Quote Originally Posted by yojimbo197 View Post
I'm not arguing about the utility of a pre-made machine for the average person. Both my parents and I have Dell desktops and they work fine for our purposes.

However, you're argument about everything "just working" doesn't always hold true once you push the machine to the edge of the envelope. The OP states that he will be doing CGI development and Rendering as well as gaming, both of which have the potential to stress the system. That's when you start to see the problems with stock heatsinks and cooling.
For most pre-made consumer-grade OEM machines, I agree wholeheartedly with you. I have to disagree when it comes to actual workstations, though. The Dell Precision line and the HP Z line of workstation are a significant cut above the standard offerings from Dell and HP and are engineered with far greater margin in them for tolerance to adverse conditions (excessive ambient temperature, 24/7 full load conditions, etc) than are the consumer-grade machines. Component selection is usually better also. My old Dell Precision 690 is a tank...dead to rights reliable and actually quite cool due to the massive heatsinks used, even when BSEL modded.

My HP Proliant (which I'm now using as an actual server instead of a server/workstation hybrid), is likewise unstoppable. The damn thing is as solid as a rock...I only reboot it once a month and only then for patch updates.