HP or Dell - Which Would You Buy?

As someone who repairs PCs for a living, I would not advise anyone who asks me to purchase a Dell computer unless they plan on the most utilitarian use of it. Because they use many nonstandard parts, any upgrade path is limited, so anyone who buys a machine with the idea of upgrading it in any major way should look elsewhere. Also, Dell is very difficult to deal with if you don’t want to purchase parts from them and are merely inquiring about specs for your own upgrade path.

I have less experience with HP computers, but my limited experience tells me it is probably a better choice for someone who wishes to upgrade rather than just dump and buy new.

This, by the way, is one of the ideas I present to move someone away from a purchase of either…if you spend a little more upfront, you get an upgrade path which, if parts are chosen wisely, will allow longer life for the majority of the machine. As for those treating the PC as an appliance, probably an eMachine will do.

Hi Marc,
Good points. Thanks for the comments. Personally I think custom boxes from a reliable source are the best.

Mr.klink has it right. Dell’s proprietary crap should put them into Chapter 11, if justice were to prevail.

I’m not a fan of HP either, as they have a high-handed approach to customer service and support. However, HP pc’s are easy to work on, whether repairing or upgrading.

With their cutomer service approach, you would think they are BOTH trying to finish last…

Hello Scooter,
Thanks for your comments. Like yourself, I am not a big HP computer fan, but like their printers. Maybe someone will sneak up behind both companies and bit them in the butt.
Later, Ron

Our company uses Dell. I would rate the computers as okay. They seem to be directing their US customer support people to answer calls from corporations and leaving the Asians for the “little people”. I just talked the other day to the main IT guy for a local hospital and he was installing HPs. I asked why HPs? He said that he is a certified Dell technician and that is why he prefers HP. That says a lot right there.

Hi Gene,
Interesting. When a Dell cert switches sides, that speaks volumes. Thanks for the info. and your comments.
Ron

i bought my husband a hp pavilion 6000 series laptop 14 months ago. he has used it only a dozen times, and it broke. a top repair company have told me that it needs a new mother board, as the one in it has had a power surge, and basically fried loads of the other components. after paying 600 quid for it, i am discusted with this model, and as for hp customer service, they told me 3 weeks ago that someone would phone me within 24 hours, but never heard anything. i am now in the process of buying another laptop, as the hp is gonna cost too much to get repaired, so could anyone advise me on another make to buy!!!!!!!!!! cheers.

Hello gillian moss,
I’ve had 2 Gateway laptops that have worked very well for me and others that I have known who have purchased them in the past. Just a thought.
Ron

I would go only for Dell. Customer service much better, if anything happen they send technician right away

Hi WD-MYC designer,
Thanks for your comments.
Ron

HP’s customer service is outsourced so far it doesn’t know where the U.S. is. I just got a note from them thanking me for me “Fedback” Until and unless these two corporations move their help desks back to the U.S. I wouldn’t buy a computer or printer from either of them

Hi Jon,
Thanks for sharing that.

Jon,

I work for HP….it is not outsourced….it is called offshoaring. Outsourced would mean they did not work for HP. Just thought I would point that out. Dell does the exact samething….I even worked in India with the Dell team.

Dell all the way,

How can you rate hp a better computer I’m an A+ and net+ tech.
Hp does not put a lot of there drivers on the web, Dell does.
Dell gives you the disks hp doesn’t
Dell’s image pcrestore takes 6 min’s to reload Hp took me 7 hours.
Dell picks up the phone right away Hp doesn’t
You couldn’t give me an hp computer even if you paid me.

Dell was first to recognise what the customer needed… and delivered. This made them No. 1. But being No. 1 isnt great - you’ve got to keep delivering, controlling costs, maintaining your edge, and putting in place a MASSIVE strategy to keep everyone happy.

HP finally realized that the best way to compete with Dell was to steal their CIO. Hence the catch up. But being a listed company in a brutal industry aint easy.

In Thailand, where I am based, Dell sells only to corporates. We only use Dells. Not because their machines are superior, but because we have the assurance of having a technician out to our office the next day (or within 3 hours for our servers) to keep us continually operational.

I still remember the day I had to lug my 8 month old 3-in-1 into the HP Repair Store (which only opened during office hours), only to be told that the company no longer manufactured spare parts for this machine and that I could receive a miniscule rebate if I purchased a new machine.

Perhaps HP’s service has improved over the past 8 years. But it will be over my dead body that I will buy a HP machine.

Ultimately, I think that the days of long lasting reliability are over - MS makes ridiculously complex OSes, cheap components from low cost countries all spell a limited lifespan for electronics.

It is for this reason that I would think twice about putting together my own machine, as earlier mentioned - you could take the best of every component in the market and put it together in a box, and the likelihood of experiencing compatibility problems, OS conflicts etc… Best to leave it to the experienced technicians, I say.

Or bite the bullet and go for Dell or HP (not me…).

The ramblings of a person who has spent two days trying to figure out why our accounting software crashes on some machines and not others. Sigh…

i am going to buy a dell inspiron 1525.
i am not much of a gaming freak.

what do you ppl think?any other suggestion than inspiron?

Hello Fellas,

I work as an IT Consultant and provide tier 2 and 3 support for our existing clients. My boss has baptized me with dell. His entire life revolves around dell. Why?

