A lot of the Dell Monitors are basically crap. A small percentage of the Dell branded CRTs are actually nice tubes. It'd be important to find out what type of monitor, how nice it is, is it flat?
With the licensed software, it's a decent machine at a decent price. That is, considering how well Macs tend to retain their value.
You should remember, however, that a dual 867MHz is not 1733MHz worth of performance. For applications that are not multi-threaded, the best you can do is get one cpu devoted to the application. A new game like Unreal Tourney 2004 pretty much runs like crap on my single 867MHz G4. UT2004 will take advantage of dual cpus, but it will only run the audio code on the second CPU. The rest of the Game doesn't benefit at all.
For general use, It will be a very nice machine. OS X runs great on Duals.
Compared to the latest/greatest however, you'll find that it doesn't look like all that great of a deal.
If you were to compare the dual 867 to a single 1.6GHz... you'd find the G5 is only a few hundered more (for the base) compared to the G4.
G5 advantage...
better cpu performance
better i/o (ports on front rule)
better internal i/o.. much more bandwidth
much quieter
a warranty
faster hard drive, faster removeable drive
faster video card (unless you are getting a Ti4 in that dual)
OS X 10.3 included
...
If you are a stickler for the licences for the software, the G4 is a good deal. If you are more interested in price/performance, the G5 is a better deal. You'd have to add a monitor and more memory, but for maybe 30-40% more you'd get a much better setup.
If it were me, I'd have to imagine that a G5 bump is just around the corner. If I wanted bang for buck, I'd wait for the new line and buy into the low end. If the last rumors are true, you'd be able to get a dual 1.8GHz G5 for a few hundred more than that G4 package. It'd be a MUCH better machine, and you'd just need a couple hundred more for a new 19" crt and a couple hundred more to beef up the memory significantly.
If absolute cost was the primary issue, I'd say get the G4. The consumer line won't give you that bang for buck.. and we don't have any good info on when the consumer line will move to the G5.
Now if Apple would just move the ENTIRE desktop line to the G5 and unlock dual head-ed support on the eMac.. that'd be a killer machine. Imagine an eMac with a single 1.6-1.8GHz and real dual headed support. For about $1200 you'd be able to get a G5 with a 17" flat CRT and a 19" CRT. Sweet rig. If they'd release this (with a radeon 9100/9200) in the spring, I'd seriously go out and buy one immediately instead of waiting till after WWDC for a G5.
ffakr.
