HP vs Dell Laptops

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Rocky6

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Which one is better for med school? And whats the difference between Dell Latitude, Inspiron, and XPS?
 
I don't know if there is any difference for schools. I always had Dells with no problem then I decided to go for a HP pavillion and I have lots of problems with it. It overheats and it freezes a lot. I don't know if that is a general problem with them, or if it's only my laptop that's screwed up....
 
Each school will have their own requirements or recommendations.

At my school, they just recommend minimum requirements that you have to meet. The onsite techs are Dell certified so they can repair Dells right there. They recommend a Dell Latitude (business models), but I went with a refurbished XPS because I wanted more media options. Your school might be different.

At another school in my state, every new student gets a laptop (outfitted to the hilt) as part of their tuition and is maintained by the school throughout the entire 4 years. It must be returned when you leave as it belongs to the school.

Just check with the school you are going to find out. If you aren't sure where you are going, check the places you are applying to or hold off buying one. Or just buy one you like now, and then get one when you goto medical school.
 
Rocky6 said:
Which one is better for med school? And whats the difference between Dell Latitude, Inspiron, and XPS?
Click to expand...

You can read the specs and compare. The answer is, as usual, "it depends on you, your school, etc." Both HP & Dell provide "cheap" computers with parts that I have not had much luck with. Expect to have problems no matter which way you go and if you don't, be very happy about that. Overall, I currently like the HPs better because HP support is better in IMO, and I have a beef with Dell and problems I have had with their laptops in the past (overheating, failure of charging systems, incompetent customer support that couldn't fix even simple problems). Currently I'm using mostly Lenovo T60 or T60p, but they are (much) more expensive. They are also far from perfect. I had a Lenovo T40 that would stop all network (including USB) communications about every 6 months and the only way to recover was to do an OS reinstall. The T60 & T60p have been somewhat better, but I have had them (as well as the HPs) blue screen (crash, requiring reboot) with what appear to be the removable media drivers (CD's, etc.). You might want to look at Mac ... I hear they are better for non-geeks.

If I had limited funds and wasn't a computer geek, I would buy either a Mac or an HP laptop today, but as you can see from this thread, there are people who think the complete opposite of me (like the Dells), probably for similar reasons but different experiences. The main suggestion is that you need to be prepared for the small but very real possibility of the laptop breaking down completely (hard drive failure, network communications failure, someone stealing your laptop, etc.) before an exam, so keep a daily backup on a large capacity USB drive and make sure that you can do without any information on these machines because you have daily backups that you can restore to another computer or have hardcopies, etc. In my case that means having multiple laptops because I don't consider any of them to be reliable enough. There is only one backup program that I like, Windows Live OneCare. You can download a free trial. Many backup programs (Symantec, Acronis, IBM's built-in backup) fail when you try to restore the data, so be sure and test them. Windows Live OneCare has never failed for me and I have had too many opportunities to use because it was the only one that never failed in the ~6 crashes or file corruptions that I've experienced over the past three years or so.

Anyway, best of luck with your decision. You question is almost like asking "which religion should I join." It's a rather emotional topic for some people. You'll figure out what doesn't / does work for you soon enough.
 
Look at some Toshiba's...I had a Toshiba Satellite and it was awesome.
 
I had a Dell all through college and had lots of problems with it. Primarily overheating issues, and towards the end it started getting really slow (like 15 minutes to start up). I know others who have had problems with Dell as well, so I wouldn't recommend them.

Just bought an Acer for med school, and so far, I really like it. Check with your school's minimum specs, but don't buy from them -- their laptops are always more expensive than market.
 
Writer1985 said:
I had a Dell all through college and had lots of problems with it. Primarily overheating issues, and towards the end it started getting really slow (like 15 minutes to start up). I know others who have had problems with Dell as well, so I wouldn't recommend them.

Just bought an Acer for med school, and so far, I really like it. Check with your school's minimum specs, but don't buy from them -- their laptops are always more expensive than market.
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Agreed, don't buy from the school until you do your own shopping and pricing comparison. I got a much better PC for about the same price as my school's discounted model.
 
Whatever you go with, get as much RAM as possible, especially if you're running Vista.

Personally I use a Mac, because I don't need to run any programs that are strictly for Windows (although nowadays you have the choice of installing Windows on your Mac). Apple tech support has been really helpful, though I've only ever had one problem with the computer so I can't say I've had to use them a lot.