Dell offers the best “Refurbish” deals and warranty. Their “Refurbish” PC’s are great! We sell them literally EVERYDAY. How can you beat a 3 year warranty and a pc almost half the retail price? You can’t. I checked out HP’s refurb’s and only saw 12 pavilions…and sometimes there’s NONE!

Ofcourse, the servers we buy are new..comon they are servers!

Customer service? Yes, it’s true their customer service are outsourced or outshored..but their technical support are mostly americans!! Isn’t technical support more important?

Next business day technician for dell? Completely true. If you have a good relationship with your onsite dell techs, he’ll make it less than next day..maybe next call..

So what about HP? Pretty good desktops. However, drivers are probably the worst thing HP has to offer. Customer service has many ups and downs. HP’s website sucks period. I had to say that. I haven’t messed around with HP servers, but I have plenty of experience with dell servers and dell tape drives. Dell is great at tape drive support. By far..EXCELLENT!

Dell or HP?

Desktop: Either one..however..I lean more to dell..

Monitor: HP blows away dell’s monitors.

Servers: Dell is great. Specially their tape drives. HP is reliable as well..but sadly I have very little experience with ProLiant servers from HP..but I hear they’re pretty reliable.

Gaming Desktops: DELL hands down. I heard about the blackbird..but I think dell is bluffing and it’s extremely overprice if you ask me!

Just remember guys: In the real IT world, warranty is your best friend..that’s why DELL is mine.

Goodnight!

I’ve had both hp and dell my hp broke after 3 months of having it i sent it out with 4gb of memory and it only came back with 512mb i was extreamly pissed and hp never did replace it a few month later it just blew and stop working compltely so i was pissed hp said it was my fault and didnt do crap. so 3 weeks later a bought a dell c521 with windows xp and amd semphron and 512mb of memory and 80gb hard drive 11months later it broke so i called dell i joked saying maybe u can just give me a new one they said no problem they sent me one with windows vista 2gb of memory 320gb harddrive and an AMD athlons xs 4200+. i was extreamly thrilled i told them how happy i was and over all the dell worked better so im sticking with dell for life because hp/compaq suck!

honestly i would never buy a dell .i have 7 hp computers and 1 of them is a laptop i have called hp support 2 times in 10 years first time was for a dead motherboard the next time i ot a empty box delived my ups put my pc in it and ups came and got it and 3 days latter i got my pc back new mb and all my files and os were still intact ..this year i caled them about a issue with my brand new laptop poof bios update and reinstalled the nvidia driver and goin strong still..

now the school im goin to now gave me a dell laptop to use the specs are the same as my hp laptop but my hp has 2 gigs of ram and running vista home prem. the dell 1 gig of ram and windows xp pro i hate the dell its slow very slow the screen sucks its matte hard to read and foret watching videos on it cause the color just stinks you know how often i use the dell once a week just to turn in my assignments thats it other then that id rather not even have it in my house ..and i have called dell tech support in the past cause my childs mom had one when we first got together and let me tell ya i took that desktop outside and had fun with a sledgehammer on it bad caps on the mobo nnn the fact u cant buy a power supple from a store u have to buy it fromt here the hell with dell

hello friends i just purchased hp dv5 1006 ax, it sounds terrific and it has a giant featurs than any other company laptops only difference is that it has AMD turion processor, so friends go for it.

I bought an HP Pavilion DV2415NR laptop last July. 15 days later, the harddrive failed. I got a replacement laptop from the retailer. In June 2008, it stopped booting up. I sent it in and didn’t get it back till about three weeks later. It still didn’t work. I sent it in again and received it back but half the RAM is missing. I sent it in with 1GB, but received it with 512MB! I called support again and was told they would call me back within 24 hours. More than a week later and still no call. I wrote to the CEO via their website and now I’m waiting to see what happens.

My website chronicles my experience. But from now on, I’m going back to Dell. Never had a problem before and I shouldn’t have went with HP.

Im a Dell Level 2 Technician, and I own also an HP laptop given by my father b4 I worked at DELL….. And it sucked, why coz I’m from the Philippines and their scope of technicality limits only to the WEST, also HPs bite on the HD and the memory, limits your DATA storage capability, also their OS limits as if you have only bought the beta version of the OS iteslf, i resolved HPs issue when i bought a non-OEM OS and installed it. I own now a DELL XPS laptop, an Alienware product, whom Dell happens to own also.

When compaq was compaq (b4 ownership taken by HP) it was the best computer in the market, I owned one it last me 6 yrs before the HD finnaly gave up, I bouthg a use dell dimension 2350 (P4 - 2.4ghz) very cheap on ebay for 380 dollars, cause the lack of items i had to spent like 300 more dollars to upgrade to 1gb memory, a DVD burner and Nvidia dual monitor graphics card and finnaly a second HDD. let me tell you … after so many video editings, DVD burnings, over 20,000 mp3 editings, plenty of graphics design and not forgetting to mention cause I live in florida power outages and surges ….. this computer still hard as a rock as am writing this email. man i even use adobe after fx cs3 in this dinosaur and slowly does its job. so in other words, the best computer xperience, dell computers are built for endurance other than looks ………… Saving money right now to buy the XPS 420 with its Core 2 Quad Q9450 …. DELL is DELL no question about it … and why dell its not easy to upgrade is just because dell wants to make sure that whatever you gonna put in their systems are under their specs to protect their quality like apple macs !

