I have a couple of Dell Inspirons. (3 and 4 years old now...) Once, a hard drive went out on me, but I think that's only because I was running it as a web server for awhile. Otherwise, they're both still great machines, one of which I use to write all of my games on, even though my desktop device has more than 3x the MHz and double the RAM. I guess I just like the native 1400x1050 resolution.
If you go with Dell though, get CompleteCare. It brings the price up near what the competitors charge for their machines, but the warm, fuzzy feeling of security is worth it.
-John