We live in a disposable society. I seldom buy any windows based PC's anymore but if I did I'd buy the cheapest one that would suit my needs, keep it backed up regularly, and when it shits the bed or becomes too unserviceable just buy a different one.

I think the last one I bought was about seven or eight years ago. Probably paid about $250 for it and it's still chugging along. I fire it up once a year around tax time. Lol.

If you want robust, we use some sort of IBM computers at work. I think they're some sort of Think Pad or Lenovo or something. Not only are most of them probably eight or ten years old but they see use in the field on a regular basis and always being run outdoors, in the dust, in buildings where the temperatures regularly exceed 110 degrees, have been dropped multiple times, etc. and they just keep working for the most part. I think mine is running XP or Windows 7.