I’ve had an HP for several years that I’ve had absolutely no problems with. My next may be a Dell, because I can get a discount through work. My experience with Dell desktops is good, but I’ve had nothing but trouble with Dell laptops, and many of my coworkers have also had problems. I would never buy a Dell laptop.
I have no brand loyalties.
You need to analyze what you do and how much power you REALLY NEED.
I am a used computer fan. I’ve been in the computer biz since 1978. The power of machines today is incredible compared to what I have seen over the years. Used 400 MHz machines are going for $200. What are you doing that can’t be done with that speed.
If you spend $1000 on a new machine today it will be worth $400 in a year. Why loose money on depreciation?
A year and a half ago I had a problem with my Dell laptop, and Dell tech support gave me a total rude runaround and seriously hosed me. I will never give Dell another red cent.
I ended up buying a new computer while I waited out Dell’s idiocy, so I could continue to run my home business. I sought out a lot of opinions from techies I know, review sites, etc., and went with a Micron (now known as MPC). They got consistently high ratings from tech people who have to service a lot of them, and the few digs I read were from single users. They have the same type of online configuration setup as Dell, and my machine arrived very quickly. I have made exactly one call to tech support (help changing file format to NTFS when I was setting up the new machine), and they answered quickly and were polite and helpful. I’ve have had zero complaints about my Micron in a year and a half.
I think it depends how computer savvy you are, and if you know exactly what you want/need or not. I recently put together a new computer and was considering a dell for a while. However, with dell i couldn’t seem to get what i wanted for the price i wanted. If for instance you want good video then you have go with the higher end model, which invariably makes you get things that you may not want/need.
Needless to say, I ended up going to a shop (and i mean a real computer shop, not best buy) and worked with the guys there to put something together that i’m really happy with. I was able to get what i wanted without having to get things i didn’t need in it. The price actually worked out to be less. However, if you are looking for financing… then you may have to go the dell route.
just my two cents 
My first vote would be for Apple… unless you play games…
If you play games… get a PC…
As far as brands… I like Dell the best… HP has also been ok…
It really depends what you are looking for… and who has the best deal…
My recommendation is to build your own. The second best choice is to have a local computer shop to do it for you.
First suggestion: Apple
Second suggestion: Sony
That covers your Mac and Windows bases. There are no others worthy of considering.
I always build my own, but that may be a bit out of your league (although it is a great learning experience.)
I’d consider getting a mom and pop shop to build one for you with quality components… not necessarily the cheapest stuff that can be found, which is unfortunately what most OEMs end up doing.
It can be amazing how stable a PC can be and how long it can last with a good quality mobo, RAM, power supply, etc.
Both are very expensive and not really worth considering.
I think that’s for the OP to decide.
I purchased my Vaio (1.6ghz, 512 megs of Ram, CD-RW, DVD, 80 gig-HD, etc) for 1,000 dollars over a year ago. It’s a damn fine machine.
Windows Explorer sucks, man! I use File Manager. In your Windows directory, under either system or system32 it’s winfile.exe. It’s in every Windows version I’ve seen except for XP, and with XP you can cart the file over from an NT4 machine on a floppy disk.
But really, any Microsoft operating system is going to suck. Computers keep getting more powerful and Windows keeps getting slower to compensate.
And definitely stay away from Compaq (it’s what I’m using to write this! 
So take it from me, Compaqs stink).
Actually if I were to recommend a brand of computer it’d be Commodore. But then they have less than 1MB of memory and you have to write your own TCP/IP protocol…
dal_timgar, try running XP on a 400MHz machine. Result != pretty.
Based on my experience and that of those around me, you get what you pay for.
If you don’t mind paying premium prices, boutique companies like Alienware make powerful, relatively reliable machines, unburdened by proprietary hardware or software. They’re generally a notch or two above the machines produced by the better mass-market companies like Dell. Far as I’m concerned, if you’re not going to build it yourself, it is worth a few extra bucks for the top-notch performance with minimum hassle that they usually provide ( usually being the ever-present caveat in any computer discussion ).
If you want best compromise of pricing, reliability, customer-service, and performance, then overall Dell is usually the best bet.
- Tamerlane
I only recommend Alienware if you’re a hardcore gamer. It’s overkill for anything else, and its price reflects that.