Dell or HP?

[Bonochick]

I might be buying a new computer sooner than I'd expected. I'm 99.9% sure I want to go with either a Dell or an HP. My family has had a few Dells, and I have generally been happy with them. I've been interested in HP too. My sister has one, and I really like it.

Opinions? Doesn't mean I will ultimately go with the crowd, but I'm still interested in what anybody might have to say.

P.S. "They both suck" or "Get a Mac" are not answers I'm looking for.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

P.S. "They both suck" or "Get a Mac" are not answers I'm looking for.

Spoilsport

Out of those two, I would probably go with Dell, we use them at my work and they're quite nice...

 

[LMP]

While I haven't had much experience with HPs, I know Dells are solid. I loved being able to customize my PC before I got it. The customer service is also extremely good, so that's gotta count for something.

 

[phillyfan26]

I've had both, as well as a Compaq. Not much different between the three from what I could tell, though. They were from much different generations.

 

[tanner_sis]

Dell Dell and DELL!! lol.. yeah..i just ordered my new laptop from them..and tho i had to wait 2 weeks longer for it to come which means it will be here no prob..at my college they just upgraded all the PCs to dells and thats what most the professors and students use ..yes ive done some looking around the campus cause i wasnt sure..our laptops have been compaqs and i am not happy with them..yeah they are old and we got them used but still grr..but our desktops have been dell for a long time and we put new ones in last fall..so im a dell girl lol

 

[Liesje]

I've only ever used HPs personall and couldn't be happier with them (3 desktops, 2 laptops). At work, I use Dells and I support thousands of Dells on campus. As with any computer, you get what you pay for. I've had better luck getting great HP deals from CompUSA and never found any appealing Dells with a comparable price. I also got a great deal on an extended 3 year warranty. Customer service doesn't really matter to me one way or the other as long as I can afford an appropriate warranty. Actually, the few times I've had to use HP customer service, I sent them e-mails and always received helpful responses within the hour. My aunt has a Mac PowerBook that she's obsessed with, but is jealous of my HP and would trade her Mac for my HP if it wasn't a work-issued computer.

 

[Bonochick]

I'm planning on spending at least $2,000...probably not a whole lot more than that though, maybe just another hundred or two. I've had my current Dell for over 4 years, so it's not like I get a computer and then get bored with it in a year. Obviously, I want something with good specs that should last me awhile before I even have to start thinking about upgrades.

 

[Thora]

While I haven't had much experience with HPs, I know Dells are solid. I loved being able to customize my PC before I got it. The customer service is also extremely good, so that's gotta count for something.

I loved that too. Building my own computer from scratch.

My customer service experiences have been a bit frustrating though. The two times I've had to call, I've had to talk with people who barely speak English, which is extremely frustrating, especially when you're trying to explain the problem, and they have no clue, or they think you're talking about something completely different. It was aggravating, but once I was finally able to communicate, they were able to solve the problems quickly and efficiently.

My only other complaint is that when I re-ordered ink, they sent it by courier (they said nothing about this during the ordering process), which was a pain and a half because of the courier company they used. It was really inconvenient, but ended up working fine.

Despite those two very minor and insignificant things, I have nothing but good experiences with Dell. I got a fantastic deal, and I love my computer.

 

[indra]

I have a nice HP desktop I love and does pretty much everything I want from it. Don't have much experience with Dell other than using my brother's pc and niece's laptop a few times each. I don't think they've had big issues with their Dells though, so either seem good.

 

[Liesje]

I'm planning on spending at least $2,000...probably not a whole lot more than that though, maybe just another hundred or two. I've had my current Dell for over 4 years, so it's not like I get a computer and then get bored with it in a year. Obviously, I want something with good specs that should last me awhile before I even have to start thinking about upgrades.

Laptop or desktop? If it's a laptop and your budget is that large, honestly I'd get neither Dell or HP and look at high end business Toshibas. I got an HP with Windows Vista, 2GB RAM, 120GB hard drive, core duo processor, built-in webcam, and lots of other fancy stuff for less than $1000 (again, CompUSA = SUPER deals!!). My budget was $1300 which is what I paid after taxes and an insane warranty. If you get a Dell laptop, look at the Latitudes rather than the Inspirons. I have nothing good to say about Dell Inspirons so I won't even go there...

 

[Bonochick]

I'm going to get a desktop.

 

[Liesje]

With $2000 you could build a top-of-the-line desktop (heck, even get a quad core processor) AND still be able to purchase a laptop.

 

[Canadiens1131]

I've owned Dell and HP desktops. Both have been about equal in everything from letting you customize your system before ordering, to the Indian customer support personnel.

If I had to give one an edge, HP usually designs nice-looking PC cases, while Dells are usually close to or as ugly as sin.

If you're buying a new monitor along with the PC, I'd go with a flatscreen from Dell. They have some of the best value and quality available for consumer LCDs.

 

[LMP]

Doesn't every HP desktop come with about 67 stickers on the front detailing every feature?

 

[LemonMelon]

Never used an HP, but the Dell we have is great, and it was really nice being able to customize it beforehand.

The computer I'm surfing on right now (and on which I spend 99% of my time on the internet) is made by AOpen. It's great, and I've had very few problems with it over the past 4 years.