Comment on HP? well i got a compaq/hp laptop for my wife and to begin with, it comes loaded with a whole bunch of crap that makes it run slower, running like 0ver 18 TSR’s in the background, crap that i probably never use, HP is so eager trying to optain feedback that violates you privacy and slows down your system, so hard to update drives some you cannot even find at their websites, carefull trying to uninstall some of them crap or might end up doing a full recovery. they sound good and play dvds very good but just for that. HP computers are for 1st timers or people that dont just know what the heck they’re doing or maybe just to browse the internet. LOL. unless your planning to invest over 5 grands on a HP workstation which you can buy of course cheaper and with more power at dell anyway… here’s my though… stay way from HP if you are seriuosly into computing !

Custom Builts ? , plain and simple … compatibility issues, lack of extensive testing and benchmarking, they may work in one thing and may be not, they may run fast or not, they may boot ok one day and maybe not the next day.

I SEEN CUSTOM BOXES CRASH, BURN AND MELT !(specially when overclocking the cpus)
the only succesfull custom built so far was alienware and it was bought out competition from DELL with its XPS series.
so you want to save some bucks or go Super EXTREME for a couple of months yeap ..go ahead and enjoy the short lived experience , bet ya you wont do it again !

Thank you for creating this. At our college we use Dell exclusively in the classroom and offices. We even get an educator discount. After reading all the comments I am now leaning in favor of Dell but I used to be an HP fan. I trusted the product but now I am not sure. Thanks for helping me get off the fence post.

Oh yeah, I have a custom built at home that does overheat, boots when it feels like it, and makes me want to through it out the window. That’s why I am looking for something new.

It’s all about the price, hp’s offer the same components and devices as dell’s, if you make 2 equal systems you’ll find that hp’s are cheaper. Why are dells more expensive? customer support? quality of the chasis and plastics?
You’ll have to test a few of them to decide wich to buy.

I had a Compaq Presario V3000 notebook from HP. I saw a notice that there were covered issues with the network card not being detected. I had that problem, so I called up support and they sent me an empty box to ship it to be repaired.
I got my notebook back without it being repaired.
So I called and complained and they sent me another empty box.
They received my notebook on Aug 7. I was supposed to have it back by Aug 15, in time for the start of the school semester. It is now Sept 29, I’ve called, emailed and live chatted with the whole support department. I’ve filled with the Better Business Bureau.
I may have to take HP to civil claims to get my computer back.
Do not buy anything from Hewlett Packard.

I havew been working on PCs for awhile. I have owned both a Dell and an HP. The Hp for 6 yrs. The Dell for 3. The HP died from Tea poisoning, the Dell just died. I too am a Dell Certified tech, I will never buy another Dell, I tell my clients not to buy Dells. Thier idea of onsite service is not to fix the problem but replace parts until the problem is gone.

I guess buying an HP or Dell is not a good idea. I just about a Toshiba lappy. I hope I don’t have any issues with it.

I brought a desktop from hp, hardrive had to be replaced 3 times, they conned me into buying install discs that were corrupted when i tried to use them and they wanted me to buy a more expensive warranty when the one i had ran out, in my opinion hp customer svce sucks and so do thier products.

Hi Henry,
Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

I’ve read through many of the comments here, where I found some horribly written comments with lack of punctuation and horrible grammer, and some very interesting comments that really helped. I’ll be buying a laptop soon, in maybe 2-4 weeks and I’ve been doing some research for Dell VS HP. I, as of currently, am writing this on an HP Windows 98 model upgraded to an XP with many …”thrown together” parts and drivers. This causes a problem with video and sound, haha, sometimes it’s a problem sometimes it isn’t. As you may know, 98’s are WAY old and so we’re decided to keep this OS for home and get a laptop for myself. My first idea was “XP or Vista?” I’ve heard so much downtalk about Vista and I personally don’t like it (not to mention, I have an XP and it works fine, just doesn’t have as many extra things to it?). Then I started thinking “Dell or HP?”. I’ve seen all the sophisticated commercials for HP showing the super-stars and celebrities using HP computers, etc and the somewhat higher prices. This intrigued me because I thought maybe they were better. Then I rememebered all the past problems with Dell’s company, etc. So I simply looked up “Dell or HP” which led me to this site. Customer Service for me is not the biggest deal, however it is something I’d like to have in the better area. For me, the things I’m looking out most for, are MEMORY and WARRANTY. My 98/XP computer has 3GB ram, which is pretty good, and right now, is all I’m seeing on any laptop, which kind of disappoints me. I’ve had many crashes on this computer from loss of memory, and when I hear that people send there machines in with 1GB and get back 512MB, even I know that’s not a lot. My 1-st generation iPod shuffle has 512MB, and that’s not a lot. That’s down right sad. If I was sent back with THAT KIND OF MEMORY, I’d be extremely dissatisfied and “pissed” as well. Warranty? I’m not very sure about how long average warranties are, so I can’t say. Just, whoever has the best is fine for me. Next on my top list has to be battery life. I see the average being about 3 hrs, yet an HP I’ve seen can last up to 6. That’s pretty good, but I want a fast computer, and that obviously and most likely means that it’s going to use up battery energy faster and most likely going to have a lower life. That’s understandable.
For me, I’ll be using lots of WORD-like documents on my laptop, things like word processors (Hopefully with MS Office, however I hear that’s not free anymore), and East Asian support packs (which should come with everyone computer, regardless, if I’m not mistaken…). In my current computer, I have Word Works Processor and I know it takes up a lot of memory compared to many other programs, but I *know* that MS Office would take up more. Not to mention I had a tablet and Corel Painter Classic (Photoshop just doesn’t do it for me, sadly). It doesn’t take up too much memory, but I wonder about laptops and tablets.
I guess all in all I’m rambling on quite a bit. I’m quite skilled with compromising, but I do drive a hard bargin in what a want. (IE: I have a 30x ultra zoom digital camera with hardly no battery life, but there aren’t many 30x left under 500$ so I’m pretty sure I’ll be keeping mine. That’s compromise folks. I can’t go finding a 30x with the same features with a better life. I know it.)
If any of you have any comments on which laptop would be better for memory, (loads of files! I have so many images it isn’t funny! Not to mention all the mp3’s!), etc, please let me know. I was early on for the HP, but as of now, I’m *very much so* leaning toward the Dell. I’ve looked into a little of the inspiron, and it was pretty good for what I wanted. Let me know, (email me please), and thanks.

