I have bought a lot of machines from Dell, many refurb, many clearance models. If you buy them at the right spot, rather than the entry level mom wants a PC but knows jack about them spot, you can get GREAT deals on rock solid hardware with the same level of service.
The best values at Dell for home use are the lowest end server hardware. You can often get it stripped down (no/small hard drive/ram) for less than you would pay for a regular desktop. You're getting a much beefier machine, though, with Dell pro server quality.