Ugh, I hate that. I've been a huge fan of my MSI Wind, so I would probably get another of those.

I haven't had any of the problem that you guys have had with Dell, though I'm certain this is another one of those situations like we've had many times on this board before: "I've had nothing but problems with Seagate/Western Digital/Maxtor hard drives. I had 12 of them fail on me in two hours. Never buy from them!" I personally see a lot of problems with HP's hardware (especially laptops), and they overload their systems with software (though they all do that to some degree).

I'll agree, though, that the narrowing margins in the industry are a big problem. Companies tend to skimp in areas that consumers don't realize (most consumers find it difficult to make the connection between their $300 desktop computer and the poor phone support they get when it breaks).

In the end, though, I think I'd rather take my chances there than do another self-build. Down the line, when the finances of a young married guy trying to start a business become a little more stable, perhaps I'll get a Mac and at least put Windows on it For now I'll live with the computer I built and mostly love. I'll post about the rest in another thread