Calling all Comp Hardware Gurus!

Hey guys,

Time has come for me to upgrade. Im going for a Desktop, as i think my laptop can still serve me well on the move running on XP. I want a machine which is powerfull (beyond what i actually need) So it won't be out of date.. too soon because that bugs me when buying new hardware.

So i priced up a custom build specs as followed: (Using eBuyer.com/uk)

Specs:

P5B Deluxe Asus
Intel Core 2 Quad Core Q6600 2.4Ghz (8MB Cache)
RAM 4 x 1GB 800Mhz
Seagate 500GB HDD
256MB nVidia 7900GS
Couple of Drives
Dell 22" Monitor
Vista

Total spend was in the region of £1200 (2,400US$) EXCLUDING Case / PSU n extras.

I like a bargain and to shop around so i looked at what a Dell Build would be, i spec'd out a machine on there which included:

Dell Build:

Vista
Intel Core 2 Quad Core Q6600 2.4Ghz (8MB Cache)
Dell 22" Monitor
4GB DDR2
500GB Serial ATA RAID
SINGLE 768MB nVidia® GeForce® 8800 GTX graphics card
Extra Drives / Keyboard / etc
Sound Blaster® X-Fi Xtreme Music PCI Soundcard
1 Year Suppport (if it blows up)

This clocked in at £1381.87 Delivered ($2600) - With my 10% Employee discount at work.

Obviously Dell won't be using the same quality mobo as my custom build would and the memory wont be as fast, but this is made up by the big increase in graphics / sound card etc.

So my question is Is Dell any good? Anyone dealt with them before? Can i get the parts above cheaper (i used ebuyer) to try and beat dells price? Because from my research Dell is winning atm, as much as i'd like to stick it to the man and build a better machine cheaper than they could, i just can't!

Any help / advice would be great!