Dell or hp help me decide!!

[jackjoson1205]

my choices are either....
the dell demension Dimension E521

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DDCWBB3&s=dhs

or

HP Pavilion d4650e
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/cto/computer_customize_components.do

both will be upgrades to about $1600($50 a month)

i dont have time to list the specs but i will later

 

[dean7]

my choices are either....
the dell demension Dimension E521

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DDCWBB3&s=dhs

or

HP Pavilion d4650e
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/cto/computer_customize_components.do

both will be upgrades to about $1600($50 a month)

i dont have time to list the specs but i will later

Between those I would lean towards Dell (I can't see specs on HP). Dell traditionally has offered better support in my experience. If you want to talk to Indian people who don't know jack about hardware and are hard to communicate with, buy an HP.

However, do you absolutely HAVE to go with one of these vendors? If not, you'd be a lot better off buying your own components and putting them together, or going with something like ABS.

 

[sailer]

Try neither. Dell will be the better of the two you listed, but is more expensive. HP gives a good, reliable, but mediocre computer that's hard to do anything with such as overclocking.

Try looking at a computer from Cyberpower or Monarch and see how much you can get for your money and the fact that they let you select your parts to a far greater degree.

 

[dean7]

Try neither. Dell will be the better of the two you listed, but is more expensive. HP gives a good, reliable, but mediocre computer that's hard to do anything with such as overclocking.

Try looking at a computer from Cyberpower or Monarch and see how much you can get for your money and the fact that they let you select your parts to a far greater degree.

Hey, that's pretty much exactly what I said!

Anyway, the man speaks the truth. If you can avoid Dell/HP, you can get a more powerful workstation for the same price.

 

[quantumsheep]

Try neither. Dell will be the better of the two you listed, but is more expensive. HP gives a good, reliable, but mediocre computer that's hard to do anything with such as overclocking.

Try looking at a computer from Cyberpower or Monarch and see how much you can get for your money and the fact that they let you select your parts to a far greater degree.

Hey, that's pretty much exactly what I said!

Anyway, the man speaks the truth. If you can avoid Dell/HP, you can get a more powerful workstation for the same price.

Even a low-end Alienware would be better (unless they have been infected by Dell).

 

[sailer]

Very similar indeed. Sometimes one person can be typing something and another person gets in a post just before the first person gets finished and posts. I am a bit slow on my typing, so take longer to finish and post. Anyway, we pretty much agreed on the answer, so that reinforces our combined answer to the guy's dilemma.

 

[dean7]

Yeah... it looks like AW workstations are at least OK:

http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pages/Area-51_5500/area-51_overview.aspx?SysCode=PC-AREA51-5500-R5-CP&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT

The cases these days seem a bit cheap. A sign of them cutting corners?

 

[hellraiser06]

my choices are either....
the dell demension Dimension E521

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&...n&o

or

HP Pavilion d4650e
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/cto/computer_customize_components.do

both will be upgrades to about $1600($50 a month)

i dont have time to list the specs but i will later

NEITHER....branded computers suck.....
DEAN7 wrote

Dell traditionally has offered better support in my experience. If you want to talk to Indian people who don't know jack about hardware and are hard to communicate with, buy an HP.

never ever dare to say that again dean7..........i am a proud indian and we people do buy assembled PCs...i did......so f***k off...

 

[ivanski]

Just the fact that you intend to upgrade,dont go with either.They are not set for that and offer no overclocking if you ever want to.
Try these guys,here you can pick and choose wich upgrades you can live without till the next 50/month. (click the customize box)
linkhttp://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=90841

 

[fuzzy33]

Try looking at a computer from Cyberpower or Monarch.

According to PC World's large-scale survey, Cyberpower has the worst reliability of all the desktops for which there were sufficient responses:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,123409-page,8/article.html
http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,123409/printable.html

See also:
http://consumer.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTA4NywxMCwsaGNvbnN1bWVy
http://consumer.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTA0MCw5LCxoY29uc3VtZXI=

Fuzzy

 

[sailer]

I listed Cyberpower for two reasons. First, I've owned one from their company for nearly a year with only one problem, which they fixed without complaint. Further, they provided the fix even though I had upgraded a couple pieces of hardware (video card and psu) after I purchased it without arguement.

Second, they are relatively cheap for the hardware provided. I've heard that they haven't had good quality control, but I have to go with my direct experience.

Having owned a Dell in the past, and my son owning a HP, I think the Cyberpower is a much better puchase than either of those for the money. I know its just an opinion, but its based on my personal experience, not something that I read.

