The low end to mid tier Compaq and HP desktops (same company) I’ve bought over the past few years have been pretty solid and bullet proof. Most large vendors HP Dell etc. have over 20 years of experience building PCs at this point, so they’re almost like stoves and refrigerators.
You can still get a flaky PC if you go real cheap (e-machine or weird no names etc.) or get unlucky, but most boxes are pretty solid these days. The main key is customer service if something breaks and HP/Compaq is all Indian based at this point which can be frustrating, but is not impossible to deal with. Not sure if Dell has gone the Indian service route or not at this point.