Any chance you can assemble the computer yourself? Dell will most likely put a no-name motherboard and power supply there, which will not help sound quality.
Aside from that, what's your budget purely for sound? What other sound-related features are important for you? (more inputs, more outputs, etc.)
Also, don't listen to people who automatically assume external DAC > internal soundcard.
For quite a while I was quite pleased with the sound quality from the line-level output of my sound card to the stereo system. I put up with the occasional interference from disk activity in the computer. One day I decided to try the digital output of the sound card, because my pre-amp has a digital input. This eliminated the interference, and improved the general sound quality a little.
Recently I started using a DAC1 in place of the pre-amp. This mainly gives me better headphone access, but also simplifies the rest of the system. Sound quality, to my ears and using my speakers, isn't markedly different.
So, I'd say get your computer, hook it up and give it a good listen. If you get interference, switch to the digital output to a DAC.
If you are only listening to music there is many options on sound cards. I would still get a soundcard because it can do so much more then an external DAC and those tend to be quite overpriced...
If you get a good soundcard you don´t desperately need an amp either.
But X-fi or X-meridian is both quite good. The X-meridian gives a warmer sound signature and it´s not absolute crappy for games. However it´s almost twice the cost of an X-fi Xtrememusic and for me I would say in sound quality they are quite equal... Just maybe X-meridian is slightly better but I preferr the X-fis sound signature... It sounds less coloured I feel.
I currently have the Elite PRO. A bit to expensive perhaps if money is a concern it cost like external DACs lol but then it can act like one as well as it´s internal soundcard. I can use it to hook up my Xbox 360 due to it´s dolby decoding features and cmss3d and crystalizer does have it´s purposes for movies as well and some music believe it or not... Though mostly I run the music with bit perfect in audio creation mode...
I don´t really see a reason to get say a headroom micro dac for 299 when I can get an elite pro for the same amount of money...
Your first upgrade should be to make it as reasonably quiet as possible. What's the point of blowing hundreds when you can still hear fans whirling like crazy in the background?
I tried to use the AD SoundMax on my ASUS motherboard but figured out it would only do 16 bits D/A. Then I found the coax SPDIF output would only work at 48 kHz.
There's nothing wrong with a Dell PC. You generally get what you pay for so spend more for hyperthreading CPU, RAM, hard drive, etc.
Then get a real sound system, either an internal (PCI) card or an external (USB or FW) or a hybrid with PCI and external D/A breakout box.
1) good and cheap (<$100) - M-Audio Revolution 5.1 - PCI multi-channel 192 kHz 24-bit D/A and dedicated headphone amp
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