First Dell I bought was in Feb '97, cheapest of the cheap as I needed it for (gulp!) school. £899 +VAT. P233MMX and 32M of RAM....remember those days!
Lasted for ages, even survived Gulf Air chucking it around their LHR and BAH baggage systems but eventually 5 years after birth smoke started coming out of the motherboard and it was decommissioned....
Second Dell bought was for the little brother; didn't last long before some +uckwit nicked it....
Third Dell I bought in Dec 1999, laptop (Dimension 3700) absolute peach of a machine. Slight problem with the RAM initially, but settled down. Motherboard replaced in early 2002 as the PC cards were buggered. At the end of 2003 something horrible happens and Windows vanishes. It only boots into DOS and I'm trying to think of a way to get 4 years of data off it! Currently resides in a drawer....
Fourth Dell bought was a desktop for the parents, it's a beast and no problems so far (apart from the usual that can be attributed to William H. Gates III)
I now run a Mac powerbook. Battery was dead on arrival, only problem so far is a creaking hinge (but I'm waiting for the Apple Store in Regent Street to open so I can go and chat to a genius about that....)
Computers: Expect the worst, hope for the best.