HP or Dell?

[liketoys0000]

I'm currently looking at a HP or Dell for a laptop replacement. I have done some research & find some good reviews on the following models:

HP dv6700t 15.4 inch notebook
https://www.dealstudio.com/viewtopic.php?t=37403&ru=290

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T9300 (2.50 GHz, 6 MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
15.4" Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
1GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

Dell Inspiron 1420 14.1 inch Notebook
https://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DNDWJA6&s=dhs&dgc=CJ

1.6GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core Processor
Windows Vista Home Premium
14.1-inch Widescreen glossy OR anti-glare display
2GB DDR2 Memory
250GB SATA Hard Drive

Wanted to know your thoughts about these two. Also if it is worth the money I am spending for it.

 

[mewthree w/armor]

I have a Dell Laptop and I've had ZERO problems with it. I've had no problems with my old dells either I've bought used. Allot depends on how you maintain the laptop, how well you take care of it.

BTW, your two Models above, both have some bad flaws.

HP dv6700t 15.4 inch notebook
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T9300 (2.50 GHz, 6 MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
15.4" Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
1GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) - Not enough with Vista, you need really 2GB's of RAM. Even with XP you need 2GB's.
160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

Dell Inspiron 1420 14.1 inch Notebook
1.6GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core Processor - That processor is not really to good, its weak especially with Vista.
Windows Vista Home Premium
14.1-inch Widescreen glossy OR anti-glare display
2GB DDR2 Memory
250GB SATA Hard Drive - Your ram and hard drive with this model are great.

 

[Gerri Shin]

I agree with Audy on the branding choice. I used to use HP befire I switched to apple and even though the warranty ran out they are still happy to help me troubleshoot problems so that I can get them fixed by a store warranty. seriously they are super helpful. In my experience with Dell, they are a real pain to deal with especially in the tech support department. At my second high school they had Dells and they had to wait for like 2 hours before they got someone to talk with them about problems.

But I also agree with what M3w/A about the specs. In this day and age you really need a base amount of at least 1.5Gb RAM & a 2.0GHz CPU. Unless you want a computer that takes 10 minutes to boot, another 2 to load the browser, and another 4 to acquire a wireless signal.

If I were to mention another computer model you should probably look at, it would be the Gateway M-Series. they are pretty stable little computers. and Gateways tech support is only topped by HP and Apple (in my book).

 

[mewthree w/armor]

If I were to mention another computer model you should probably look at, it would be the Gateway M-Series. they are pretty stable little computers. and Gateways tech support is only topped by HP and Apple (in my book).

Gerri, I respect your apple abilities and such, but I have to completely disagree with you on Gateway. I serviced the M-series Gateways at my school for over two years, their laptops can not tolerate abuse and need servicing often. There tech support is good, but I wouldn't buy an M-Series. I'd look at Lenovo or Acer first, and I'm not really fond of either of those companies myself.

 

[Legobricks]

1GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) - Not enough with Vista, you need really 2GB's of RAM. Even with XP you need 2GB's.

Actually, 1GB works fine with XP... In fact, I even remember an older 128MB laptop running XP without trouble.


A friend of mine had I think an HP (may have been Compaq) laptop, and it was... well, so many problems that eventually got it thrown away I believe... I also listened to him calling the customer services or whatever it was — frustrating for him, laughable for me. However, I'd say customer service of either company is very variable, all depends on who you get receiving your call. :/
Now I think about it though, I've never needed customer service or tech support, so really, why do people care about how pleasant the company's employees are? It's all about the machines they make. :3

My Dell Inspiron 6000 has survived four years of increasingly rigorous use. :D

I honestly wouldn't go for either of those laptops there though (and no, I didn't buy this Inspiron 6000, I'd never buy any computer with a 16:9 monitor).

 

[DMNT]

I can tell you from working in a retail setting that I am now very hesitant to recommend HP laptops any longer. I've been working for five months now (for Co-Op), and in those five months, about fifty-six Hewlett-Packard laptops have come in for repairs. I will never forget this one HP laptop in particular. The portion of the chassis which contains the backlit buttons (the "DVD" button, power button, etc.) was coming off. We sent it to HP for repairs, and it came back about a week later, with a new problem: the buttons no longer lit up! It was sent to HP again, outlining the problem. It came back about two weeks later, now the portion of the chassis with the backlit buttons was bent! Sent it back again and received it in another two weeks, everything seems fine, we pack up it up and prepare it for the customer when.... oops, looks like HP forgot to pack the power supply! Eventually, the customer did get it back... about two months after it was sent in. Now while this can happen with any company and this may very well be an unfortunate, unlucky incidence, it still cannot account for more HP brand laptops coming in for repairs than any other. In my opinion, Dell would be the better choice. My first computer was a Dell and in the eight years I've used it, 1998-2006, I've never had a single hardware related problem with it.