-Ciellacet

FWIW - I bought a Toshiba.

http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2008/10/07/toshiba-17-laptop-for-549-what-do-you-think/

Regards, Ron

Heh, I doubt if anyone will see this, but I recently purchased an HP Pavilion Elite m9350f, and it’s great. I don’t know what everyone’s problem is with the drivers or the support, but i had a good experience with it all. Of course, as soon as i got it, i wanted to install XP, but I quickly realised that it probably won’t have the appropriate drivers, and there were none on the site. All I did was simply click on the live web-help-support-chat thing and asked the operator-person (I don’t know official names, okay…) if he could help me find them, and in 5 minutes I had all the drivers. He also answered every question I had intelligently, professionally, and kindly. Everything installed perfectly, but then i started screwing around and experimenting on the system instead a virtual machine and lo and behold - I killed the hard drive. Anyway then I bought the $40 recovery disks off their site and it only took about a week for them to arrive from the other side of the country. I reinstalled in about an hour, and didn’t bother reinstalling XP or trying to change any of the system files (within reason (uxtheme.dll)) and everything works perfectly. One last note: don’t bother with phone support. Sure, they’re from North America, but they don’t know anything about anything. If you can access the web-support then that is definitly the way to go. So, that’s my story and why I like HP (their products are shiny ).

Hello {Shadow},
Thanks for sharing your experience with us. It is appreciated.

Happy holidays, Ron

Hi,

Dell had a lot better try to invade the blade market with their M1000e than their earlier offering, but if we take the price factor a side both HP & IBM are way a head of HP offering. Check out how do they compare below:

http://itcomparison.com/Blades/Bladesibmvsdel/Bladesibmvsdell.htm

http://itcomparison.com/Blades/Bladesdellvshp/Bladeshpvsdell.htm

Well maybe Dell still can beat SUN with their new chassis. Check out SUN vs Dell below:

“http://itcomparison.com/Blades/Bladesdellvssun/Bladesdellvssun.htm

Check these out before you make your blade decision as they definitely can help.

Folks, I provide support for hp software that hp simply reduces to provide. I’m in the last phases of scrapping my third hp notebook in four years. All 3 of my laptops put out enough heat to boil water, and the casing on the back has wilted with heat.

Now I’ve hardly ever used an HP desktop, but laptops, hp is a no no. The amount of defective wireless cards and motherboards that have gone out between the dv2000, dv6000 and dv9000 series is unfathomable. And hp Customer service is nothing short of shamefully pathetic.

I don’t recommend hp to anyone. Ever.

So, this year I’m going to give Dell a try, because it’s rather difficult to get a laptop customized if you buy a sony, samsung or toshiba instead. Plus, with their small business financing, at GB 25.00 per month, I can get a 4GB DDR2 Notebook with an Intel Core Duo T8100, a docking station and a colour laser printer. That’s 625 sterling. Add another 97 pounds for a 19 ” LCD from PC World, and you’re set with a super desktop replacement with 2 screens that you can lug around with you if needed. Can’t beat that!

i work for HP and I do believe that DELL has better support.

but HP has better quality in terms of products

I own three dell computers, I got my first HP laptop I haven’t had any problems with their technical support. First, they speak english and they seem to know their systems very well. Dell has terrible support, they troubleshoot the wrong issue and disconnect the call when they can’t resolve the problem. I bought my last system from Dell, I honestly can say a former Dell customer.

hmm i owned 2 hp laptops they both died about every 3 months, i sent them in customer service sucks. and both laptops died the same way. my recent hp died 5 times in one year. and they still would not replace it. HP is not what u wanna buy if u looking for a laptop that will last

Thanks for the comments and for sharing your experiences with us.

Hi I am a dell technician. I have both Hp and Dell computers. I bought Hp computer 2 years ago and bought Dell Inspiron 1525 after I joined Dell and using it for the past 11 months. So far no issues with both the compuer.

As far as I am concerned both the computers are assembled and all the components are manufactured by third party. So it depends on the components and the Support provided by both the computer after sales.

