Ok here's my 2 paise worth from an old hand. I qualify because of the number of people who ask me for advice before buying a computer.Q - How much do you know about computers? Do you have a friend or two living near by who know a lot more?Q - Do you have a person in your neighbourhood who is well recommended by people in the area who can troubleshoot your computer on a on-call basis?If your answers to at least one of the two questions is affirmative, then no question about it. You must go for the assembled one. Do not believe the crap that branded computers are better quality. Each component you use to assemble a computer comes from reputed brands.Most decent vendors of components also have a facility to assemble test and give it to you for free or for a nominal charge.The biggest advantages of an assembled system over a branded system are:1. For the same cost you can build a much more powerful system or conversely, you pay much less for the same capability.2. You know upfront exactly to what extent you can upgrade in future for instance, adding more memory or HDD or even graphics card without voiding the warranty;which brings me to the biggest advantage which nobody has mentioned.3. Every component of your assembled computer has a warranty that is usually far longer than any warranty a branded manufacturer would give you as standard. I perceive from your original post that you are not yet up to assembling it yourself and I do not recommend it either. So don't get me wrong. It is easy to find someone to do it for a nominal fee. The only time I recommend a branded computer to a friend is if the maintenance, training, installation is likely to rest on my head.