I've had a lot of friends who've had major major problems with Dells. I think they are better if you buy their business line of computers but even those aren't as well manufactured as they used to be. Their tech support is downright awful. If you know anything about computers, chances are you'll know more about what's wrong with yours than the first person you get ahold of from tech support. I don't know much about HPs so I can't speak on quality for those.

Any laptop that you buy runs a risk of having problems, they all have higher failure rates than desktops. I would buy based on the best tech support ratings to be honest.
 
MacBook Pro with Windows XP. Not only is it fast, efficient, and smooth... its just so damn sexay

Besides, loading windows XP fresh on a MacBook means you don't have to deal with all the useless software and features dell and hp "load" on your laptop that really just slow it down and conflict with important stuff

And Apple's educational discounts and deals rock. I just bought my MacBook (regular $2000) for $1800 and got with it a free HP scanner/printer and free iPod 30GB... thats $350 of free stuff and a $200 discount. Not bad.
 
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eikenhein said:
It doesn't matter, all computers are pretty much the same in terms of reliability. Just get one thats cheap and fast.
Click to expand...

Not quite.

I am good friends with several Dell technicians who repair hundreds of Dells on weekly basis. They say by far the Latitudes are the most durable of Dell's notebooks, seeing only one or two per month. The Inspirons are seen the most because they are the most popular, and also less reliable due to the parts.

The first thing I did when I bought my Inspiron was replace the system memory and hard drive with my own. Since doing this I've never had any parts fail in any of my Dells. But by all means, avoid the XPS systems. They are marketed as toys and are priced as such. You should look on the Dell Outlet, as there are some great deals on Latitude systems.
 
Get an IBM thinkpad, they're the most reliable, had mine for four years, bang the hell out of it and it still works. Only problem was a fan failure, but that was fixed easily.

XPS systems are awesome for mobile gaming but are pricey and I would think somewhat unreliable due to their high-end/overclocked nature. But they are cool looking and featured in Stargate episodes🙂
 
WinstonOBoogie said:
Not quite.

I am good friends with several Dell technicians who repair hundreds of Dells on weekly basis. They say by far the Latitudes are the most durable of Dell's notebooks, seeing only one or two per month. The Inspirons are seen the most because they are the most popular, and also less reliable due to the parts.

The first thing I did when I bought my Inspiron was replace the system memory and hard drive with my own. Since doing this I've never had any parts fail in any of my Dells. But by all means, avoid the XPS systems. They are marketed as toys and are priced as such. You should look on the Dell Outlet, as there are some great deals on Latitude systems.
Click to expand...

Yes; do look at the Dell Outlet for some great deals! Avoid the new XPS systems, but you can get some great deals on outlet XPS systems. I got an XPS M1210 with much better specs than a similarly equipped Latitude for the same price, and $1000 off an identically configured new XPS. It just depends on the particular ones that they have in their inventory.

As far as memory, I wouldn't go over 2gb of RAM at this time. The price just goes exponentially up past that point to 4gb (like adding around $750 to the price of the laptop), and your performance gain will not be as big. Definitely don't go under 1GB for low-end vista laptops, and 2gb seems to be the sweet spot for all Vista systems at this point in time.

I only really chose Dell because my school does on-site repair under warranty for Dells only. Other manufacturers have to be sent off to the factory or done locally somewhere else. Example from my medical school's IS department (USF) regarding repairs...

Non-Dell Computers – Students that choose to buy computers other than our recommended brand may make an appointment with the Student Support Specialist for diagnosis of hardware problems but will be responsible for contacting their vendor/manufacturer and arranging whatever warranty service is available for their chosen brand. Because the time required for non-on-site warranty repairs that require shipping to a central repair facility, loaners may not be checked out for the duration of such repairs but will be available on a first-come first-served basis for short-term checkout for special needs such as presentations or tests.
Dell Computers – Students that choose to buy Dell computers may either work with the Student Support Specialist or simply drop off their computer at our office for diagnosis, and if repairs are needed we can initiate the parts replacement process and have the machine repaired in our office by Dell's representatives if they have purchased the next day on-site warranty. Several loaner computers are available on a first-come first-served basis while Dell computers are being serviced on-site.