Reading this page makes me feel a little better about the Studio XPS I just bought from Dell. I bought a HP laptop December 2006 and it died December ‘07. It started acting really weird, would crash using WinRar. When I tried to install any new program the installer would crash and ultimately in its death wouldn’t boot Vista, boot from DVD or let me get into the recovery from the BIOS. It seems like HP has a huge problem with their HDD’s dying. I jumped on the Dell site and it was really easy to use. Their prices were great and everything is customizable. Not only that but all like 5 times I’v talked to people on their chat I’v been extremely satisfied when I was done. Educated and well informed about anything I had questions about. I compared Dell’s Studio XPS to the HP Elite series (which I was originally sold on) and it was hands down the Dell. Mainly it was because Dell has the new Intel Core i7 processors. After doing my research online, looking at tests where people put the i7 vs Quad 9000’s and talking with some experts, it was easy to see that Dell was the better deal. HOWEVER, upgrading is supposed to be a b$*&% with the Dell’s. As well, the power supply’s in the Dells seem to be lacking, (only like 350 watts) but, a power supply is extremely easy to upgrade where as a processor and a motherboard aren’t. To me anyway, I can’t see myself needing to upgrade for awhile. Anything I would have to upgrade like the power supply, RAM in a few years (has 6GB Tri-channel DDR3 now) is all easy enough. I’m happy with the video card (ATI HD 4870) and if I ever filled up my 1TB without a reformat, I would use an external USB HDD anyways. So for me the customer service and the newest technology sold me Dell. As for my HP, that dirty paperweight was an AWESOME laptop for the year it lasted. I can’t speak in regards to their customer service, but performance wise I rarely had trouble with the HP until its eventual demise. A huge plus for me was the battery on the HP. A frickin 12-cell Lithium Ion. The thing was an absolute beast. I could watch 2 movies back to back on it all on battery and still have battery left over. That’s at least 3.5 hours of video and audio! Using the laptop just to surf the internet and do the regular stuff on battery, I saw it last in upwards of 6 or 7 hours. When I bought the laptop I wanted the portability, now however, I want something reliable and fast. And, if a hard drive goes on it I want to have the option of repairing it myself, not having to go through the hassle of sending it away to HP and get half my ram back (as some people stated in their posts). Also, something I wanted to throw in, Dell’s in-house financing. They have 2 options, a line of credit or a 48 month equal payment plan. Interest rates aren’t too bad, depending on credit of course. From what I’v heard HP’s parts die on a mass scale and their customer service is poor. From what I’v experienced, Dell’s prices, customer service and the availability of the newest technology can’t be beat. Furthermore, it’s a huge plus that you can customize your computer, so you end up with exactly what you want. You don’t have to make compromises or miss out on the features you want, or pay too much to get the features you want, and 100 things you don’t need. Backed by up to 4 years next day on-site service calls (extra cost of course) just blows me away. Obviously a company cannot make every customer happy. But a company that clearly takes the customer’s situations and feelings into account, and then goes to their drawing board figuring out ways to make me happy can have my credit card. One in a few will have a bad experience and yeah, it sucks when its you. But we need to look at the bigger picture. Look at all the things Dell has done/is doing to improve their customer service. They have something for everyone and most importantly I feel like I have peace of mind knowing I bought a quality product. As a company, that’s extremely important to make your customers feel like your product has value and quality, especially in times of global economic uncertainty, where not everyone wants to spend 1000’s of dollars on a new computer. All in all, Dell. Period.

I think both have advantages and disadvantages…as for me I’am a dell man;)

None of the companies make their own components, but make by standard companies, very often same.

So Processor, motherboard, Graphics card, Wireless lan card, OS, Antivirus are from same company. Monitor, hard drive, webcam, DVD drive, battery may be from diferent manufactures. Yes, Laptop/desktop casings are also of different designs.

There are very few softwares that are proprietary, and are more related to system monitoring. Nowa days companies have standardised and updated design of most of the components.

So if your system is breaking in few days or is short lived, it may be one of very few instances, when the electronic component has manufacturing defect.

Only difference is customer service, and yes it varies. So Dell may be having a good support in US, but then HP has very good support in India (almost in every major city).

And again I am seeing some of you have good experience with Dell, where as some with HP. So to me it looks to whome you talk.

I purchased a HP HDX 16t laptop, whatever small interaction I had with HP rep was good. I found for same comfiguration HP laptops are cheeper than Dell.

Further I noticed that in few areas, Dell provided a better option/design (for eg. casing) where as in some areas HP provided a better option (fro eg. disk protection software).

So do not worry too much, both the brands are good, just make sure to ask a lot of questions before purchasing, and make sure you are specifying all the reqs very clearly (how ever small) so that you get what you want.

Ok. Lets start off by saying I’m a Dell Supervisor for Tech Support. Now…
I have had very little experience with HP because I have owned only custom builts and Dell’s. The vast majority of computer issues are software based. They are only slightly different builds between manufacturers (mostly to interact with the BIOS) Drivers are mostly an issue with the individual manufacturers. Dell and HP BOTH are essentially the guy who builds computers for you. For the most parts its the same ASUS boards and Corsair memory, just rebranded, in in some cases custom built (open your case to confirm) system boards. The other issues most people face (especially on notebooks) is end use. What are you using it for, how do you treat it, and what kind of maintenance do you do? I dont doubt all computer experts would agree a vast majority of what happens to your machine is something you did. Its true when I speak to customers complaining that I’ve never had an issue with Vista, but then I know what I’m doing.

