a lot of fun. I learned a lot about computers and how to get the best deals for parts online.
Good luck. Oh and go AMD and ATI for processors and video. They are much better deals and are really nice stuff. Vista is great too. Not nearly as bad as the "haters" say.
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