HP e9150t vs. Dell Studio XPS - Need buying help

Go with HP, less problems later on and have better quality parts, and i have had a crappy experience with Dells

Hi Moondoggy,

For years I have purchased and recommended Dell systems and I never thought I'd say this, but I would buy the HP system. Whichever system you decide to buy, try to buy it through Costco Wholesale. Costco.com offers both Dell systems and HP systems that you can customize. If you're not a Costco member, it's worth the $50.00 membership fee. Costco's computer prices are usually very good, Costco usually doubles the manufacturer's warranty, Costco has a liberal 90-day return policy on computers, and Costco offers Concierge Service for technical support. With Costco's Concierge Service, you speak with knowledgeable support people in the U. S. and, if they can't help you, they usually patch you through to the manufacturer's U. S. based tech support so that you don't have to talk to an offshore call center where people read from a script.

In late August, 2008, I purchased a Dell XPS 420 from Costco.com. It was a nice system with an Intel Q6600 quad core processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB HD, and a 24" monitor. My first disappointment was fan noise. From the initial boot, the fan sounded like a small plane readying for takeoff, and that noise continued for as long as I had the system. Then, in late October, the power supply failed and had to be replaced. Next, in December, the hard drive failed and had to be replaced. I would have returned the system at that point, but Costco's 90-day return period had expired. However, the final straw was the failure of the DVD-ROM drive in April, 2009. In each case, Costco's Concierge Service and Dell support were great. Replacement components were shipped to me overnight and, had it been necessary, Dell would have sent a technician to replace the component. However, the system was a primary computer in my business, and I had lost faith in the system. I wrote to Costco and explained the situation and, although it was well past the 90-day return period, Costco let me return the system for a full refund. My confidence in Dell hardware was shaken, so I purchased a similarly configured HP system. So far, it has run flawlessly.

I have no experience with HP's Pavilion Elite e9150t series, but I believe the e9150t replaced the HP Pavilion Elite m9650f which received the highest full-size desktop rating from ConsumerReports.org. I will be purchasing another system for my business before the end of the year and, if I were purchasing today, I would configure an HP Pavilion Elite e9180t through Costco.com.

most of the high end dell systems I see come w\ an ati 4350, and if you're buying a high end system you probably want to game on it... so you will end up wanting to upgrade to another video card probably.

I've had alot of dell systems with no problems. The HP's I have do seem a bit more solid and well built but when it comes to recommending a pre-built system I usually recommend Dell because they usually have some good deals out there.

All you need to know about the e9150 and e9180 lines of computers from HP can be discovered by reading this thread in their user forums:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/boar [...] ead.id=895

The bottom line is that HP can't reliably build these machines. My personal track record is three duds in a row (e9180t w/i7 920). Their tech support has not been able to offer any help that actually worked; it's got to be some sort of manufacturing problem with these systems.

I concur, I've had 2 HP PCs in my house and no major problems. Just make sure they give you a good power supply, I had to replace mine to update my graphics card.