I have:
A 1994 Dell Latitude CPi, it still works fine and runs XP at a usuable level even though it wasn't designed to.

A 2005 Dell Inspiron 9300 - using it to type this, only had one problem in 3 years, and that was a dead pixel on the screen about 4 months ago.

A 2003 Dell Inspiron 6000, its been treated really badly but still soldiers on as if nothing has happened.

A 2007 Dell D620, its alright, it works. Its not got anywhere near as many features as the Inspirons though.

I have a 2008 HP Pavilion next to me, its hard drive has already died, and the USB ports are on their way out. Not to mention the random DVD drive disappearances...

A 2003 Panasonic toughbook, one of the best rugged notebooks i've used, (as long as you blitz all of the standard installed crap, although this is true of all big names) although this one isn't waterproof like the latest ones, and these are *expensive*.

A 2008 Novatech something or other, its excellent for pretty much anything I've thrown at it (and thrown it at).

I'd personally steer clear of PC World specials like Compaq and HP stuff, HP make good printers, and Compaq/HP make good servers, but for the home computer market, I wouldn't bother.

Mesh are good too, although expensive in most cases.

Sony are very good, but mostly overpriced as with every other of their products.

As for everything else, I don't think I've personally used any.
(Ethelred is watching cheese grow, Sun 12 Oct 2008, 13:04, Reply)