New computerFollow

Anything I've ever owned that was made by HP has broken within a year.

I have never owned anything by HP.

This.

See if you can return it and get some shoes instead.

I have some left hand knowledge, not necessarily first hand.

Most HP computers come in a variety of letter variations. "D" is their standard line. If you're not running any games on it, it's a basic general use box, good for showing movies and stuff. "B" is their business line, with more streamlined functionality and powerful processors, but less emphasis on media (speakers aren't as fancy, that sort of thing.) "E" is the elite line, which is the best of the D and B lines rolled into one unit. "W" is their workstation line, which are the most powerful (and most expensive) machines - and then there is the Z series, which is a class in its own sexy self.

HP, like any other manufacture, can have the occasional lemon. But my experience with HP has beaten the pants off any other PC or laptop I've had. You just have to know what to expect out of them. For laptops, absolutely get the 3 year warranty. You'll need it for the power supply after a year at the very least.

For desktops, if you can do your own repairs and upgrades, there's no point . . . I treat HP boxes as a starter kit, and just add on and upgrade as necessary. My current box is approaching two years old. I paid $350 for a refurbished unit, dropped in an nVidia Geforce 9600, a 650 watt power supply, and doubled the RAM. It's been a good box - I haven't even had a fan wear out yet.

Looking over the specs for that, it's actually a really good base for a system. You're starting with a terabyte of storage, maxed out RAM, and a Core i7 on the very latest OS. Radeon HD 4650 is a decent card, and that can be upgraded easily if you ever feel like it.

Edited, Dec 11th 2009 4:30pm by catwho

It'll probably come with all sorts of proprietary HP quicklaunch utility apps and **** like that. I think they have a top-mounted bar like a small version of Macintosh's launch bar. Get rid of it all.

Ditto

Nice rig

Well, to be fair, HP did purchase Compaq and they have not done much to improve the quality of that product line yet.

Don't buy Compaq. Ever.

A computer is a computer these days, at least the desktop models are. They all use the same intel or AMD processors, they all use the same video card manfacturers. A few of them make their own motherboards, and there can be quality variances on those, but they still use a chipset from AMD or Intel on those boards. What really sets manufacturers apart from one another these days is interior case design (airflow) and support plans. Even the latter isn't really consistant because HP and Dell both keep going back and forth on India based call centers.

Laptops I tend to go with Dell for other work because they have a very good docking solution, cost less than the HP enterprise models, and when I call the enterprise support number I get a real person on the first call and I tell them what is broken and they send me a new unit/part, very few questions asked.

I'm getting a big shiny monitor too:D

Every Dell I've owned so far has had power supply issues: cord falls apart and frays or the power works intermittently. And then there's the service department...

Guenny, if you can get a new computer, we can all play Final Fantasy XIV when it comes out.

Listen, Ugly, we're all indicted in our video game playing.

They have very good business/enterprise support. Their home computer support sucks balls. I'd sooner hit myself on the head with a hammer than go through that again.