I had that same experience. My latest is a 3.1 gig Dimension 8250, and it is blazing fast and has given no trouble atall. I have no complaints about my two Dells.
Also have an Apple MacBook Pro and it is a little jewel.
I am a happy camper. Did I mention that migrating my data was a snap? Windows XP pro, BTW. Vista is not compatible with many of the high end AutoCAD VIZ programs I use.