said by seaquake 
:You got bleeding edge technology and that's what you paid for. You could have saved probably 1/3 of the price going with components that were a bit older. The most important thing is "are you happy with the purchase?"
Lots of people bash on Dell but I've had great success with mine. The one I bought in 1999 is still in use as a kids computer (with upgrades, of course). The one I'm on now I bought in 2004 (with upgrades, of course) and it still handles most everything out there.
With that system you should get a good 4 to 5 years out of it before it becomes obsolete.
Would I pay that much for my next computer? No way. I don't worry about warranties, software or the ubber cool looking chassis. Could you have built it cheaper yourself? Most certainly. But what you've done is covered your butt for 3 years with the warranty and that cost adds to your system's premium.
I still use my dell xps b933mhz w/128mb rdram i bought in august of 2000... which was, from what i remember at the time was bleeding edge technology. Heck i'm using it right now, but with alot, i mean alot of hd errors on the primary drive which i can't stand and i know i could replace but don't have time to, so i just bought a new bleeding edge technology computer, which will probably last me at least 5+ years maybe even longer if i take good care of it.
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