[quote=&quot;HavokChaos&quot;]One fatal flaw...you chose an ATI card for the video..no amount of money is worth the time it takes to get the card WORKING!, I would suggest a 7900 or better, even the 7600GT's are nice and cheap.[/quote]
Get it working?  WTF do you mean?  The model number is within the Epic specs :P  I've used ATI cards exclusively for my own machines... PCI, AGP, PCIE and I don't have too many problems getting them to work.  <a target="_blank" href="http://utforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?p=25109360#post25109360">The problem</a> I have with my ATI card and UT3 demo and retail is a problem for people regardless of ATI or Nvidia VGA chipsets and I can play UT3 even thought I have that weird problem with every Unreal3 engine based game I've tried... other games, new and old don't have the problem at all and I'd never seen a problem like this on my own machines before UT3's beta demo.  The tomshardware budget build used a $300 video card and I thought that was ridiculous for a BUDGET machine.  The closer I get to $1000 the less it feels like a budget build to me and more like a mid-range build.

Anyway... I acknowledged that the ATI card is the weakest link and suggested a similarly PRICED Nvidia card using the tomshardware chart as a rough reference - just wanted to find one higher in the list, I'm not up on all the exact specs of everything from Nvidia but yes a 7xxx series should be an obviously better choice than a 6xxx series..  $30 probably isn't going to break the bank but I did want to get the total under $500... it's a much better choice than the 6800 though, post will be edited in light of info from someone who know Nvidia's products better than I do :)  I'll trust your judgment since the 7600 is also below Epic's spec for 'recommended system' because it consistently scores better at tomshardware than the crap ATI card I picked that meets Epic's model # specs.  Just keep in mind, this 7600GT has a fan cooler and will be noisier than the ATI card with passive cooling... but in light of the idea that this is meant to be a gaming rig noise shouldn't be a top priority.
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814102080
6800 = $58.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&amp;Description=7600&amp;bop=And&amp;SrchInDesc=7600gt&amp;Page=1
7600GT = $88.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&amp;N=2010380048%201305520548&amp;bop=And&amp;SrchInDesc=7900&amp;Page=1
7900 = $120.

$607.93 is still almost $100 cheaper than the Dell with the same processor and the newegg wishlist price is before any applicable mail-in rebates... but you do have to mail those in and follow the instructions to the letter to get those.

Moving on to the AMD build... http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3112&amp;p=11 - according to the page the Athlon 64 X2 5000+ is on par with the C2D when it comes to gaming - not necessarily anything else though... Intel's E4500 and AMD's 5000+ are both around $130 right now.  I'd still possibly need to do days of research before I'd be willing to commit to a particular AMD CPU/mobo combination.
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3112&amp;p=14">Overclocking</a> doesn't help AMD either ;)
[img:61ce0c387b]http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/3268/15654gf2.png[/img:61ce0c387b]
That article <a target="_blank" href="http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3112&amp;p=15">concludes</a> by saying that AMD setups have better integrated (on-board the motherboard) graphics solutions but they also say that given that, integrated graphics still <a target="_blank" href="http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3112&amp;p=12">are NOT</a> up to par to play the latest games.