ORIGINAL: Nik.
like what, a Gateway or Dell? please. Its still better to build you own. That is, if you ever plan to upgrade it. Thankfully companies dont use as much proprietary hardware as they used to, but some still use oddball configurations. Like some dells being BTX instead of ATX.
if you want a new computer to browse the net and do school work then got to walmart and get a lap top you save a lot of money. but if you need a high end system for new and upcoming games you will need to build a desk top with one of the latest video card which will cost about as much as a xbox360