Yes it was an XPS in the Home/Home Office section. Solid computers. Dell (and I would guess all tier 1 manufacturers) spends about 6-7 months designing and integrating new platforms and they usually end up as rock-solid systems.
I personally build all of my own systems and I do occasionally suffer because of it. Things such as memory sticks that just will not work in a certain manufacturers motherboard. But the margins just keep getting tighter and tighter to the point where I don't really save a lot of money even when building a high-end machine. I certainly can't build a "granny" machine that's just used for internet, email, and word processing for $400 including an LCD like Dell, HP, and the like can. At least not with the parts I like to use.
Anyway, for $3K you should get a real performer with all the bells and whistles. You really could spend 2 bills and get a really good machine. Heck, if gaming with the newest titles like Doom3 etc. wasn't in the equation you could spend under 1K and be happy. Just depends what you want out of the system.
