Desktop computers are a pain. Just tried to update my motherboard, and everything stopped working. Changed the psu nothing, so now im thinking I have to change the motherboard. However because it is an AMD Socket A chipset. I now have to buy a new processor.
So that it's even harder to fix anything that goes wrong? Isn't that like saying it's a pain to fix your car so you'll get just a car that can't be fixed.
BTW, Macs and PCs use much of the same hardware now.
PCs are fine so long as you don't buy crappy parts. My last computer went 7+ years without anything ever going out. It's still in perfect shape, sitting in the corner, while I type away on a machine I built last year (also with nothing breaking so far).
That's way more than I can say for my Mom's last iMac.
I too have always used ASUS, except for this last computer I went with a Gigabyte P35 "Ultra-reliable" board. It was nice opening the box and seeing nothing but OS-CON caps for the electrolytics.