Looking for a laptop. HP only.

[Zephik]

I have had nothing but trouble with Dells-Granted they're all old Dell Desktops so maybe they have improved.

Anybody able to provide a link and or price to a comparable Dell to this?

Much appreciated.

Dell has vastly changed within the past year or two, maybe three. I'd go down to best buy and check out the laptops in person, thats what I usually recommend to people. The Studio line by Dell Laptops really is pretty amazing. They're a lot more rugged and well built than most everything else on the market. Definitely check them out, they're worth the time and effort. The only problem is that they aren't cheap cheap, they start at like $600-$700 or something like that so most people I know get turned off right away since they want the cheapest option possible, usually around $400 or less. Pff. Whatev I guess, can't really blame them with money being so tight.

I actually like HP by the way. They're quality has been above average for a little while now, with Asus being in the lead I believe. At least, as far as returned products go. I think HP is somewhere in the middle along with Dell. Then again, they do say that most returned products actually work just fine. Something about people not getting what they were expecting or couldn't actually afford it or something like that. Buyers remorse is what they call it I believe, accounts for... 20ish percent or something like that of returns.

Anyways, another thing about the Studio's is that they are pretty customizable as well. You can get a 1080p screen for an extra $50 and a backlit keyboard for another $25. Among other things. Pretty nice imo. They also get up to 8 hours of battery life apparently, at least thats what they list.

By the way, a comparable laptop to that HP would be about $800, which is the list price of the HP. You get 500GB instead of 320GB, but you take a hit in the GPU department with 4570 instead of 4650. As to which I would pick... thats tough. I'd go with either one honestly. I'd probably end up with the Dell if I had the extra cash, just for the backlit keyboard and 1080p screen.

In short: The HP is better and cheaper in my opinion, but the Dell is pretty close and with nice customization options and great build quality.

[x88x]

What are you really going for with this laptop? None of what you mentioned justifies needing more than that C2D.

Personally I would recommend:
1) Panasonic Toughbook
1) Lenovo Thinkpad (not the SL series)
1) Apple MacBook Pro (if you catch them at the right time in the release cycle)
2) Dell Latitude (Precision if you really need the added power)
3) Asus
3) Lenovo Ideapad
4) Dell Studio XPS
5) Dell Studio/HP/Toshiba

To be honest, other than 1-4, I wouldn't pay any of my own money on a laptop, though 5 are acceptable quality (in the order listed). For clarification, the things that I grade laptops on are (in order of importance):
1) Build quality
2) Durability
3) Performance
4) Battery Life
5) Price

If you have an ideal price range and usage needs, I can throw together a more specific list.

[Luke122]

Asus is number one in my books, as far as reliability vs cost. I've had good luck with my Dell XPS, but you get what you pay for. Some studios (newer, last year or so) are great, definitely better than the past.

Toshiba is a mix.. some are good, some not so much. It's a pretty random thing in my experience, with several different results from the exact same line.

Acers are again a mixed bag. HP, Gateway, and Emachines just make me cringe. When someone tells me they just bought an HP, I always feel bad for them. The DV series in particular have such a huge failure rate, probably 1 in 4. I have literally thrown away at least 30 of them (DV2000, DV6000, DV9000s) this year due to motherboard failures. They tend to run hot, and if you take good care of them, they'll be fine, but few people take the time to really take care of them.

Does this mean that they would likely fail less if the owners were more knowledgeable? Possibly.

[Trace]

Some where between $600-$800 is my target price, but if it's more, and worth it, then I can go above.
The laptop would be used for gaming, website creation/updating, programming, and I would like it to be fairly future proof. I think a C2D would suffice for my needs, however I felt the a T6600 with only a 800mhz fsb might limit my throughput, etc.

[billygoat333]

my hp dv4000 series lasted through some serious abuse and the only problem I had with it (up until it randomly would freeze, think the cpu needs reseated) was the battery died RIGHT after the warranty expired for it. lol sucky. good timing on HP's part.

[x88x]

If you're worried about the 800MHz FSB, look for one of the P or T9 series Core 2's.

Unfortunately, I don't think you'll be able to find >800MHz FSB and 200 series GeForce or 4000 series Radeon, for under $800.

This should be about what you're looking for, though it's $900.
Lenovo Ideapad Y550, C2D P7450, GeForce GT 240M
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834146612

There are several models available with the GT 220M, but I'm not sure that would be up to your needs. What kind of gaming are you wanting to do on it?

Here are some that should meet what you're looking for:
including GT 220M
not including GT 220M

[TheMainMan]

If you're set on an HP try this page http://www.hpdirect.com/deals/friend...mily/starbucks.
I noticed a flyer in Starbucks with the HP logo on it and so I grabbed one to see what it was about. You sign up and then get friends and family pricing on almost all consumer HP products. From what I can tell it's about the same cost however you can pick what you would like to upgrade according to your budget.

[Trace]

Thanks for that link!
Starting price $1,099.99*
Price epp price icon $1,011.99*
saves you just under 10%

[FuzzyPlushroom]

HP, Gateway, and Emachines just make me cringe. When someone tells me they just bought an HP, I always feel bad for them. The DV series in particular have such a huge failure rate, probably 1 in 4. I have literally thrown away at least 30 of them (DV2000, DV6000, DV9000s) this year due to motherboard failures. They tend to run hot, and if you take good care of them.

This. As the most recent example, my friend's dv6700 just died yesterday - same old dead motherboard. And I'd opened it up to make damn sure it could cool itself maybe six weeks ago - cleaned it out thoroughly (there was some dust, but not an excessive amount) and made sure the fan could breathe.

It had a vertical white line up the screen forever, too. Just another HP/nVidia chipset failure, one of a million.

I think I'll throw the stripped-down mainboard in the oven. Can't make it any worse.

[farlo]

ive got an hp laptop and ive never had any issues with it, that said asus laptops are very well built.