Hey just from personal experiance, stay away from the Compaq brand. Even though HP now owns Compaq, HP computers are still made with much more quality. Please Also stay away from emachines as they too are made of cheap components. As far as buying any computers other then the ones that I've recommended not to try, you should be good! If you like intel processors stay with a P4 w/hyperthreading Dual Core or ViiV. Their Pentium D is not recommended although it saves power because it will lack in processing power. If you the type who wants to give AMD a try, stick with the Atlon XP 64 Bit Processors and or the Opteron series processor. These are high-end processors that will ensure that you get a good quality computer that has more bang for it's buck.
;)I only give advice with computers devices that I've used!
