Here is a few ideas of what a customized PC would cost.

Just for starters my bottom line PC is $850 includes dual core procesor, 4GB of memory, 250GB hard drive, one DVD burner, one DVD ROM. 17"LCD monitor keyboard and mouse with Vista home Premium installed. Price includes parts and labor and in home setup. This is a fully custom built PC all items are subject to change to what you want price will reflect changes.

Video editing PC with two quad core processors and 16 GB of memory dual 22" monitors and XP Pro 64 bit, 3Tb of hard drive space, three firewire ports six USB ports, two PCI x 64bit slots, two PCI E16 slots, 1100W power supply, Blue Ray DVD burner, wireless keyboard and mouse for $8000.00 a few modifications the the video components and decrease hardrive space to 2TB price goes down to $5900.00 compare it to an apple computer and you save big money.

Gaming systems from $1500 and up.

Just need a new box / tower that starts out at $400 for the low end and then go up depending on what you need.

Just an idea if one wanted a Linux machine that would drop the price of $880 to $780 and if you did not need a monitor than your at $620 just an example of how flexible the pricing and customization can be down the the type of memory and motherboard you want installed.