Eh? Mine runs Windows like greased lightning. 
Ha! I had the same experience. My first computer was a used Packard Bell. I kept hearing how awful their PC’s were but it worked well for about four years and was still going quite strong when I replaced it.
Don’t feed the trolls. 
It would be helpful to know if you are in the market for a laptop or a desktop.
A laptop? NEVER buy a laptop on which you have not typed. The keyboard is so personal, and a poor keyboard layout will drive you nuts. Maybe you can visit a local big box store and waste their salescritter’s time then buy the computer on-line saving yourself some money and the sale tax (though that route will eventually result in local big box stores disappearing).
A desktop? I avoid Dell because I’ve never been impressed by their consumer service.
Personally, I buy Microcenter’s in-house Powerspec brand. I’m on one now - quad processor Intel Q8300 @ 2.5 gHz with 4 gigs of RAM and a 250 gig HD. It has mediocre video, but when I have a project with greater graphics needs, I’ll stick a card in the PCIe slot, or add a pair of 2 terabyte drives and stripe them.
Yeah, it’s assembled from stock parts, but even though I can assemble computers myself, it’s not worth my time to do so. The cost of shipping the parts exceeds the profit margin on the assembled computer.
So it has a cheap power supply. So what? I’ve not found that the expensive supplies last any longer, because the expensive ones are made in the same Chinese factories using the same parts. And the capacitors in the expensive supplies fail at the same rate (as anyone who owned a “Silverback” iMac found out). Nope, give me a computer made with bog-standard parts that I can repair and/or upgrade with parts that I can find in any computer shop.
The fact is, I bought a quad processor machine with Windows 7 Pro for $449.00 (plus sales tax). I got it when I needed it. I didn’t waste an evening figuring out what parts to use. I didn’t waste days waiting got UPS for the parts. I didn’t waste weeks returning parts that didn’t work. Unless you are a crazed gamer, building your own is silly these days.
I’m needing a desktop model. I was leaning towards a Compaq 5320 model, though I’d like another 1 gig of memory over that.
Bsically, I want something along the lines of…
At least a dual-core system, really with a main line Pentium or Athlon II chipset.
4 gig ram (so I can be sure the darn thing won’t wuss out on me with the next couple of years of programs).
250 gig hard drive (I don’t actually need that much space - I tend to uninstall things.
I have recently had bad luck with Dell. My last desktop lasted 13 months (one month after warranty) before the mother board fried.
I ordered a server from them and they postponed shipping 5 times (I canceled after more than 6 weeks of waiting.)
ACER. Beware and stay awayyyyyyyy. Bad news.
E-Machines…
I would chime in with Dell has HORRIBLE customer service. When I was the system admin for a large hotel we bought all Dells and we only had problems with two of them. So the computers we got were excellent, and you can’t expect every computer to be great, but if you ever do need help with your Dell, it’s like pulling teeth to get anywhere.
Hopefully your Dell, if you buy one, won’t ever need customer service. I have had HP Compaq and I liked them, and never had issues with them. But others say they suck. So again, I think it depends.
As other’s have said, never buy a laptop without physically trying it out. Even if you have to go to Best Buy and try it there then buy it online.
Just throwing this out there: My parents, my sister, and a friend of mine have all owned E-machines. They just use their computers for email and web surfing. My parents have probably had three of them over the years, my sister two and my friend has had two or three. Honestly, they’ve never had a problem with them.
On the other hand I’ve known people (me included) who’ve had trouble with Dells, Macs, HPs, ACERs, Gateways, etc etc.
Everyone has a story about getting screwed by a computer deal. I honestly think for every brand you’ll find people who swear by them and people who loathe them.
True, Everyone has a story about a certain brand. One thing I did not take into effect was as with cars some years are better then others.
I have owned several different brands with reasonable success. in 1989 I got my first Puter, A Gateway 486 SX. It came in that great cow box and I spent all weekend in my pj’s putting it together and loading the software. It was a 2,000 dollar computer with all the bells and whistles. It lasted me a few years but became so slow I had to replace it. It wasn’t bed for an early 90’s computer with AOL dial up service.
