Then there's Micron . Micron has been around for a long time quietly making motherboards, memory, PC's and such. Last but not least Quantex . I don't know much about their history but much like Gateway and Micron they do their homework when it comes to putting together a great PC at a great price with an excellent warranty. Check these three out by following the links to their home pages, I'm sure you'll like what you find.
Computers come in many flavors, which makes it hard to recommend a particular model or type.
In my opinion, a machine that can play games well can do just about everything else well. 512k of level 2 or secondary cache. A fast video card like a Matrox , Diamond or an ATI with 4MB or greater RAM memory. And to make games really fly, you must have a separate 3D video card such as the Diamond Monster II or the Canopus Pure 3D II LX . Then, for a real feast for the ears, try adding a sub-woofer to the speakers.