But I also agree with what M3w/A about the specs. In this day and age you really need a base amount of at least 1.5Gb RAM & a 2.0GHz CPU. Unless you want a computer that takes 10 minutes to boot, another 2 to load the browser, and another 4 to acquire a wireless signal.

Oh Gerri Shin, that is a good one! My iMac G5 (current computer) has 512 MB RAM and a 2.1 GHz PowerPC processor and it boots Mac OS X 10.5.2 in approx. 24 sec., loads Safari 3.1 in approx. 3 sec., and takes less than 1 sec. to acquire a wireless signal. While RAM and clock speed are important, they are clearly not everything. (Although that could also be a testament to OS X's memory management). In addition, you also have to consider what liketoys0000 will be using the laptop for (something she hasn't outlined in the beginning of the thread). If the laptop is only going to be used for web surfing, some casual games, and homework, then either model will be perfectly capable for those needs.

 

[Gerri Shin]

Oh Gerri Shin, that is a good one! My iMac G5 (current computer) has 512 MB RAM and a 2.1 GHz PowerPC processor and it boots Mac OS X 10.5.2 in approx. 24 sec., loads Safari 3.1 in approx. 3 sec., and takes less than 1 sec. to acquire a wireless signal. While RAM and clock speed are important, they are clearly not everything. (Although that could also be a testament to OS X's memory management). In addition, you also have to consider what liketoys0000 will be using the laptop for (something she hasn't outlined in the beginning of the thread). If the laptop is only going to be used for web surfing, some casual games, and homework, then either model will be perfectly capable for those needs.

I was referring to regular PCs. Macs are totally different, you don't have to wait with them. I know just how fast they can be (seeing as I'm typing from the new Penryn Macbook Pro). Anyway there are 2 computers in my home that have under 2.0GHz and running WinXP (I should also hadd that both of them have 1GB RAM) and both take the allotted time specified in my previous post to boot up. There is a big differenc in how Mac boots vs. Win. (win has to go through all those start up prgrams + read registry + start up a bunch of other junk, Macs just start up the OS + Internet and away you go)

Gerri, I respect your apple abilities and such, but I have to completely disagree with you on Gateway. I serviced the M-series Gateways at my school for over two years, their laptops can not tolerate abuse and need servicing often. There tech support is good, but I wouldn't buy an M-Series. I'd look at Lenovo or Acer first, and I'm not really fond of either of those companies myself.

While I haven't had much experience with Gateway M-Series in a corporate environment, the M-Series that My mother has seems to work just fine for home environment use. But I do agree with you that Acer does make some good computers (aside from the Aspire series) and Lenovo is a little on the pricey side for Home users.

 

[DMNT]

There is a big differenc in how Mac boots vs. Win. (win has to go through all those start up prgrams + read registry + start up a bunch of other junk, Macs just start up the OS + Internet and away you go).

Of course, I know you don't really mean this, but just to confirm, with Macs, it isn't only the OS and internet which "start up". I'm sure you realize OS X also has "Login Items" which automatically open applications when you login to your account, similarly to the "Startup" folder in Windows. Here is a detailed list of what happens when you start up a Mac.

• 
  Power is turned on.

• Open Firmware (PPC) or Extensible Firmware Interface (x86) code is executed.

• Hardware information is collected and hardware is initialized.

• The OS is selected to boot. The user may be prompted to select what to boot.

• Control passes to /System/Library/CoreServices/BootX, the boot loader. BootX loads the kernel and also draws the OS badges, if any.

• BootX tries to load a previously cached list of device drivers (created/updated by /usr/sbin/kextcache).

• The init routine of the kernel is executed. The root device of the booting system is determined. (At this point, Open Firmware is no longer accessible).

• Various Mach/BSD data structures are initialized by the kernel.

• The I/O Kit is initialized.

• The kernel starts /sbin/mach_init, the Mach service naming (bootstrap) daemon.