Since I figure our time in medical school will be golden, I went with the Dell brands because I don't want to have to be without my laptop. Your school might be an HP shop or a Gateway shop, so you'll benefit with going with their recommended line of computers. Just my $0.02
 
I'm not to med school yet - so I don't know about specific needs for med school. I have a HP and know several people who have Dells. Theirs have all broken down multiple times, but I have not had a single problem with mine.
 
Personally, on the PC side, I go IBM >>> Dell >> HP.

That said, regardless of who you go with, pony up for the extended warranty that includes 1-2 day turnaround for on-site repairs. I always get it for 2-3 years. Computers (Dell is very guilty of this) can come to you buggy, but the kinks usually all work out (read: the faulty parts die) within a year or two.
 
notdeadyet said:
Personally, on the PC side, I go IBM >>> Dell >> HP.

That said, regardless of who you go with, pony up for the extended warranty that includes 1-2 day turnaround for on-site repairs.
Click to expand...

👍👍👍
 
notdeadyet said:
Personally, on the PC side, I go IBM >>> Dell >> HP.

That said, regardless of who you go with, pony up for the extended warranty that includes 1-2 day turnaround for on-site repairs. I always get it for 2-3 years. Computers (Dell is very guilty of this) can come to you buggy, but the kinks usually all work out (read: the faulty parts die) within a year or two.
Click to expand...

I'm curious as to your assertion that Dell is much better than HP. I'm on my second HP laptop and am more than pleased with their product and service. I've known people with Dell who have had to wait in huge lines on the phones to talk with someone and I've only had to wait 10 minutes tops. The quality has also been pretty good and I haven't noticed the problem of having things come to me so "buggy" that it would take a year or two to get worked out.

To the OP, I highly recommend HP if you are considering between the two. I just bought an HP Pavilion dv2000 from their website and absolutely love it. PM me if you have any questions about my particular model.
 
I bought an HP Paviliion dv2500t, and while I haven't recieved it yet, I did read a lot of good things about it, which made me buy it. I don't like Dells at all, the desktops are OK, but the laptops, everyone I know with a Dell laptop has issues with it. And I can't stand Dell customer service. I had to call them once because I was having issues with my desktop, and all they had me do was restart my computer about 5 times. After I did this, and absolutely nothing happened, I got angry, and said "You are obviously of no help to me. I'm going to hang up and take my computer to somebody who knows what they're doing".

Haven't had any experience with HP yet, but hopefully it won't be as bad. I have a friend who has an Acer laptop (her dad is a computer tech guy and told her to get it) and she's really happy with it.
 
I think if you like dell better than HP you probably either never had either one, or only had a dell... I used to work in a computer shop in a very small town, lots and lots of Dell products. I worked almost entirely in hardware, so that's about all I know about, but damn...Dell farms out some of the cheapest hardware I've ever seen. The one I always came across was their freakin' power cables and supplies, which were always frying themselves. Oh, and their customer support sucks really bad. HP makes okay stuff for around the same price, and at least on the hardware end, it's much better. Their customer support, while being farmed out to India (who's isn't?), is still timely, and I never had too much of a problem with them.
I personally have an HP Pavilion Zv6000 which I bought for recording music about 2 1/2 years ago, and I switched to using it for school. Only problem with it is that it's big for a laptop, and yes, both HP and Dell come pre-packed with lots of junk you don't need, just spend an hour deleting all their bull**** and you'll be fine.

***Forgot, if you can afford it, get an AMD processor with what ever you buy, much better than intell's junk.
 
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Rocky6 said:
Which one is better for med school? And whats the difference between Dell Latitude, Inspiron, and XPS?
Click to expand...

Well, HP laptops are pieces of ****, and never work, so if you plan on having a lot of free time trying to fix your laptop or waiting for it to work because it's running slow or otherwise running poorly, then a HP laptop will work just fine for you. On the other hand, if you want your laptop to actually work, I would recommend Dell (or Sony, even though you didn't list it).

I'm not too sure about Latitudes but Inspirons are basically the middle-of-the-road laptops for casual users whereas XPS laptops are for gaming and/or high end application use.

