Stability, Reliability, Service Dedication, Availability to physically have somebody on hand when problems should arise (someone to kick around).

RAM, CPU-Speed, Drive Speed, DVD/Blueray, number of USB ports, Firewire or whatever is available in sufficiant amounts and more than we all need ;-)


Monitor quality is a VERY GOOD point - thats what we stare at every day.

Oh, the question was about PC's... uhm.. I'm a Mac
I am a Mac cuz I realized that all I did was editing text files, cropping images and using FTP and thus is the OS / Hardware platform did not matter anymore to me. Yet I wanted a stable OS which goes out of my way while I work.

No for real... if you look at laptops and a monitor you might as well look for a macbook + 24" Cinema Display + Parallels Virtual Machine and a Windows XP / 7 Licence = $1200 + 900 + 80 + Windows Licence of your old PC = $2180

compare $2180 to your laptop and an additional display which blows away your mind (other displays are ok but go to a local apple store and have alook at those 24" Cinemy Displays - you'll drool)