 

[fuzzy33]

Dell traditionally has offered better support in my experience. If you want to talk to Indian people who don't know jack about hardware and are hard to communicate with, buy an HP.

While Dell used to provide better support, it appears that this is no longer the case. Dell support for consumer (not business) PC's in the US is now done in India, and it has been widely criticized for slowness, incompetence and unintelligibility.
http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,123409/printable.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=ahi5j9WcL8VM&refer=us#
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/09/18/8386121/index.htm

In the US, Dell provides premium support for its XPS home customers. It is supposed to better than its regular support, but it too has been ferociously criticized.

HP and Apple also provide support from India in part. Apple's support is considered to be the best.

Fuzzy

 

[chunkymonster]

Kind of ironic asking for advice as to whether buy a Dell or HP in the General Homebuilt forum...but hey, whatever...

With that said, don't buy either...build your own and get exactly what you want.

 

[mhill0531]

Using the same "lowest possible standards" for every component going into that box, I came up with a price under $900 (USD) for building your own. The $1600 I just spent on building an Intel E6600 C2D would cost $3800 at Dell.

My point?

Would you pay $5 per gallon for gas just to have someone pump it?

Well, if you give Dell or HP $1600 for the box as you had configured, then you are choosing to spend twice as much for something as it actually should cost, and you're getting junkier components. Go to pricewatch.com and see how far $1600 can take you, then take what you find there and go back to Dell to see what they would charge to put it together and ship to you.

Now, if you are bound and determined to give Dell or HP an extra $700-800 to slap some junk together for you, then go with Dell.

 

[dean7]

Whoa whoa whoa... I didn't mean to offend. And this is NOT about race, so don't freak out.

My point is: it's hard sometimes when you are talking on a support line and you just want to ask somebody a question about some spec/upgrade on your system, but they really have no clue (and can't even look it up in the documentation). And it makes it HARDER sometimes when there is a language/accent barrier. If you live in India, I'm sure you don't want to call tech support and speak to somebody over crappy lines in the USA. You'd rather speak to somebody in the same country as you, right?

Anyway, THAT was my complaint about HP tech support. Not that the people were Indian, but that they were hard to communicate with and also had no clue about PC hardware. It would be the same with tech support if I called them and they were in the same friggin' state as me. If the people don't understand jack about computers, tech support = crap.

Anyway, sorry if I offended.

 

[dean7]

Yeah, well, I guess the BEST thing to do is build yourself and support it yourself. I have found that it is just as cost-effective, because when I build a PC, I research every component and they usually don't go bad on me. Plus, with the $ you save by buying home-built, you can afford to replace a few bad components. Know what I mean?

 

[mhill0531]

Whoa whoa whoa... I didn't mean to offend. And this is NOT about race, so don't freak out.

My point is: it's hard sometimes when you are talking on a support line and you just want to ask somebody a question about some spec/upgrade on your system, but they really have no clue (and can't even look it up in the documentation). And it makes it HARDER sometimes when there is a language/accent barrier.

There's the real problem for the PC geek and buying someone else's box. Having been a programmer for a customer service outsourcing company, I can tell you that the average call service rep has about a week's worth of training and is reading off a script. You're not talking to some A+ certified technician, and it's doubtful you'll be talking to anyone who knows more than you do, particularly if you're an enthusiast.

Toss in a language barrier, regardless of how big that barrier may be, and an already frustrating thing becomes moreso. You don't call tech support because things are working fine, only when things are borked. So the borkage alone has you angry and adversarial, and now some poor rep in a foreign country is being taken to task not only because their script is inadequate for your needs, but because the barrier exists. It's natural to become even more frustrated, as you started off with very little patience anyway.

So again, the home build makes more sense than buying pre-built. With a homebuild, you know every last bolt, nut, and capacitor in your rig. You have manuals for every last part. You did research to buy what you wanted, and you spent the time to understand how things work. And chances are, you came here and found out that a few thousand DYI PC builder geeks is way better tech support for free than anything you'll pay Dell or anyone else for.

Tech support reps could be next door, but they only go as far as the script takes them. I had a malware issue once that wrecked my Internet connectivity, and even the geeks at Micro$oft were out of their league. But a few visits to this and several other forums, plus some sleuth work on my own, and I called Micro$oft back to tell them what to add to their scripts should anyone else call with my problem. Once you go open source for any one thing concerning your PC, you'll find that open source rules, especially where building and fixing a rig is concerned.