Believe I recommended a Dell to you in a previous thread. As an IT system Architect I have do issue with speccing Dell kit (even over our own kit which I am supposed to use, we are one of the big vendors and I won't mention a name) as it is on the whole reliable and good VFM.
On a personal note this is being typed on my two year old Inspiron laptop which has been pretty solid. My wifes old latitude was 5 years old when we sold it on and it still works, it did have 2 new mainboards when new but these were changed quickly and efficiently and it was faultless after the second one. My sons Inspiron laptop is about 8 years old and still works fine. I even have a Pentium 2 inspiron laptop that has seen better days is a bit tatty and worse for wear but at over 10 years old still works fine.
Carl.