Um... besides building your own.. have you looked into alienware?

www.alienware.com

though they are more for gaming I find... they can most likely be for publishing as well.

Game

The first thing to determine is what software you are using, then match the machine to the software. The machine is simply a device to power the software. You can easily buy more machine or less machine than you really need.

While Mac's are many times recommended for graphics applications, keep in mind that they limit you in choice of hardware. While there are about five to six well known and reliable mainstream Windows based manufacturers with literally thousands of variations in their offerings, in Mac there is one manufacturer (who happens to also provide the software) and with few exceptions all parts come from them. They have relatively few models with relatively few options when compared to Windows machines.

Also an important consideration is your budget. If your budget is $2000 for machine and software that may define a different situation than a budget of $4000. In fact you can spend more than that on specialized graphics software alone.

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Selecting a PC is a subjective activity. There are features of one machine that you just love, and features of another that you just hate. I personally would build my own desktop and have. But for manufactured PC's I looked at the most I could put on the HP d5000t which is billed as their top entertainment series PC. Here is their page for that machine. You can follow the various choices of options, but throwing the max I could at it, here's what I came up with for you to consider.

OS - Vista Ultimate 64bit
CPU - Intel Quad Core Q9550 2.83Ghz
Memory - 6GB
Video - Nvidia 1GB GeForce 9800GT w/ 2 DVI-I connectors and DVI to HDMI adapter
Network - 802.11 b/g wireless and 1GB ethernet on motherboard
Storage - 500GB SATA Hard Drive
Optical - BlueRay Disc writer & Lightscribe MultiDVD burner
TV In - ATSC/NTSC TV Tuner with Line Input
Sound - Integrated 7.1 Sound
Monitor - HP w2408h 24" widescreen brightview monitor with VGA and HDMI inputs
Speakers - Logitech X-530 5.1 speakers
KB, Mouse - Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
Total cost just under $3,100

As I never believe that going to the absolute fastest processor is cost effective and modifying a few other items:
OS - Vista Home Premium 32bit
CPU - Intel Quad Core Q9450 2.66Ghz
Memory - 3GB
Video - Nvidia GeForce 9600GS w/VGA, DVI-I and HDMI outputs
All other items unchanged - Total cost just under $2,400

You can visit other sites such as Dell, Lenovo and other high end PC manufacturers and see what they have to offer. You may want to talk to others in your field to see what they recommend. The above is based on the entertainment PC as the graphics are more tuned to your area than in the business area, where you can actually spend more and not achieve as much.

You can put more than one HD in the system, you can actually install up to 4 3.5" HD's as well as the HP pocket media drive which slides into a slot just above the front panel connectors and a full sized Personal Media Drive of either 500GB or 750GB which has the advantage of being internal to the machine but can be removed and carried to another machine and hooked up as a USB drive. I have the older 300GB drive in my Media Center PC. Additional internal HD's can be added after purchase for less either by your self or by a local authorized computer repair shop and most likely for less.

I don't think anyone but yourself can decide what is the one "best" machine. Browse the shops such as Best Buy and Circuit City, not to buy, but to look and touch. Get acquainted to what is out there and then order the machine with the exact options you want. You will be happier in the long run.

After you get the machine, post back with a new discussion and the members can discuss with you the best method of taking the bloatware that the machines come with off. One I recommend you remove is Norton's Internet Security. A layered approach is better. Browse the Privacy & Security area and you will note many discussions in this area.

One thing I would recommend is rather than loading up the machine with a lot of storage, you consider an Networked Attached Storage (NAS) device. Basically this is a computer with only the OS on firmware, the processor and hard drives. You can configure it so that with two drives they are mirrored so if you lose one drive, the other drive still has all your important files on it. It will of course require the presence of a small or home network, and should still be backed up periodically to a stand alone drive which will give you coverage in case of disaster or if you for some reason lose the entire NAS.

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The Mac Pro it supports an 8 core processor 32gigs of ram running on Mac Osx Leopard. It may be a bit pricey but its the best for graphic designers and such.

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While a Mac Pro with two Quad Core processors hooked up to one or even two 30 in Cinema displays is definitely a tasty option, it is also generally overkill for most desktop publishing stuff. You would have to be doing some pretty hard core SIZABLE Illustrator or Photoshop files to REALLY gain the full benefit of a Mac Pro.

The reality is that an iMac will do desktop publishing stuff just fine. About its biggest limitation might be the screen...but you could always splurge to get a professional quality external monitor.

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[soapbox] Backup good...no backup bad!! [/soap box]