The "state of the art" of computer building is summarized at A Slide Show from a seller of "extended warranties," based on recent experience with warranty claims. While the article applies strictly only to "notebook computers" it ain't a very pretty picture.

In their survey of nine "top sellers," overall 31% of notebooks failed to last three years before suffering catastrophic failure. Even the best performer suffered nearly 15% "total catastrophic failures" within three years.

As a side note, at least a couple of people have reported recently that Apple has refused to honor warranties on grounds that the users smoked while using them, making the machines "toxic" to their workers. (Apple doesn't mention this in their warranties as a way of weaseling out of support, and refuses thus far to confirm the user reports.)

John