Choosing
When I was getting my first PC, I did the usual things and scanned the adverts in the computer magazines and so on. I kept coming back to the awards that Dan kept getting, and review comments like "we were impressed when we opened up the Dan to see how well made it was". Having looked at them, they seemed well put together.

The snag was that there were others with the same sort of spec that were quite a bit cheaper. In the end I settled for peace of mind and ordered the Dan.

Using
For a while I was none too happy. There was an intermittent start up problem, involving a failure to boot or recognise the hard drive. After persevering for a long time, thinking it was something I had done, and trying different solutions, I wrote to them to explain the problem. 

Eventually, and after some help from the helpline, we worked out that there was a physical fault, probably on the hard disc. Back it went. Trouble was, all the time that had gone by had put it outside the warranty period. It turned out it was a crack in the motherboard, but after only a slight hesitation, Dan put a new motherboard in and returned it to me.

It cost them a hundred or so to fix, but they gained a customer for life, because it has worked without fault since then, and my next machine came from them without even looking at another company. I figure you get what you pay for in this life.

Expanding

This is where the Dan really scores.

Whenever I have wanted to add a new piece of hardware, or an expansion card, or install some software, there has never been a problem.

Not only this, but there were always enough sockets or cables to plug into. The word is future-proof by design. (At least as far as you can get it in a computer). My old one has its slots and spaces are full of extra bits, so couldn't expand any more, but that co-incided with the disappearance of new developments for Windows 3.1 so it was time to migrate to Win98 on my new server machine.