Reasons dells suck:
1. The mainboards can not be replaced unless you buy a dell one or a new powersupply as dell has changed the pin outs on the power connector.
2. They can not be overclocked
3. The newer ones get very hot because dell would rather have quiet systems than stable systems.
4. They are slow, dell makes some very crappy mainboards which drag the systems down.
5. Their technical support is a joke, I've called them up many times and I always get some indian man with an accent I could never understand. After waiting on the phone for damn near an hour each call your ear begins to turn blue.
6. The dude you're getting a dell guy was arrested for possesion of marijuana if he had not been stoned he wouldn't have been so quick to reccomend dell.
7. The new dell cases are fragile they are made almost entirely out of plastic. A friend dropped his two feet at a lan party and the whole side cracked and the very thin aluminum interior bent every which way.
My suggestion:
Build your own system, it's cheap, it'll be fast, upgradable, and a learning experiance. It's a great feeling to complete a system and to know it inside out. This community is the best tech support you will ever need and we'll be here for you.
This is a general layout of a nice cheap system you could build:
Chieftec case (same as antec sx1030) $57 dollars which includes shipping from here
http://www.buyxtremegear.com/blacturcasch1.html
Epox 8rda motherboard with a barton xp2500 cpu only $229 here:
http://www.bzboyz.com/store/product3426.html
Enermax 430 watt power supply, never buy a generic power supply your system stability is at stake. $79 here:
http://www.ocsystem.com/en45peak462f.html
120gb western digital WD1200JB with 8mb of cache at 7200rpm for $128 here:
http://www.cnetpc.com/productinfo.asp?item=HD-WD1200JG
ATI RADEON 9500 PRO $160 here:
http://www.gameve.com/store/gameve_viewitem.asp?idproduct=1006&showit=1
oc system pc3200 ddr get 2 256mb sticks to run in dual channel mode, I have two sticks of this stuff and it is great memory mine actually runs as pc 3200 at cas 2 which is above its spec. $58 total here:
http://www.ocsystem.com/oc25pc40ddrs.html
I'd use the onboard sound on the nforce 2, it doesnt get much better than that and its already there. you could get a nice kds 17in monitor down at walmart for 150 and save on shipping with a keyboard and mouse at about 30 dollars each plus a good cdrom (I like the pioneer slot dvd roms) at about $50-$60 you are looking at a grand total of around $990 which is actually cheaper than the dell system and is a lot faster. The money you'll save leaves you room to get a better video card or a nice set of logitech z-540 speakers.
Treat your body like a $600 car. God didn't intend it to last so use it. Run it into the ground!