Ultimately, the difference comes down to “bang for buck”, buying what you actually need (you really dont need that quad core to browse the web), customer care, tech support, and warranty. At Dell they have you pay up front for your support and not on the back end. They have no problem replacing lost non-proprietary software (you loose your office disc? sorry), you can now purchase a “American support warranty” where you will get an American every time, they are flexible on replacements, and they push for Customer Experience over cost. I go with Dell every time, and tell people the same.

But then, I want to have my company beat HP and make my company the best.

Another issue if anyone cares is that Michael Dell is best buds with GW Bush and a big supporter of the Republican party. HP has been a leader in treating their employees well and supporting Democrats.

Ok, i´m a IT manager at the Bla-bla company and we sure used Dell when i first arrived back in 2002. Didn´t have any problems at all if you just left the pc alone. Once you started messing with it and installing more stuff, memory, HDD:s and-so-on it got a bit tricky. And as earlier mentioned, if the new stuff are NOT from Dell then you are ‘on your own’ as far as Dell is concerned. But thas ok. I mean, after all, they are a company selling their on products. But then came the OptiPlex GX270 models with bad Motherboards and worse HDD:s. We replaced about 75% of all motherboards and HDD:s using the warranty. But what made me really mad was the way Dell handles these kind of production problems. They just keep silent. They could at least sent an email saying something like “we are aware of the problem, call us and we´ll replace it…” Now, considering the cost of replacing it all for our company in production loss, it was out the door for Dell.

We then talked to HP who gave us the “we are so big we don´t give a damn what you say” treatment. Ok, so not HP.

Fujitsu-Siemens is a smaller player in Europe but we liked their ideas and products so we have used ther pc:s for the last three years. But now, Fujitsu and Siemens are going separate ways and thepc:s are lacking performance compared to the HW inside so we have tried som HP:s and Dells to compare and hera are the results from the jury:

Dell:
A nice package but don´t upgrade or modify. Compatability problems may occur with external devices such as projectors, cellphones and stuff. Excellent support and service. Looong time for delivery after purchase.
Dell as a company feels e bit ’slippery when wet’. Forget their monitors and buy something else.

HP:
Well, they work with everything, no doubt about it. Whatever you plan to use them for they will work and get the job done. But they are more demanding of you as an owner and are a bit loud. Really bad support and service. Just a little biy more expensive. Rock solid company but they know how big they are and if you not buying a new set of the latest blade-servers you are little people.
Best laptops on the grid.

So, go for Dell desktops with another monitor and HP laptops.

Thats all folks
>>FloppyPoppy

“Another issue if anyone cares is that Michael Dell is best buds with GW Bush and a big supporter of the Republican party. HP has been a leader in treating their employees well and supporting Democrats.”

lol - thanks. Dell it is!

“Another issue if anyone cares is that Michael Dell is best buds with GW Bush and a big supporter of the Republican party. HP has been a leader in treating their employees well and supporting Democrats.”

“lol - thanks. Dell it is!”

LOL. Zing..

Dell…well it is pretty cheap and everything and CS is good but dont upragde and HP is expensive and its CS (customer service) sucks…what im hearing from frends + family is dell but personally i think HP

I bought an hp dv9655ea laptop last year, three months later it warned me to buy warranty extension on the next restart volume controls died and now 13 months later the mother board has died of over heating my advice to every one is never buy hp

I THERE I AM STAYING WITH APPLE BECUASE ASUS DELL HP GATWAY ARE NOT HAVEING ANY COMPUERS WOTH A FAST SSD DRIVE SO UNTIL I START SEEING PC POWERED BY SSD OR 10,000 OR 15,000 RPM HARD DRIVE I AM STAYIG AWAY FROM 5,400 AND 7,200 RPM HARD DRIVES TOO SLOW AND TOO BOGED DOWN FOR MY I AM JUST ROUTING FOR THE FASTEST STORAGE ACESSS FOR GAMES MOVIES I NOTICE BIG COPERATIONS AND BIG SERVERS HAVE HAD 15,000 RPM DISC SENCE 1996

I need a new PC, but after reading all the information, what am I to do? Is IBM better than Dell and HP or what is best? Boy I am confused.

All I need is e-mail and acess to internet.
That that is all folks.

Hello Ib Moller,
Opinions here are subjective. Everyone has their opinions. You didn’t mention where you were looking for a netbook, laptop, or desktop.

IMHO Asus or MSI for a netbook, Toshiba or Gateway for a laptop and Dell or Gateway for a desktop.

Just my 2 cents. Other opinions may differ.

First of all, I am thinking of getting a laptop. I don’t know which one i should get.

I want one that can do this fairly good:
Web Browsing
World of Warcraft (at least on medium settings at 30 fps)
Office Work

If you could give me an idea of what brand would be best for this and i need a computer company that has good customer service!

Thank You

Take a look at this laptop:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9163861&type=product&id=1218040477075

It is the one I own and I am very happy with it.

