my new computer thread

[farmboy]

i decided not to hijack anyone else's.
so I need a new desktop computer but i know basically nothing about the hardware side of stuff.  I'm looking for something with enough power that it isn't going to keel over and start hyperventilating when I start running high-end engineering programs and (occasionally) games on it and I'm willing to pay out a bit (since a scholarship of mine will cover half the cost up to $3000), but I'd still like to keep it under $1500 total, preferably around $1000.  I'll sacrifice graphics for additional speed and storage.  Since I'm living in a single dorm room with two bikes and a bed, I'd prefer that the case not take up tons of space.  Building a custom PC intrigues me, but I have concerns about spending too much time assembling it (or worse, breaking something while putting it together) and lack of customer support.  Basically, are the savings you can get from building custom worth the hassle for a n00b like me?  I can get a discount at Dell through my Dad's job, so I was thinking about an XPS, but I'm trying to figure out the difference between the 420 and the 720 is.  I went through to two "customize me" menus and made every option identical, but there was still an $800 discrepancy, so what more would I getting with the 720?
Thanks for the help in advance, guys.

[Zoog]

I would buy all the separate parts from one company and let them assemble it for you (most shops here do it for about $20). What type of programs are you talking about? 3d rendering programs, video editing, sound....? For video editing I work on a Quad Core Mac 2.6ghz (?) with 8GB ram and 2TB disc space. When you want to do rendering and CPU heavy programs I think you should get a quad core system. This way you can render much faster than a dual or single core (ofcourse) and run many things at the same time (e.g. rendering video output, editing real time video graphic effects, building/burning a dvd and converting other files to a new file type all at the same time).

It all depends what you exactly planning to do with the computer

[farmboy]

eh...I talked with my dad and decided to go with the Dell for simplicity.  Maybe not the best deal, but I think I did alright.

Base: XPS 420
Processor: Intel Core2 processorQ6600 (2.40Ghz,1066FSB) w/QuadCore Technology and 8MB cache
Memory: 3GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
Hard Drive: 500GB NCQ Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM) w/ 16MB DataBurst Cache
Video Card: 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy MB Audio
Networking: Wireless Network Card 802.11g PCI
Disk Drive: 16X DVD+R/RW
Floppy slot: No Floppy Drive
Monitor: Dell UltraSharp Wide 22"
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, English (very possibly will be uninstalled and swapped for XP upon arrival)

[Fixxxer]

Was Vista all you could get? I guess it's not a bad thing to have since once it's more optimized it's a good thing to have around, but it's just a hassle to have to install a different OS on a new computer that it priced a little higher than a system you would build yourself.

[farmboy]

yes, it was the only thing available.