For the average person, HP would be the best imo. However, I bought a laptop with the intention to do music. The USB 2.0 ports have the lowest IRQ priority on the device, which means they work horrible with external audio devices. The internal ones have pretty high latency, can't handle too many plugins at once because of this, and extremely limited input options. Everything else about the computer is great and I love it... but it kinda fails hard at the one thing I purchased it for.


Worst: Apple, because of the price vs quality. Apple's are pretty good, although extremely over priced considering how limited they are. PCs don't crash that much anymore. My laptop has maybe crashed 5 times in two years. I don't see the point to paying 40% more money just to reduce 2.5 crashes a year to 2 crashes a year.

Aside from the listed BEST/WORST options, building your own will always give you better performance, better quality and a better price if you do you research.

Apple computers are just for users who do not know how to use a PC correctly

Desktop Performance PC:
Best: Falcon Northwest (for build quality and performance)
Worst: Alienware (build quality went to crap and price went way up)

Desktop Average user PC:
Best: Asus (quality parts, nothing proprietary)
Worst: Dell (proprietary motherboards/power supply combos. Bargain basement parts across the board)

Desktop Business use:
Best: Dell (cheap and outstanding warranty)
Worst: HP (crap warranty, more expensive and horrible quality)

Laptops Performance:
Best: Dell XPS (quality parts, great warranty and rugged)
Worst: Alienware (overpriced, decent parts and not as rugged)

Laptops average user:
Best: Dell (outstanding warranty and good price)
Worst: Acer (horrible warranty, bad build quality, tons of driver issues)

Laptops Business use:
Best: IBM Lenovo (built like a tank, virtually no driver issues, great warranty)
Worst: Acer (horrible warranty, bad build quality, tons of driver issues)

HTPC:

Best: Shuttle (quality parts, great cases)

Worst: Sony (crappy parts, worthless features, horrible cases)

I can't figure this out, It seems like whenever I post in a thread of interest, it seems to die soon after.
Are my posts just so awesome that nothing else needs be said?
Or are they so terrible it makes everyone shake their head in dismay?

Best:
- apple for home and personal usage
- sony for corps
- asus for value

worst:
- dell
- hp can have special "prize" for crap quality

excuse me 

i have used a PC all my life up untill a year ago. i brought a MAC and i can tell you now...its ALOT better then any PC i have ever owned

yes it doesnt support all software but it supports what NEEDS to be supported

i dunno...i guess i like having a smooth interface and a no hastle no worry time on the internet...god i wish i could have my PC back and get virus after virus and have a slow clunky interface! DAM IM SOOO UNLUCKY

Once again the complaint about Virus's come up. If you are getting virus's on your PC you are not using it correctly. I have not had a virus on my computer since Pentium II days, I just happen to be mindful of scams and use proper, and free virus protection.  I have not had my system crash or freeze due to anything but a hardware failure in years now.

And don't tell me that Mac's don't ever crash or freeze. I have gotten the spinning beach ball of death plenty of times when trying to run more then 3 applications at once.

Let's face it, the VIRUS argument and the Crashing argument are not valid if you use your computer correctly and don't try to download every peice of porn out there or try to use virus ridden PTP's like limewire.

I never go on the internet and worry. Yes, windows used to be slower and clunkier, but Windows 7 has made major improvements on that. I still don't like how they changed the administrative functions but that is a whole other argument.

Sorry for the rant, I am just very sick of Apple fanatics always pulling out the virus card.

funny cuz i had just a blue screen on windows 7  while playing aion, still it's the same, just doesn't take the whole screen on a 16.4' LCD 1600x900.

though it s true it's improvement windows still is , the most unstable, slowest OS, yet "usable"

Best: anything with a great warranty

Worst: anything without..

The virus card for Windows has been so overplayed, even Apple has more or less backed down as using that as a major selling point for their computers.

That being said, Windows 7 still has plenty of nagging issues that are virtually non-existent on Apples.

Quick example: after buying Adobe's Production Premium CS4 bundle, I was surprised to find that most of the apps wouldn't even boot up after a standard install. After installing all updates for each individual app, After Effects finally works.

Photoshop does not. Premiere Pro does not. Soundbooth does not.

Other hardware based example: installed new motherboard, CPU and memory and Windows 7 boot manager disappears. Problem can't be fixed unless you use the OS disk installer, but... the factory settings on the motherboard have the USB ports for the mouse and keyboard shut OFF unless manually turned on in the BIOS meaning until you do this step, you can't "type any key" to get Windows to boot of the disc.

Annoying little things.

All I can say from personal experience is that I never had any issues like this on any Mac I've ever bought or used. Yes the hardware costs more, but it works consistently and reliably. If you don't want to spend a lot of time playing IT, they're worth it.