To be honest, I'd like to know this myself. I've never tried a Dell before but have heard bad things. I have tried Compaq/HP though and hated them. Its funny, a lot of people rave about Compaq but I had nothing but trouble with mine (frequently had to replace parts and when I had to reformat it'd take almost a whole day because of all the goddamn extra junk you've got to install to get it running correctly).

I generally prefer custom-built computers now. I've just been getting a good friend of mine to build me one with specs I ask for but theres quite a few shops who do similar near where I live too. I'm not sure if you might be able to find one there?