I reinstall Windows on my main computer every once in a while to get the cobwebs out. Definitely worth it, IMO. I built my computer back in college and still have it after 6+ years now. (I put in new parts every 2 years or so.) Occasionally, I have to smack the computer to get it to work (thus leading me to call it the "Millennium Falcon" of computers), but on the whole, it's been rock steady for years. It can totally make the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs. My wife has had terrible fortune with laptops, on the other hand. She's on her third Dell laptop in 4 years now (the third one made it past a year... yay!), and she doesn't even move them around. I'd like to believe it's user error (since she's a total n00b), but all her problems were hardware ones, so I don't know. All I DO know is that I'm not buying her a Dell again. Screw that.
