It's already been said, but I think this bears repeating:
The best best bang for your buck in buying a cheap, low-end computer is to buy from an OEM. They get large volume discounts, which we DIYers don't. The OEMs will also often will put out a loss-leader low-end machine (the $300 machine) to entice people to buy a computer from them, then sell them an upgraded model or an extended warranty that they DO make money on. Another reason that OEMs can offer cheaper machines than a DIYer can build is that the quality of the parts in some of the real cheap OEM machines is far less than that of any parts you'd find to put in a DIY machine. And add to that if you are a Windows user that you need to buy (I know, you can get an illegal copy, but you shouldn't) a copy of Windows for your machine. Big PC OEMs get copies that cost them about $30 for XP Home and ~$90 for XP Pro so that they don't get tempted to not install Windows on every computer that ships. You won't find a non-educational copy of XP Home for your own use for less than about $80 and XP Pro for $120-130 or so. And the "real" versions of XP are $200 and $300, respectively.
The best bang for your buck in buying a high-end machine is to build your own as the OEMs make most of their margin on upgrades to the base system configuration. Not to mention that you can pick exactly what you want in the machine, which usually is a more major consideration with a high-end machine than an "I just need a computer" budget box.
The midrange area is where it gets to be a toss-up. Your $800-1000 midrange DIY box will be about the same performance as the $800-1000 OEM box. Yours should be better quality, but the OEM box might be marginally cheaper. If you want certain components in it, then you need to build. If you want to OC, you have to build your own. If you want it all set up for you, then go OEM. I built one of these class of machines and was very happy with it. I could have gotten a slightly better deal on an OEM box if I had looked hard for "that special deal." But my box is a good, high-quality unit and I know exactly what's in it and what can go in it.
And as far as a recommendation, I have only ever dealt with one OEM high-ish-end desktop, so I can't really say much. Now laptops I can tell you all about as I've seen lots of big-dollar OEM laptops, but it seems that all of the OEM desktops are all budget/midrange machines and that the gamers who get the high-end ones tend to go to a local mom 'n pop to do it if they don't do it themselves. My university has a lot of Dell OptiPlex desktops and the regular mid-tower ones seem to be decent machines while the small-form-factor ones make nice foot heaters in the winter. My old roommate had a Cyberpower desktop and it seemed decent, but that was a while ago (it was an expensive P4 3.0C and a NVIDIA FX5700 machine if that's an indication. I told him to go ATi 9k, but nooo...)
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