[reefburnaby]

Yes, you can build a machine for less than Dell and it would work just as well. I can build a $300 machine that can match Dell, but you really need to know what you are doing to do that. Its all in picking the right components.

Dell's customer service...is not reliable...like everything...you get what you pay for. The problem is that it is outsource to India...depending on which person you get...its good somedays...bad on others.

Dell got hit with the capacitor issue -- their Optiplex line was hit and it cost them dearly on the books.

One thing to keep in mind....CPUs don't amount to much these days. The slowest Sempron (2600 @ $80 each) isn't that much slower than a mid-level AMD64 3800 @ $380 each, but the price difference doesn't quite reflect that. There is a upcoming paradigm shift for Intel with a whole slew of new processors (dual and quad cores) and new socket for AMD (M2) to support DDR2. So....prices for existing processors will drop to get rid of existing inventory. If you can wait...I would wait for those sales to start rolling.

Some of the better stores in Vancouver are Generic Computers, NCIX, A-power, Frontier Computers and Anitec. Theres also tigerdirect.ca for mail order. Stay away from ATIC - better to shop at Future shop than ATIC.

- Victor.