Like Ion said with Dell, I have a compaq desktop and it works extremely well. I have never had hardware problems with it. The weirdest thing that happened was a slowdown a few months ago, that was solved mostly by a defrag and I formatted it for the first time in a couple years a couple weeks ago and it works like new. However, my GF’s bro has a compaq laptop that redefines “piece of shit”. So the build quality is variable.
I cant believe no-one has mentioned Toshiba’s yet!
They have been some of the most stable and reliable pieces of machinery I have ever come across. I dont know about the versions other countries get, but the ones Down Under are absolutly fantastic, except they can be a little pricey. Heck, we have 4 Toshiba laptops and the oldest one would be nearing 6-7 years old now. They all still work as good as the day we bought them. (And we knocked one off the table, they replaced the screen for us hassle free)