 

[Liesje]

HP is not any less customizable than Dell. They have far more models to chose from initially, and you can easily upgrade (and sometimes downgrade) the amounts of RAM, HDD space, processor, etc. My sis just got an HP for college and picked out the model based on size and the aesthetics of the laptop, but changed/customized almost all of the internal hardware components.

 

[Bonochick]

If you're buying a new monitor along with the PC, I'd go with a flatscreen from Dell. They have some of the best value and quality available for consumer LCDs.

Yeah, I'll be buying a new monitor...and a new printer and scanner (I'm sure I'll just get an all-in-one). New everything, pretty much.

I think I'm gonna hold off for at least another few months though. My car should be paid off in a couple months, and then I'll have a significant amount of money freed up every month, since I've usually been paying a couple hundred a month extra on top of the regular payment. That is, of course, assuming that nothing else comes up. You know how it is.

I should probably be really good and wait until after Christmas so that I can shop without worrying about being on too tight of a budget. We'll see if I can hold out that long. Still fun to toy with ideas and look around though.

Thanks for the input, everyone! Feel free to add more.

 

[U2Girl416]

at work, we use HPs and I like them a lot. haven't had any problems at all. at home, my 1st and 2nd computers have been Dell. they both still work, even though Windows doesn't support the systems anymore (that should tell you how old they are ). I had a few problems with the 2nd one I bought and I needed to call customer service. that was a pain in the butt. that's probably one of the worst things about Dell is their customer service. explaining a problem to someone who doesn't speak very much or very good English is so frustrating

however, I won a Compaq laptop last weekend, so that's what I'm using at home now. no complaints yet (knock on wood) other than Windows Vista takes a little to get used to.

 

[LMP]

Macs are completely out of the question?

 

[martha]

Cooooooome to the liiiiiiiiight.

 

[Bonochick]

I'm not ready to make such a huge conversion! It's not like switching toothpastes.

 

[Liesje]

I'm not ready to make such a huge conversion! It's not like switching toothpastes.

Boot Camp

 

[arw]

Sorry BC....I'm going to sidetrack your thread instead of starting my own....

I'm also looking into buying a new computer but I don't have a lot to spend. I actually want to finance something with Dell so I only have to pay about $35 a month. I keep getting student rebate discounts (or something like that) in an email from Dell. When I was in the business world, all we ever used was Dell. They were a vendor at my last job and I had a lot of clients order from them....but we're talking pc's for an entire office.

I don't even know where to begin so if anyone has any info I'd love to hear it. I know what I want but I don't know what else I'd need. Basically I really want something where I can download and burn my own dvd's. I also want it to come with Word instead of Works. School only has Word so I can't do my homework at home right now and then finish up at school unless I copy my work and paste it in an email, then copy the email and paste it in Word. I'd like to stop doing that!

Otherwise I really don't need anything too fancy. I have a desktop that's about 5 years old and so far I've been able to do anything I've wanted to with it aside from the above issues. Plus I really think at this point in my life a laptop would be more practical for me.

I don't care so much about the size because I have to keep the price down. I know the smaller ones can be more expensive. I don't need a fancy printer or any other accessories other than maybe a mouse. I don't like the the laptop mouse thing in the middle.

I've built a few on the website but to be honest I really don't know enough about computers to know if I have everything I "need" or if I'm going overboard on stuff too.

 

[Canadiens1131]

I'm not ready to make such a huge conversion! It's not like switching toothpastes.

Honestly if you're comfortable with PCs there's no need to switch to a Mac. I am reluctant myself because I have a great PC setup, have a lot of favourite, weird, useful Windows-only programs, and don't want to sink the extra money into a mac.

 

[anitram]

$2K on a desktop? Who spends that much unless they are a major gamer? My brother built his own top of the line desktop for considerably less than that.

I'd get neither to be honest. Do you know somebody who can build it for you from scratch? You'll get a far better computer than one of the pre-packaged store ones.

 

[Liesje]

^^I concur. If you spend $2000 on a lower-end commercial brand desktop, you'll be wasting about $1500.

 

[Bonochick]

$2K on a desktop? Who spends that much unless they are a major gamer?

Well, I'd like to game on it more. I don't anymore because my current PC tends to be a bit sluggish. However, that budget also includes an all-in-one printer, a nice monitor, and software. I have an old version of Office (I know about Open Office, but I guess I'm a sucker who still wants the real thing), and my image editing software is about 10 years old. All that in mind, I don't think $2K is totally ridiculous.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

Well, to be fair, you could probably spend the 2k on Office and image software right there (stupid Adobe )...

What version of Office do you have? I'm still using 97 at home and it hasn't really changed much IMO...

 

[Liesje]

What version of Office do you have? I'm still using 97 at home and it hasn't really changed much IMO...

Have you used 2007? It's totally different - different default file extensions that the older versions aren't backward compatible with. There's also huge differences in the programming/coding of the application, but I'm not the one to know specifics on that.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

Oh I realize that there have been changes but you have to look at it in terms of what you need it for. If you are just using it at home as a basic word processor and spread sheet for general accounting, the versions on 97 are still all you need as far as I'm concerned...

just my opinion though...