Because of Dell's exceptional reliability record and low prices, they get our highest rating. If you want a Dell PC at a generic price, check out their re-certified and refurbished systems. Just click Refurbished Systems on their site's navigation bar, located along the very top of their home page.

Tip: To locate Tiger's Lenovo-IBM computers, click on the Computers or Notebooks tab, and then click Shop By Brand in the left column.

Tiger Direct offers an impressively large selection of new and refurbished IBM computers (as well as other brands) at competitive prices. IBM's reliability record is nearly as good as Dell's, so be sure to check these units out before buying elsewhere.

Feature for feature, Gateway computers tend to be a bit more expensive than the others listed here. Because of that, and a reliability record that doesn't meet that of Dell's or IBM's, we downgraded Gateway by two stars.