I have to say - although I have been programming since high school in the
late 70's (and hence the subsequent knowledge of computing) - I am very
mechanically dis-inclined. I am incapable of such things as simple
household repairs or things like changing my own oil...

That said - there's only two reasons I can see to buy (as opposed to
building) a PC is if you are so strapped for time - that paying additional
money to save time is worthwhile to you. Building a PC now in my mind is
equivalent to the change in buying stereo components as opposed to the
console systems that were popular up to the late 70's. The second reason is
tech support.

Mounting the motherboard is a bit tricky the first time you've done one.
Lining up the drives in the drive bays can also be a problem.

Now - if you've owned a PC or two and never ever called the tech support
line - and you have some time to spare - you are throwing money away buying
a Compaq, Gateway, Dell etc. It's amazing how powerful the low-end chips
are now (Celeron, Duron's etc).

A good buddy of mine (formerly professional musician, now in property
management - very non-technical) is consulting me for advice on a new PC
(he's helped others build them before). He's getting a new case,
motherboard, Duron 500, 128 MB of PC133 memory. This will cost between
$300-400. He's using his old Hard Disk, Voodoo3 3000 PCI, SoundBlaster,
Floppy, and Modem. He can upgrade each piece at his convenience.

A couple months ago I spent less than $1700 to build a high-end Athlon 800
box that would have cost close to thousand more to buy the equivalent box
from a Big-name (or even small name) PC company.

Slyde