Dell survives by cutting corners, buying large quantities of discounted parts and components. In no case do they use the top components any category so you are mainly buying a collection of 2nd class and third class components and expecting a first class computere.
If ones needs are simple and few and your not going to push the machine much, one could get by with a Dell. We've had a half dozen of them here and they weren't bad...they just weren't any good. We moved them to non-critical applications (receptionist, and similar MS Office apps) until they could be replaced.
The wheels have come off their service policy: Info World Ed Foster column
and that's the one thing I had heard that was good about them.