Agreed, gaming PCs are surprisingly cheap when you know how to get them. Custom PC-building sites are nearly as cheap. I got this rig for £400 a few months ago:
- 2GB 800MHz RAM
- 512MB ATI Radeon HD 3870
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2.7GHz
- Asus M3A
- 5.1 Surround Sound
- Couple of fans
- 450W PSU
- LG LightScribe DVD-RW (dunno the specs, can't be arsed to check).
Plays everything on max (with playable speeds) so far except Crysis, which I can get all High on at a stretch.
Getting a PC from a shop costs about twice as much, it's such a rip-off. And most people don't know better, which is a shame.