Normally, I do not post on these topics as my opinion is a bit biased at times, and probably here could cause a negative stir from some but... I had a co-worker at one of my previous jobs, and guess what his previous job was??? Dell tech support. Just to inform you guys of what I have been informed of, he stated to me that as a tech support, no matter how easy or simple the question was, the tech support team has an entire book/program full of information they must go through for every call to try to find ways NOT to be held liable for the problem, and in the end, not help you with your problem without you paying for it. (Im talking about telling someone that in order to shut down computer you have to press the start and shut down buttons) Yeah, its that bad.
Moral to the story, the best route to go is a custom built computer. You won't have the error messages that lead you to a tech support team that will give you the run around, most error messages are presented in the booklet you recieve for the motherboard/hdd/whatever equipment is failing, plus you know exactly what programs / hardware that is installed on your computer. I mean, unless you are someone that is buying a first time computer, do you really need programs that are trials, programs that help you choose your ISP, programs that are a waste of space???
Not a techy? No problem, surely you know someone that has a little computer knowledge, and quite honestly as someone who liked electronics but knew nothing of motherboard/cpu/psu/you get the picture hookups and innerworkings, I built a computer and im not gonna lie, is the best I have had to this day, and I have been one that purcheses 1600, 1800, and another 1100 dollar systems in the past. The one that is bigger and better then the rest was around 1100.
Im not gonna sit here and tell you that you can save 500 on custom built computers (though it is probably possible, but then you will be buying the low of the low and probably not be getting what you really want out of it) but you can build yourself a better computer, one without having to worry about tech support (tech support for the majority of the problems can be found on any major search engine, because ya, almost guaranteed that someone has had the same problem you have had) and a computer that for the same price as a name brand, will typically be faster and better quality on parts such as CPU speed/power and RAM speed/size.
Plus for the fact of not having to waste time and money on tech support that is innitially set up to avoid helping, its well worth it....