Funny enough, the el cheapo Averatecs are garnering pretty high ratings
I have a Sotec, essentially an Averatec, before a buyout or something, it is identical side-by-side. I love it, had it for about three years now. I can't kill the thing. Dropped it off my lofted bed (about 6') many, many times. Plus, it came with almost no software installed, a plus from todays 80GB HD's with about 1GB of free space after all the junk software pre-installed that come with most HP's or other name brand computers.
Paid $530 for it at Wal-Mart.