>I have a dell any never any problems but i know others who have gone down the lesser know brands in both notebooks and desktops and many sad stories as well. the only thinkg that i would recommend is spend the little extra money and get the brand, there will be less problems in the long run in my experience.

Thanks, that sounds like reasonable advice. Personally, I think I would go for Toshiba in notebooks - I have simply heard too many horror stories from many other trademarks.

For desktop computers, the usual procedure (here in Bolivia - the aforementioned brother is in Germany right now) is to buy machines assembled here - that is, no brand at all. Since many companies give a one year warranty, this works reasonably well. And the price difference can be quite impressive.