I bought dell inspiron 1420 bout 1 1/2 years ago, and i’ve been overheating the laptop everyday, shuting it down only every 2 days due to constant downloading and gaming, the motherboard burnt once after 10 months of overheating (without using cooler), the technician came on the spot and fix it right away, until now im still using it, I can say that my model is quite stable and not as faulty as my friends’ laptop, I bet hp cant sustain constant overheating in long period, that’s my opinion.

Cheers.

I just purchased a Dell Studio 15 model, and I adore it. Its battery life is not very good but it comes with so many options I can squeeze every bit, restricted only by what I am wanting to do with the computer. But when plugged into the wall so I dont’ have to worry about hte battery, it can run what i need it to, however many times I want it to and has an incredible, bright display. i have only once had a problem with it and it returned to just after I bought it., leaving just one game that I had installed but getting rid of a lot of other stuff like my account name. I just reinstalled and redid wht I had added and it has been fine ever sense. I’m not sure what happened there. Something weird must have happened after I had to reboot. Dell makes good computers, though I have no experience workign with HewwetPackard.(I know I misspelled it, too lazy to fix it)

JUST GO TOSHIBA FOLKS

Hi,

I’ve been using Dell’s for years. From day one I never liked HP’s I don’t like the fact that if you have to reload usually you have to use a restore disk because HP does not list there drivers on the web. I’ve also found Dell’s computers to be faster and less breauocratic. I remember one time I was making a recovery disk from Hp’s laptop it took 8 hours. To restore a pc with a dell partition it takes 10 min’s

Has Dell’s quality gone down since 2000? Most definitly. I just brought an Studio xps 13 laptop and I’m on my 2nd replacement. So far though this whole deal I’ve had 2 techs out and 3 laptops. One thing about Dell is I don’t feel ingnored. and they will try whatever to solve the issue. I must say though if you don’t know your IT stuff you might waste alot more time with the techs who read out of a script or who try to avoid returns or repairs. But if you push hard enough it will get done. The Techs do come out after one business day and so on. So even though I’ve had my experience with this model I finally found one that works I’m happy and if anything Dell horned there quality control issue at least with me.

What the heck is this problem with HP and its motherboards? I have a dv2000 and after barely 3 months of usage its motherboard was replaced by a new one and it took 1 month for me to get it back. Thank God I had warranty in that time. Now 1 year later again its motherboard needs to be replaced? I am so pissed, I always thought HP was the best because my brother has a HP desktop for 8 years now and still good. But the laptops suck and I mostly used it only for college homework, word processor, and those type of things. So much money I wasted on that stupid laptop just for the technicians to tell me that its best for me to just buy a new one since the price of replacing the motherboard is too expensive with just a little more money I can get a brand new one. If I would of known that my HP laptop would have lasted less than 2 years I would of either extended its warranty so that HP could fix their own defective problems or even best I would not have bought an HP laptop at all!!

So my advice, if you can extend your HP warranty please do so. If you took the time to read most of the comments here you would have noticed already that mostly every hp customer commenting experienced the same problem with HP, their MOTHERBOARDS!! Just know that motherboards are no cheap thing to fix. My sister has a Dell laptop its lasted 4 years now with no problem other than the battery life. I have a beautiful HP but its a good for nothing laptop.

PLEASE PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM HP LAPTOPS!!!!!!!!

I bought a Dell Inspiron 1000 notebook online 5 years ago and it has performed perfectly since day 1. Ordering it was a piece of cake and it arrived quickly and in perfect condition. Upgraded to Win XP SP3 without a hitch. I would definately buy a Dell notebook again. Also bought a “Dell” 3-1 printer but found out it was actually a Lexmark. Dell re-configures their printers to only work with Dell ink cartridges which means you have to buy your cartridges from Dell. But the printer has worked perfectly with no problems. Again, would buy another printer from Dell.

I purchased an hp a6000 series desktop and its hard drive has been defective since day 1… nothing that I couldn’t ignore though. Now I am at month 15 and I am still being warned by hardware diagnostics that the surface scan test has failed and when I contacted hp help through chat , I was in fact told that my hard drive is defective. When I turn the computer on the intro screen is actually split in half and sometimes the computer just sits like that until I shut it off and pray to the computer gods that it works better if I shut it off and turn it on again.
I was told that someone will call me in 24 hours and that I have to give my credit card information ..I am still under warrenty but if I do not return the old hard drive in five days (I think that was the time fram) that I would be charged on my credit card. I dont feel good about this. 1. I have no idea who/where I was speaking to 2. I have read a couple of horror stories of hp charging customers -but who knows 3. I have to put the new hard drive in myself…did they not notice that I picked the option “new user” before the chat session began? The CS rep assured me that I would get help but … the whole thing sounds sketchy!

Hi Kim,
Unfortunately this is the way most OEM’s handle the warranty process. The credit card # is in case you do not return the defective drive to HP.

Replacing a hard drive is not that difficult, but I do understand how you feel. I would check with your friends, fellow employees or others you know and see if any one has replaced a drive before. Have them assist you in the process.

Hope this helps.

Thank you Ron…that makes me feel a little better to know that a cc required is normal.I just get so scared giving it out and I have read some horror stories about it on consumer feedback websites. Maybe I should open a cc with a very small limit just for these purposes. Either way, I am very disapointed that my HP hd has given up on me already. Besides that very big problem I am happy with its performance otherwise. These problems seemed to get worse after I download adobe pre elements - it but since I am such a computer novice any feedback I give is useless Off topic, I really tried to learn the basics of computer by enrolling in a community college intro to computers program. It was useless, most of the young kids just signed up because it was a requirement and the teacher had no patience and was not willing to slow down for me. How did you learn about computer basics? Recommended books for a person that knows nothing about computers(*ME*)? Thanks again for your help Ron

Hello Kim,
I have a cc with a $500 limit that I use for buying off the Internet or in situations like you are facing.

