Voodoo is a ripoff for what you get anyway, though I wish I would have started it
I think the best deals are still to be found at Dell IMO, they have decent quality stuff for the price. And for something like your friends case of constant overheating or locking up, I think your chances of them replacing stuff (or the while computer) until they finally fix the problem are greater than Memory Express.
You could go with other brand name PC, such as Lenovo or even a Mac, the new ones they just released are quite nice.
What you could do is post what you want it to do for you here, and we can chime in with the components we would suggest, and then you can get Memory Epxress to build it for you. Or one of the other small retailers in town. That way you know exactly what is going into the machine, not a default cheap choice.
So that way you kind of get the best of both worlds.. you're "building it yourself", except your delegating the actual assembly to someone else. Plus they give an increased warranty if they assemble it.