It seems like most people these days like HP, but considering how many mentions are made on how great their customer service and tech support is, well....it should be obvious that if HP machines actually worked, you'd never need to call tech support in the first place. 😛


Personally, I own a Sony VAIO and I've been extremely impressed with it. I owned a Dell laptop before, and their tech support, customer service, billing, etc. is just flat out atrocious, although I only had to use tech support once for a networking issue in the entire 3 years I owned it. My brother has owned two HP laptops so far and they've both been replaced inside of 6 months. The first one decided to screw up its display settings and HP ransomed him for 400 dollars to fix it. The second one had dead pixels on it right out of the box...on a positive note, they at least didn't charge him extra for those dead pixels. 🙂
 
Dells suck. That said, I recommend getting one for the unbeatable price. And also, get the LOWEST amount of RAM and buy two 1 gb sticks yourself because the amount they charge you to put in 2 gb of built-in is beyond highway robbery.

Recycling an old post...

About Dell,

My most recent non-dell laptop had been dispatched by some Yuengling, and I needed a replacement. Now Dell was the last thing on my mind, since I've always been told and believed that they sucked. That being said, I'm here typing on my Dell Inspiron e1505 and I couldn't be happier. With a $500 coupon discount, which you can find just by typing "dell coupons" on google, and waiting for the right one to show up, I got the following for $1165:

Inspiron E1505
Windows Vista Home Premium
1.73 Ghz intel core 2 duo T5300
Widescreen 15.4 '' wsxga+ (1600x1050)
ATI mobility radeon x1400
2 gb RAM (purchased separately for 60$ total, now I have two 512 mb sticks lying around)
80 gb 5400 RPM HD
85 Whr 9-cell battery (upgrade)
The upgraded N-gen wireless card

And here's the part that made it ok for me to get a dell:

3 year warranty + accident insurance + lojack theft protection

All of that for $1165 (including shipping) sounds like a pretty sweet deal for me. The only thing I have left to buy is a laptop bag. And hey, if it breaks, gets beer spilled on it, or falls out of a window, the warranty will cover (most of) it. Dell's cheap prices can be taken advantage of if you get the right coupons, start at the cheapest option, and always get the longest warranty and accident insurance.

Also, it is a must to reformat the hd it comes with to get rid of the massive amounts of crapware Dell puts on it.
 
Uh... Dell laptops are ugly. I don't know what HPs look like but they can't be any worse. Go for the HP.

Or just drop a few more bucks for a Thinkpad or Macbook.
 
littlealex said:
Uh... Dell laptops are ugly. I don't know what HPs look like but they can't be any worse. Go for the HP.

Or just drop a few more bucks for a Thinkpad or Macbook.
Click to expand...

well they're UGLY!??? OH NO!!!!!!! not that!
 
im real happy with my new HP. In general, overheating problems can be solved fairly simply. I prop my laptop up on something so the fan isnt blowing into a surface .5 inches away and it stays cool all the time.
 
I've owned an HP pavilion for a while now. It ran great when I first got it, but now it's complete crap. It overheats, freezes, and then shuts off on a regular basis. Plus, I don't think it's got enough horse power for med school. I don't know why, but a lot of med schools recommend Dell Latitudes on their sites concerning computers reqs; must have some deal worked out or something. I checked it out and a good version would cost around $1,600. I'm saving up to get one; as for which operating system I'm lost, some schools want XP pro. some want vista, so I'll wait till I get in first.
 
medguy83 said:
I've owned an HP pavilion for a while now. It ran great when I first got it, but now it's complete crap. It overheats, freezes, and then shuts off on a regular basis. Plus, I don't think it's got enough horse power for med school. I don't know why, but a lot of med schools recommend Dell Latitudes on a lot of their sited concerning computers reqs; must have some deal worked out or something. I checked it out and a good version would cost around $1,600. I'm saving up to get one; as for which operating system I'm lost, some schools want XP pro. some want vista, so I'll wait till I get in first.
Click to expand...

My school is in the middle of a transition. Their website says that they don't support Vista at all at the school, but the recommended laptop comes only with Vista. I'm sure many schools are going through a similiar change, and will have to support Vista come this fall. I don't think you'll have a problem with either one as long as the manufacturer pre-installs it since you'll be guaranteed to be supported.

This is why you will want a 3-4 year warranty and on-site support (if your school supports it) for any laptop you get. If it freezes or breaks, you can get it fixed and maybe they'll give you a loaner (and maybe not). You won't want to deal with a lot of downtime with your laptop during school, especially I'd figure the first two years at least.
 