From here on, the startup becomes user-level:

• mach_init starts /sbin/init, the traditional BSD init process.

• rc.boot figures out the type of boot (Multi-User, Safe, CD-ROM, Network etc.).

• rc.boot figures out if a file system consistency check is required.

• If rc.boot exits successfully, /etc/rc, the multi-user startup script is then run.

• /etc/rc.cleanup is run. It "cleans" a number of Unix and Mac specific directories/files.

• BootCache is started.

• Various sysctl variables are set (such as for maximum number of vnodes, System V IPC, etc.).

• syslogd is started.

• The Mach symbol file is created.

• /etc/rc starts kextd, the daemon process that loads kernel extension on demand from kernel or client processes.

• /usr/libexec/register_mach_bootstrap_servers is run to load various Mach bootstrap based services contained in /etc/mach_init.d

• portmap and netinfo are started.

• If /System/Library/Extensions.mkext is older than /System/Library/Extensions, /etc/rc deletes the existing mkext and creates a new one. It also creates one if one doesn't exist.

• /etc/rc starts /usr/sbin/update, the daemon that flushes internal file system caches to disk frequently.

• /etc/rc starts the virtual memory system. /private/var/vm is set up as the swap directory. /sbin/dynamic_pager is started with the appropriate arguments (swap filename path template, size of swap files created, high and low water alert triggers specifying when to create additional swap files or delete existing ones).

• /etc/rc starts /usr/libexec/fix_prebinding to fix incorrectly prebound binaries.

• /etc/rc executes /etc/rc.cleanup to clean up and reset files and devices.

• /etc/rc finally launches /sbin/SystemStarter to handle startup items from locations such as /System/Library/StartupItems and /Library/StartupItems.

• The CoreGraphics startup item starts the Apple Type Services daemon (ATSServer) as well as the Window Server (WindowServer).

Anyway there are 2 computers in my home that have under 2.0GHz and running WinXP (I should also hadd that both of them have 1GB RAM) and both take the allotted time specified in my previous post to boot up.

I'm afraid that is not enough information. You will also have to say which processor you are using. This is because frequency (clock speed) isn't everything. Other factors to consider include the number of pipeline stages, the number of processors (obviously, a 2.0 GHz dual-core processor will be faster than a 2.0 GHz single-core processor), size of the processor, etc. I posted a video on YouTube about a year ago which illustrates this by comparing an 867 MHz PowerPC G4 processor (used in older Macs such as the Power Mac G4, iMac G4, etc. around 2004) with a 1.7 GHz Pentium 4 processor. While the processors used in this comparison are now outdated, the points made in this video are still quite relevant.

You can see for yourself here.

 

[Arcanine]

As the owner of... 2 HP laptops, and 2 HP desktops (plus printers, and cameras, and monitors) I say go with the HP. I've never had any probs, and we've had HPs for over 6 or 7 years now. And the few old Dells we had were... blah. So, if it was me I'd go with the HP (heck, I plan on getting a new HP laptop soon... someday).

 

[Jaimes]

Just thought like making a point...

In my opinion both of the brands are potentially good as each other. You should concentrate on the specs. Otherwise this is more likely to become decided on the more popular brand posters are using.

I wouldn't personally get the HP one, because 1Gb RAM fails. Using that much for XP is amazing, but on Vista it's somewhat slow. It's recommended for 2Gb or higher.
I'm not too sure about the Dell one, but I honestly can't stand a screen size less than 15"...

Although personally I'd get an XPS laptop... considering the price for specs like those.. whoaaoa XD

 

[Morkula]

The HP has a much better processor, and HP overall is a much better brand than Dell (speaking from experience - both Dells that I've owned have been nothing but problems, and their tech support sucks). If you can bump that HP up to 2GB of RAM, then go for it.

 

[Midnight Beat]

I don't know even close to all the tech spec stuff these guys know. But every Dell I've ever had has failed miserably. In fact it was Dell computers that ultimately turned me off to window, I've had a mac for about eight-ish months and I love it. Anyway, I've had to deal with the Dell support team, and they don't do a very good job. With that said I would go with HP.

 

[Mooshykris]

I cant' say too much about Dell, as I've never used it. But we have a Windows 98SE HP computer that still runs well to this day, so with that, I would have to say HP.

Mooshykris

 

[Eureka1]

HP because the quality of their laptops is amazing, there's also no reason to use Vista on a laptop.