If you didn't build it, then you don't know what "surprise" you bought. Building it yourself is the way to go.

Witout any doubt, build your own! i've always built mine, and just about everyone I know also runs a machine i've built too.

I would have to agree with most as I build my own.

As to which one I picked it would have to be HP because I had an experience of too much coffee and trying to solder some jumper stubs on an HP mobo so I could overclock. I knocked a tiny transistor off the mobo and when I tried to boot, nothing.

I called HP and customer service went through the few steps of trouble shooting and the guy noticed that I wasn't gewtting a POST "beep" and he proceded to tell me how to ship it back to HP. I had a new mobo in 9 days no questions asked.

Excellent customer service.

(Of course, I did not mention the soldering part to him)

myself I build my own computer I like to select what is right for my needs not let some corporation tell me what my needs are, besides if you buy off the shelf most are properity meaning if something goes wrong you have to buy that manifactur part often at a inflated price. BUT if I were to buy a shelf model I would buy gateway they are or used to be not as properiety

ide rather build my own to, but since i have to pick one i selected other, that being alienware, i hate their prices but they are the only manufacturer that actually has good systems, other companies like dell only rly have their support which is useless b/c i can just come here for support

Building your own is always good, but since we're talking about prebuilt computers I would have to say Alienware.

Dell, compaq, and others are very tough to upgrade and sometimes they even put funny notches in the ram just to force you to upgrade through them. They use low-quality parts oftentimes.

So I would say Alienware is the best. They are very expensive but at least they use quality, name-brand parts and are as easy to upgrade as a system you build yourself.

My brother bought an Alienware and all the parts are good. Western Digital hard drive, ASUS p4c800-e deluxe motherboard, ATI vid card, intel processor, Corsair XMS ram, PC Power and Cooling power supply, cooler master fans, etc.

HP are the best imho.

i have had only good experiences with them.

all the DELL PCs /Notebooks i know, didnt last more than 2 years.

Have to agree with the most of you: Build your own.

Offcource you know, you can do it the best

none of the above. build your own.

Build your own.

Dell for the UK, i cant say i can build one for the price there giving them away with a p4, 1gb RAM 17" tft etc etc

i do prefer to build one myself, but as ive learnt buy one with guarentee and re-install and wala everything i need.

If it does wrong i dont need to worry about the cost of repair (hardware)

I build my computers myself

The best manufacturer hands down is... ME =]

But, when I ship off to Iraq in a few months I'll be taking my Alienware, thank you very much.

FWIW, the Army uses Dell, and they are the biggest pieces of cr@p I've ever worked on, with the exception of E-machines and Macs. Yes, Macs.

IBM is better what dell .

dell only sale "clones" make

build your own, for a desktop at least. it may not be cheaper than dell, but you get to choose your parts. only downside for me, is that the components never match: microsoft keyboard, sony monitor, lian li case... my only desktop is a media center pc, but it just looks like random computer parts scattered across the living room.

for a notebook I prefer dell, because you can choose system components. other brands like acer, hp or sony just offer typical configurations, meaning you can only get the fastest cpu, if you get a dvd burner and large harddrive as well.

sony look really good though, but i find them too expensive.

whatever notebook you are buying, always check prices on individual components first. it may be cheaper to order a faster cpu separately, instead of buying the model that comes with it. or to order extra memory or faster harddrive separately