It was the opposite for me. I tried configuring a build similar to mine on Dell's site, but the price estimates were $1,000-$1500 higher. I couldn't get an exact replica, since Dell only allows for certain configurations, but pretty close. Little things like going from 2 gigs of RAM to 4 added $200, where as getting a 4 sticks of 1GB RAM cost me $150 all told. I know that RAM isn't going to make huge differences now, I was looking at down the line. Plus, most prebuilts I've dealt with offer little to no room for expandability, requiring replacement of a bunch of different parts to get the benefit of a upgrading a single component. My build is designed to be easily expandable, and the core system should last me a long time. Only thin I'll likely need to upgrade in a few years is the video card, and some extra hard drive space.
I also find PSUs in prebuilts rather lacking, but I'd rather not get into everything.:p
10-Jan-2008