High end computers

My curiosity got the better of me today over lunch and I decided to do a couple experiments. First, I decided to price how much it would cost me to build a top of the line computer (o.k., almost top of the line).
I decided to price the costs of building the following. Don't worry if you don't understand all the stuff. This is just making a point.

Pentium Dual Core 3.4ghz computer with integrated fire-wire capability on the motherboard, 8GB of RAM, a Radeon X1900 512MB video card, two 500GB hard drives, one x16 DVD burner, a wireless keyboard & mouse, a 20inch LCD flat screen monitor and Windows XP Media Center edition.

My price = 2,275.06 I was actually quite suprised that it was this low.

Then I went to DELL.com. I couldn't quite get the 3.4ghz, so I chose the 3.2ghz. Firewire? I can't tell, I think yes. I couldn't go up to 8GB of RAM, so I chose 4GB. The Radeon X1900 wasn't an available choice, they actually didn't give me a choice, so instead of a 512MB card, I chose a 128MB one (much slower). The rest of it was the same.

Dell's price = 2,465. So I beat dell by $200 and I got a faster processor, double the amount of RAM, and a video card that plays varsity instead of JV.

I also wrote down all the costs of these components and in 6 months, I will post again with my price and Dell's price. I'm curious to see how much prices go down in 6 months. We'll see.