I was sorry to hear you had a bad experience with your community college. I taught adult education at a local community college for 6 years when I lived in California. The classes were computer basic’s and were geared for adults only.

Below is a link to Amazon for the Teach Yourself Visually series of books. My students found the books helpful. Hopefully you will as well.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=teach+yourself+visually&x=0&y=0

Thanks so much for your help! Have a fantastic weekend…so happy autumn is finally here

This page has helped me so much. I appreciate all the comments. I am finally looking into buying a laptop for my college classes, and I either want a Dell or a HP. I heard horrow stories about Dell from everyone that I know. Well, I posted ” HP or Dell Laptop” on my facebook page, and to my surprise, some of the doctors and RN’s that I used to work with told me they had Dells, and loved them. So- now I am stuck. I was told terrible things about Dell laptops, and then turned around and was told how amazing they are. I guess I will pick the Dell because of the color choices hahahahaha. I am on the fence otherwise. Thanks!

Hello Amy,
It is confusing at times. Also take a look at Toshiba. They make a very fine laptop as well. I love mine.

I don’t know why a number of people are saying that HP doesn’t provide drivers on their Web site. I just DL’ed some updates to my laptop the other day and it’s almost 2 years old.

I’ve been pretty happy with HP products I’ve used in the past (desktops, laptops, netbook, printers, plotters, etc.), but then again I rarely need tech support.

I have been extremely happy with my other laptop; it’s a Toshiba and I recommend it highly.

That said my custom-built rig just died and I’m ready to buy another destop. I think I will go Dell just to see how I like them.

I am looking to buy a new desktop. I have known very little about computers, hardware and such but I have done a lot of searching online to better inform myself of the components inside of computers so I can better decide which is best.

I have read some of the reviews for hp desktops and a lot of people say it works great, except there are problems starting it up and other things.

I am lost, I am not sure what I should get as far as desktops go. I want to use it for gaming, and I want it to last, I dont want to have to replace it in the near future. I have compared desktops, mostly dell and hp, and for the same things HP is cheaper then dell. Their components seem to be the same exact thing, processors, RAM, hardrives, graphics cards, you’re just paying a higher price for dell.

Those things in mind the question is, what’s the difference then? If both have same parts, shouldnt both work about the same? I really need help on this, any information on why one would work better then the other is helpful. Do the cases matter? I know dell can have some cool looking computers but aside from the processor, graphics card, ram, hardrive does anything else really matter? If so, why, and in what way will it effect things?

I do have one question though for any who KNOWS, please no novices I want knoweldge that is reliable. Does the hardrive make a huge difference? The hardrives that are offerd when customizing the computers are all 7,200 rpm and to upgrade to like RAEDON 1 or something like that is about 200 bucks for either of the companies. So, what will the RPM in hardrives amount to, will it make a difference in gaming? Also, why does one cost so much more then the other? It mentions somewhere that the RAEDON 1 (if thats even right) offers backup or reliability of some sort im not sure but if anyone knows hwat im talking about please expand and let me know.

Your input is greatly appreciated. Oh, and one other thing. When should I expect the computers or their parts to reduce in price, I know they just recently have since the OS windows 7 came out, and i would like to know if anyone knows if I should expect them to drop in price again soon like in the next couple months or if it is going to be a long time 6 months or more?

Here you go Brandon. Hopefully you will get some suggestions:

http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2009/10/27/a-reader-needs-our-help-he-wants-to-buy-a-new-gaming-box/

Wow, first off Ron I want to say thanks for posting this. There really wasn’t anywhere else to debate this. Debating Dell vs HP is like debating PC vs MAC. It is a matter of opinion and personal experience. I have used both for a number of different things and have had the same experience with both. I am currently using a Dell Inspiron 1100 series(yes the blue top) and the only thing I’ve done to it is replace the hard drive. It’s 6 years old though so it’s still running great. But with only one cooling fan the heat sink does get really hot from time to time. I am going to be investing in a laptop in the next couple of weeks and I have looked at all 3 companies (Dell, HP, and Toshiba) and by far Toshiba is leading in the race because they offer more “bang for your buck.” My parents have 3 Dell desktops and one of them is 9 years old and still runs great the only problem is the monitor(surprise!) I recommend if you’re just needing a laptop for basic use (web browsing, word processing, e-mail, etc…) I would go with a Dell. But again this is a matter of opinion. Dell also offers the best for gaming with their XPS line and Alienware. I have used a couple of HP laptops and they performed great but I didn’t use them for a prolonged period of time so that I cannot comment on.

Hope this helps!

Thanks Tyler D.

Hey all!
Why do you talk about this when you can bye a mac for a little more money but with better OS and you can also run windows on it! The design, hardware, software, everything is better! And if you have a pc for 4 years you can have a mac for 8! Think about it, I know that you don’t will change back if you bye one.

Fujitsu, great laptops!!!!

Toshiba are great laptops also! LOL