This summer, when my other system died, I bought the barebones, added what I 'needed'. Got the P4, 3.06Ghz, 1 Gig ram, 120 gig HD, DVD-R for around $600. I already had .5 Gig ram I had recently purchased; that stick worked in new system, so I have 1.5 Gig ram. Bought XP as OEM locally. Had recently bought mouse and keyboard, so I didn't buy them again. All in all, I now have a pretty fast system, added a second DVD-R, all for around $800.
Sweet!
Feels good doesn't it?