I didn't think so. I'd asked OP "what are you going to use it for?", and he said "trading only". Then I said, "you can get a T3400 with a fast E8200 CPU for about $850". And that's waaayy more computer power than most of us need. $3,750 originally quoted for a trading rig (maybe for ANY rig) is ridiculous.
On Dell: I agree Dell rips off people on "upgrades". The best deals with Dell are the base models and entry models where they have competitive pricing to "get you in the door". If you upgrade a cpu for example, they charge you full retail price without credit for the base cpu that is not going to be installed, plus they have tremendous purchasing power buying all parts by the train load. Take a base pc with a $185 dual core cpu for example. Upgrade it and tell them you want a quad core and they charge you $950 more (the retail price). Where is the $185 credit and how much do they pay for that $950 quad core? I would guess they pay $400. So there's $185 + $400 Michael Dell just added to his bottom line because you upgraded your cpu on a new order. Same holds for gpu, ram, drives, etc. Everything they sell and offer as an upgrade is tremendously inflated in price. I have bought base model Dell computers and feel I got a good deal. I also recommend them to friends and family. For basic computing they're equitable and reliable and long lasting (typing on a 8 year old $399 Dimension right now). Just reinstall that OS every few years and it runs like new again.
There's much truth in what you say. I believe buyers feel that "if the base price is good that they're getting a good deal" overall when they upgrade. One needs to be wary of Dell upgrades, if any.
Instead of Dell has anyone ever bused Falcon computer systems from www.tradingcomputers.com are they any good, reliability, price?
They use name-brand parts, but you pay for that. Dell is often ragged-on for "low quality parts"... that's mostly hogwash. All of Dell's parts are "off the shelf" [just like other makers], except for mobo and PSU. 1. Mobo... OEM, made by Foxconn... #1 mobo maker in the world. How bad can they be? Besides, Dell gives full warranty. 2. PSU... I never hear a rash of complaints about their PSU's, and I've often read they are of high quality. Mine have always been OK. Personally, I would always buy Dell before I would buy TradingComputers. (I'm not a "Dell lover"... in fact years ago I'd thought. "I'll never own a Dell". Then once when I was in the market, they had an "offer I couldn't refuse"... so I got it and it was fine + at a good price. My view of Dell is that they are average quality at a good price on base units.)
If you know what you want in a trading system you owe it to yourself, financially to look at building it from a site such as newegg.com or tigerdirect. They don't provide any advice but the user reviews of the different products and the cost is the best. As for installation, if you have a decent level of experience in dropping in ram or a pci express video card etc just do it yourself after a few views of the procedure on youtube. If not have someone put it in for you from geek squad etc. The other thing I would bring up is windows vista has been a learning process for me with respect to a trading computer as for almost all learning experiences it hasn't been pleasent. I found that it came as default that when it updated its software it automatically rebooted and completely turned off my trading software ...nice so you may want to have a look at that before you proceed. There are other issues I've had but they are too numerous to mention. That being said I know others have said it but you should double and triple check that whatever you may or may not use is compliant with Vista.
Incorrect... a common misconception from the BIY crowd. Dell's "base" and "slight upgrade" units are often cheaper than buying the parts separately and BIY. Sometimes even high end upgrades are also cheaper.