I used to be very happy with Micron PCs, but they're rather expensive now and have new owners.

Dell is very popular at work with few problems. But I personally wouldn't buy from Dell if I had another choice.

I've bought a couple of refurbished Compaqs from [link|http://www.compaqfactoryoutlet.com|Compaq Factory Outlet]. They're roughly a couple of hundred cheaper than new machines (or were when I last looked). No problems with them (Presario 7000xx and 5000xx) - YMMV. It looks like you can get a new Compaq 8000Z tricked out pretty well (AthlonXP 2100+, 512 MB DDR, 80 GB 7200 rpm, CD-RW, DVD, WinXP Pro., etc.) for about $1200 without a monitor - [link|http://athome.compaq.com/store/default.asp|Compaq at Home].

HTH.

Cheers,
Scott.