Conclusion
Don became king of value by putting together a moderately-priced "budget PC" that produces outstanding performance. The performance advantage of our high-end PC might become mandatory for future programs, but many builders will want to upgrade before then.
The Dell XPS 720 H2C was never designed to compete for value with lower-specified systems, but instead was designed as a "dream machine" for big spenders. With over twice the CPU power of the overclocked low-end machine, why wouldn't you buy one if you had thousands of spare dollars to play with?
Author's Opinion
Having considered the positions of all three systems, I'd probably choose a combination of parts for my own use. Being a heavy multi-tasker, I'd love to be able to play games while encoding a movie in the background. Better still, I'd love to shorten the time it takes to complete any number of lengthy tasks.
Don's system proves the adequate capability of a single 8800 GTX graphics card in real games, while the XPS 720 H2C proves the quad-core advantage. If I had the disposable income and the need to build a new system now, I'd probably use a single 8800GTX and an Intel chipset board, and then overclock one of the less-expensive quad-core Core 2 processors. It would be easy to find more enjoyable ways to spend the left-over cash.
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