chosen to buy in some Dell PCs for the office. One reason might be that I
am, as you say, an idiot. The other reason might be that the Dells do the
job I need for the office, and they cost 20% less to buy in ready-built
than the price at which I can buy the parts.

20%? Yes, that probably sounds about right. We've only built one custom PC
at work (a dual Athlon XP system) and we've had no end of problems with it -
it's always got the top off :-) The Dell PCs & servers just sit there and
work 24/7.

Rob.