Don't matter the brand too much. I prefer at least dual xeon(quads) or 8 cpu's total minimum these days. Depending on what you are after you could get by with quad core. And 4 to 8 gb's ram. 2 to 4 will do depending on the setup.

People mess things up a lot. So support time and service is a major issue. I don't like to wait 24 hours I need a reply asap which is what I get now.