I know there is no "best" brand of computer, but the motherboard of a computer I had recently died. It was an eMachines computer, so I'm stayin away from that brand! Is there any recommended brand, or label like Dell, etc.?

The best brand of computer without a doubt is called "white box".

Yes, build your own. Or have someone do it for you.

I agree with Aegis. Before I started building my own computers, I had one built at a local(reputable) computer store. They even gave me money for my old Compaq which had a problem I didn't know how to fix at the time(and was out of warranty). The build was fairly minimal, so I learned how to add components myself and so on.

We still have Digital Equipment computers that have been running for 20 or more years. At IBM they used to test the boards for a few days in hot/cold chambers. Now it is all junk. Your only choice is to try for service. (that isn't dell in my opinion) Consider HP or IBM for their commitment to service. I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.

i dissagree fully dell is amazing good value but there are things to watch out for. only buy the base models that are on offer take off all home care and insurance and dont in any way add new items or OS to the order and you will have a smashingly cheap and well built computer. as soon as you add more ram to the order or hard disks you start paying for them to remove the original part bin the part and paying for the new part. so if you want a bigger hard drive the price for the upgrade is about the price of the new hard drive with fitting. which seams fair but they ripped the old one out! if you did it your self it be the same cost and youd still have to old drive. also with the laptops again only buy base models and buy the extra battery thats longer life. for some stupid reason if you buy it with the laptop its £50 or rough conversion $25 but if you want one without the laptop its almost triple the price. oh and stay clear of the printers they are the worst ever there lexmarks and the ink costs four times as much per volume as hp. and hp caterages are filled with smart stuff like a guage to say when its empty and they have the printer heads built into the carterage so perfect prints all the time. so if you see a free printer attached dont let it sway your judgment at all. they dont give you the cable to conect it also the price of refilling the ink costs more than the printer is worth. all text needs typos. There there for the reader to find,to distract them from the total lack of content. google it! wasnt the answer to the question i asked so dont be dense and give me that repl

TCO means total cost of ownership. Buying an OEM computer means you basically get Windows for free. This is the main advantage of these pre-built systems. The downside is the hoops you need to jump though when something goes wrong. Virtually all OEM builders use minimal PSUs so if you want to add a power hungry graphics card or a couple more drives you may need to replace the original. That same scenerio carries thru the entire box. Many OEM builders void your warranty if you open the case. If you will only use the computer the way it was shipped then you can't beat the pricing by building your own. I could go on but I think you can get the idea.