Then I got another Gateway which lasted only a 5 years and had many problems. That company went downhill over time. They had very good customer assistance though.
I switched to a HP Pavilion in the late 90’s and it was was stealth and came with preloaded software. The internet was getting faster with broadband. I had this computer the longest as it came with expansion slots. I had very good luck with it until it just got sooo slow.
2 years ago I got a Dell Inspirion and finally I had great speed. I drive an old turbo and that is important to me. So far, so good and other then not loving Windows Vista I have no complaints. I love not having a monitor and the new flat screens.
I have never bought a 300 dollar E-machine but you generally get what you pay for. Not so with earlier computers. I never got my moneys worth out of them and hopefully my 700 dollar Dell computer will last as long as my HP did.
Computers have evolved a lot in the last 25 years. Still I drive an old 90’s Saab because nothing is more reliable, comfortable, fast and well made. I have stuck with a brand name I trust.
I do miss the sound of an old modem whizzing though and the giant AOL key and the little man running… 
Yes, I’ve never had a problem with my eMachines desktop after 7-8 years (although the CRT monitor I got with it was less long-lived), or with my laptop after about 1.
Judging by thelurkinghorror’s link, any brand can malfunction, and any brand will more than likely work just fine. Though some rate better than others, there doesn’t seem to be a huge difference between the failure rates of different brands.
It depends on what you mean by huge, anyway. I know enough about emachines that, at the least, I don’t want to risk losing my data on one fo their boxxes. If their computers work, they work great: you get more machine for less money. But if they don’t, everything’s gone more or less. I’d guess the first year is critical.
Gateway was recently purchased by Acer, IIRC E-machines was already a subsidiary of Gateway.
If you are willing to pay for Falcon, I can most likely beat their prices for a similar spec brand name parts machine.
No machine is fail safe. The key is to have a solid back up plan for your data. I use an online back up system. Some people prefer external hard drives or RAID systems. The key is to have regular, automatic back ups that don’t depend on manual intervention.
No matter what you buy be sure to budget for the back up plan. It’s a lot more important than the name on your computer box.
drachillix - I don’t doubt you. I just posted the Falcon spec for comparison and because I’ve had good experience there.
I purchase Dells regularly for the company I work for, and they have struck me as the most reliable out there. We have tried Lenovo and HP before, but Dell quality has always been good enough and the price has been excellent. However, none of our configurations end up being less than 1400 dollars or so (including software packages, etc), so we may not be in the same end of Dell machines as you are looking into.
As others have said, nothing is fail-safe. Considering the number of PCs we have, I don’t get that many of them back with problems, and when I do its almost always because of viruses or the user’s bad habits. But I would definitely recommend dell.
The only brand I really hate is Alienware, even though they are now owned by Dell. I bought a laptop from Alienware five years ago that constantly overheated enough to automatically shut down. It only lasted about six months, and was the biggest POS I’ve ever seen in a computer. Considering the extreme time it took them to build and send the laptop, I should have sued.
Gateway bought eMachine in 2004, and then Acer bought Gateway in 2007. I’ve got a 7 year old eMachine laptop that, while massively underpowered by today’s standards, still runs just fine. I would not buy an eMachine today. 7 years ago, eMachine was a a fairly new independant company that still had to live or die on it’s own reputation. Today, 2 owners later, it’s the “I want to sell through Walmart” division of Acer. It’s a machine that is ALL about low cost, at the expense of quality.
Heck, the Gateways and Dells of the world don’t even do their own assembly. They use contract manufacturers who buy the components and build the machines for say Dell. Those same contract manufacturers may well be putting together smoke detectors next week and telephones the week after.
I think the lesson here is to find the local shop with the dedicated dealer/builder who will service your machine out of honor and loyalty. Any big corporation is likely to shine you one, but I have a local dealer who undersells me to the point of my embarrassment.