Well, I work at a company with a call centre in Ottawa. Since Dell closed down it's Ottawa call centre we've taken in a couple refugees. One of the things I've been told is that it's really hard to upgrade a Dell, since they build it for you and work the hardware specs into the BIOS or something. So if you just change out the hard drive or something the computer won't recognize it. This is a big issue since I want to buy a desktop. A laptop you don't care about upgrading, it's too hard, but if you buy a good desktop it can last you years and years if you upgrade as you go.
Otherwise I'd totally buy a Dell. raxhel bought a Dell laptop back in 2004 and is still using it. That's pretty amazing considering you're lucky if a laptop lasts you two years.

I was thinking about an Acer. My sister got one and she liked it but it's motherboard just blew short of it's 2nd birthday. That worries me slightly. jolinar suggested checking out custom made computers so I might do that.