I like Dell, I have had very few problems with the systems I owned. I wouldnt buy one from them again because I build my own now, but I still recomend them if someone asks.
My famally has had several Dell computers, I had a laptop and a desktop both from dell, and my dad has a laptop. Both laptops still work fine, as for the desktop, i dont have it anymore, I upgraded and parted it out. On my desktop it was a great system, 1.3 P4, with RDRAM 600Mhz 256MB of Ram, a 40GB hard drive and an AGP Geforce 2 MX, The only bad thing about the system was the OS (Win ME). After the one year warrenty was up I started up grading the components, I added 1GB of 800Mhz RDRAM, 2 WD harddrives, even a RAID card, a Geforce 4 TI 4200, an Audgy 2 card, I even bought an adapter to convert 423 pin to 478 pin chips so i could upgrade the 1.3 to a 1.8. The only thing that did not get upgraded in that system was the motherboard and the PSU. The 1.3 Ghz P4 that was in it still works in a friends system running a a nice 1.5Ghz OC, along with the 800Mhz RAM, and the old sound card that came with the system.