Point. Somehow, I have seen quotes from HP which were always much cheaper. May be it is because my employer had some sort of deal? Also, proliant servers were somehow cheaper than towers. Again I am not sure how, but yes, point taken.

What HP (and others) does give you is the opportunity do buy something almost as good (and quite possible more than good enough) for less money. They also let you buy something for the same price that is a lot better along the one axis you care most about (but worse along the axis you don't care so much about). But if you want to blindly match spec sheets you're going to pay about the same.