Yes.. really it all comes down to budget.
If you just simply ask "what computer is best?" we can point you towards a system that can easily cost you $2000+.
If you reuse your monitor, keyboard, and mouse, speakers, etc. you can build one for under $400 (Operating system included) that will run Aces High "reasonably well". Even cheaper if you can reuse other parts like your case, power supply, optical drive, etc... No it won't be maxed but it will run it. The drawback to this is you'll be scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as components go, so quality and upgradeability will be severely hindered.
Likewise, for $400-500 you can purchase a name brand system that will... again.. run Aces High "reasonably well", but to get any real performance out of it, you'll be spending another $200-300 on a new power supply and video card. (By the way, if you can replace a video card and power supply, then you can build a PC)
My biggest issue with name brand systems is that you never truly know what's inside. Example, they can advertise a "800 Watt Power Supply" but you don't know if it's a quality brand like Seasonic, or some cheap chinese-made part that is going to fail the day after the warranty is up (if it lasts that long). They tend to go with cheaper quality components so they can stay competitive with the other brands, and if you think getting all that software makes it a good deal, think again. You get a 'preinstalled' copy of Windows (yes you can restore it, but only along with the other junk) along with a TRIAL version of bloatware anti-everything software, a TRIAL version of bloatware Microsoft Office, a TRIAL version of some backup software, a few useless games, some kind of "system helper" utility that will eat up 20% of your computers performance and do nothing except monitor the internet for software updates, and god only knows what else...
Do yourself a BIG favor and spend several hours researching building your own PC. It really is not difficult at all and you'll find it to be a very rewarding project. If you are strictly against that sort of thing, then I would highly recommend purchasing your system from a system builder (such as TilDeath) who will work with you one on one and really want to make you happy. Bravo to TilDeath by the way. I tried going that route with my career and never could make a profit off of it. Then again, I didn't have his connections.
Name brand retail systems do have their place in the computer world... for uneducated consumers who want to fork out $1000 for a system for them to play solitaire and surf the web. Now, business systems are a whole different ball game altogether.
1Boner I see your recommendation about financing one through Dell. I'm not automatically saying that Dell is a bad deal... on the contrary their higher end systems aren't bad at all. The thing is that I could have built that same exact system for under $1100. To me $500+ savings for a few hours of my time is significant. As far as credit worthiness, if you can get financed through Dell, you can usually have a credit card with very similar terms. Now with all that being said $1649 isn't a bad price for a higher end Dell system like that, but they also make a lot of their money off of people who make minimum payments and stretch it out over a few years, or those who regularly make late payments. Not many people these days are that responsible with their credit.
Heck even TilDeath has joined in on a credit program... I think it was the "Bill Me Later" program... I think newegg does a similar thing...
