Quote from gnome:
There are lots of Dell haters. Some don't like the inability to overclock, but anyone with such intentions already knows this and buys something else. Lots don't like their often ragged technical support.... and that is a legitimate gripe.
Nevertheless, all of their parts are "off the shelf" except mobo and case.... those are proprietary (and you can't easily find replacement PSUs without a power switch like Dell uses, but otherwise they are ATX standard).
Years ago I thought, "I'll never own a Dell". Then once when I was in the market for an upgrade, Dell had "an offer I couldn't refuse". Bought it. Liked it. Have bought 5 others since.... still have 3 of them, all running perfectly. (Sold the other 2 while they were running perfectly.)
In the 6 years I've owned Dells, the only failure was of a CD-ROM. It was still under warranty and Dell replaced it in a timely fashion.
Those who complain about Dell's computers from a hardware perspective are basically all wet!