Let's start with what I prefer and what I consider a good general PC in 2023. For me, a good PC in 2023 is something based on the Intel/AMD x64 Architecture - which only counts in Intel based Macs on the Apple side (yes, we're talking about those here a little bit too). 8GB of DDR3 Memory is a good middle-ground, while 4GB DDR2 is the MINIMUM and 16GB+ of DDR4 is the ideal. Storage schemes I use is either a fast SSD in my laptops of around 512GB, or a 1TB Spindle in my desktops, sometimes with a smaller (256 or less GB) SSD for the boot drive. Just depends on what's the most convenient, and how much modding I can do to the hardware.

For graphics, these days I don't really need anything more than what is on the CPU. My heavy gaming days are over and the heaviest thing I run is "The Witcher: Deluxe Edition" so I don't really need a $350 MXRT9000 4.2GB PCI-E 32x Thunderbold Express Whizz-Bang video card! Most people don't need such a thing unless they are doing Computer Aided Design, looking at X-Rays, or have their priorities so backward as to think they need a expensive video card just so they can play Holodeck with their PC. A lot of it is really just "flexing" without much purpose, a sign of immaturity if you ask me.

Now let's talk about branding. Preferrably, I like generic white-box stuff the best, because I can modify it and not feel like I'm committing some kind of atrocity by doing so. Unfortunatley, NanTan is no longer making laptops under that brand, so I can't really find anything that's a "generic" laptop like I can in the old 486 category of machines.

Acer

Apple - Now, I know what you're thinking, Apple did not make PC (as in IBM Compatible, Windows based hardware), but they DID make INTEL based Macs, and these could run Windows without some kind of software emulation layer. They also can run Linux natively and technically they do out of the box (macOS is a form of *nix), but it's far more watered down and power-user unfriendly compared to say Ubuntu. Apple made some incredibly reliable and strong hardware, the problem was that they have this artifical timeline of obsolescence that makes their existing hardware absolute JUNK if you want to run the default Operating System beyond 5 years. But a good Apple with Windows 10 or 11 on it, or better yet LINUX, is a force to be reckoned with. Even with a 1.83GHz 8GB of RAM late 2015 iMac 21.5" with no user-upgradable parts, I've got a machine that can really stand tall even in 2023.

Dell - Dell is great for desktops and laptops, but only if you stick with their ENTERPRISE CLASS machines. Buying corporate surplus Dells is one of the best ways to get a good deal on a great laptop or desktop computer that will last you a good long time. Right now I use a Dell E6440 from 2014 and I have no complaints whatsoever. It's very fast, it loads Linux Mint in 5 seconds almost off a 512GB SSD, it runs everything I throw at it, and hey, I can't complain. That said, their newer enterprise stuff IS beginnign to suck with plastic, flexible cases, those horrid Apple-style segmented keyboards, but the older stuff, especially the E-series like I'm running, are gerat. The Precision, XPS, and OptiPlex are also good buys. Just beware of the 7050 and 7060 series, because Dell, in their infinite wisdom, decided to try and *cheat* a little using Intel Optane Technology - rip out that NVME drive, throw a nice m2 512GB or 1TB gumstick on the board, and throw 16GB of RAM in an OptiPlex though and you have a real screamin' little desktop.

HP (Hewlett Packard) - About average at best, maybe a little less. I liked HP's older machines a lot, but most of them, as a tech, have been pretty amusing for me. The EliteBook series was a solid series of laptops, at least in the late 00's and early 2010's, but I'm not so sure now. Their consumer stuff is literally disposeable crap, worse than Dells. Their workstations were pretty solid at the time the EliteBook was as well - in particular, the Z400 - which seems to have a wild cult fanbase around it because it's apparently hackable. The Z800 was another longstanding, reliable HP Product as well. But once we get to the Z420...well...that's when my memories get a little more amusing. We bought a bunch of them new in early 2013 and they used this water-cooling setup (water cooling in an Enterprise desktop? Seriously?) that was leaky from the start. I think there were like, 3-4 revisions in a year of that thermal unit - it was basically a cooling block with a automobile heat exchanger and a 10mm fan on it. They would leak out coolant, overheat, and then kill the motherboard and sometimes the CPU with it. There was a time at MS where I had the Z420 motherboard and our common spec CPU part numbers on speed-dial because these things were croaking every other month due to the thermal unit conking out. You want to know what the WORST part to replace for any computer in a corporate environment is? The CPU! Because it's also, the most expensive. I swear, I had more india call-center arguements over the CPU (noo nooo noo you need to do de bottom plastique first - it connect with de BI-ohs!!) on a Z420 than I'd care to remember. Those Intel Xeons are bloody expensive - just imgine what those cost if your weedy little Core i5 is about $350.00.

Lenovo - Lenovo, for those that do not know, are the company IBM Contracted out to build their laptops in the early 1990's - in particular, the THINKPAD series. In 2004, IBM sold their PC Divsion to Lenovo, who now makes all of the spiritual successors to the original IBM IntelliStation, ThinkStation, and ThinkPad machines. Particular favorites of mine include the T60, T61 series, X220, W520, X1 Carbon Touch Gen1, and the original Yoga, just to name a few. I got to fix a Lot of these at Microsoft and most of the time the repairs I had to carry out on them were simple things. The X1 Carbon Touch Gen 1 though, that was a MASTERPIECE of engineering - basically a rubberized plastic "bowl" with all the major assemblies separate but replaceable within 15 minutes. We even had a Recall on the original screens on those and I usually spent between 13-15 minutes or less replacing them.

Microsoft Surface - I know I bash Microsoft here a lot, but like Apple, I really dig their Hardware. The Microsoft Surface Pro is another one I won't kick out of the laptop bag. They're built like a brick shithouse. Currently my work laptop is a Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 Enterprise and it's a friggin tank! I had a on-call call at work just a month ago where it fell out of my car seat and onto the seriously jacked up pavement of a clinic I was doing IT work for - took a few dents, but that screen was fully intact, and it fired right up when I went inside. I had a Surface Pro 4 at Microsoft when I worked there, and that was no slouch either, I once had a Dev running down STudio A's hallway knock it out of my arms - it rolled down 2 blocks of hallways, and even slightly warped, the screen was fine, touch worked perfectly, and I used it up until when I left in 2018.