Sir Buckethead said:
im real happy with my new HP. In general, overheating problems can be solved fairly simply. I prop my laptop up on something so the fan isnt blowing into a surface .5 inches away and it stays cool all the time.
Click to expand...

One of the reasons I bought the larger battery was so that it sits my computer up about an inch to help with the fan.

Seriously, who's idea was it to put the fans on the bottom so that they can't suck up any air?
 
Just a side note: please get a laptop that's not rock bottom cheap and has a hair-dryer motor for a fan. In one of my classes this year (undergrad) this guy had a huge laptop that would turn on this really loud (and I mean loud!) whenever the processor got warm. It was really annoying having to sit next to him as it was pretty noticeable.
 
"I've owned an HP pavilion for a while now. It ran great when I first got it, but now it's complete crap. It overheats, freezes, and then shuts off on a regular basis."

reformat, maybe you're just overloaded with pr0nware
 
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I second toshiba satellites. Mine was very reasonably priced and came with a free printer. I haven't had any problems with it outside of it overheating. It has a decent graphics card and a pretty fast processor; all I had to do was add some extra ram and it was good to go. You should check them out.
 
Unlike most people who say company X or company Y sucks, I will say this: "Your computer is only as good as the person cares to maintain it".

That said, I would suggest getting a Mac, but your school might have "restrictive" Windows-only software you need to run (i.e. VPN and such). Unless you are comfortable bothering the IT department all day, you might just have to get a Windows machine.

Under ALL circumstances however, I suggest you do 2 things:

1) Find a guy that can reinstall Windows for you in 4 hours or less (and recover your data as well). These people are perfect when your laptop decides to go belly-up right before a test.

2) BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP. I used to run tech support for my dorm and I hated it when people came crying to me because they never used backup software. Save yourself and your IT staff some pain and get an external HDD and some good backup software. Your future computer guy thanks you.

That's all I can say really. Just maintain whatever you buy. It's a lot more important that getting a certain brand since none of them really fall apart the first day (they just vary on the abuse they can take!) 👍
 
TheRealMD said:
That said, I would suggest getting a Mac, but your school might have "restrictive" Windows-only software you need to run (i.e. VPN and such). Unless you are comfortable bothering the IT department all day, you might just have to get a Windows machine.
Click to expand...

Don't forget, with BootCamp or Parallels, you can easily set up either Windows XP or Windows Vista on your mac and run OS X and Windows either simultaneously, switching back and forth as programs require it, or as individual boot drives, loading up as windows or os x as necessary. Its very user friendly, no unnecessary nerdiness required to get it setup.
 
TheRealMD said:
2) BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP. I used to run tech support for my dorm and I hated it when people came crying to me because they never used backup software. Save yourself and your IT staff some pain and get an external HDD and some good backup software. Your future computer guy thanks you.
Click to expand...

Xdrive.com has free software that allows you to backup your data on a scheduled basis, and you get 5GB for free. It's from AOL.
 
rmorriso said:
Don't forget, with BootCamp or Parallels, you can easily set up either Windows XP or Windows Vista on your mac and run OS X and Windows either simultaneously, switching back and forth as programs require it, or as individual boot drives, loading up as windows or os x as necessary. Its very user friendly, no unnecessary nerdiness required to get it setup.
Click to expand...

If a person is tech-savvy enough to use Parallels, they wouldn't have bothered asking the OPs question in the first place. =P

Also, even on my Macbook Pro, Parallels is sluggish. It's not something I can reliably depend on to do work (unfortunately).
 
M.Furfur said:
I don't know if there is any difference for schools. I always had Dells with no problem then I decided to go for a HP pavillion and I have lots of problems with it. It overheats and it freezes a lot. I don't know if that is a general problem with them, or if it's only my laptop that's screwed up....
Click to expand...

I had the opposite problem. I never had problems with my new HP but my old Inspiron 5100 had all sorts of problems.

As per the issue of Inspirons vs. Latitudes vs. XPS......

Inspirons for the most part have been more heavier and on the bigger side in the past though some of them are better if you are into gaming from what I hear.

However, I think the latitude is better for med school purposes as it is durable and light weight and in my opinion a better computer.
 
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Don't get a dell or hp. There both equally bad and expensive. If you want to get a good, affordable, and thin laptop, go for Toshiba. They make some of the best laptops around. You will not regret it.

(if you do decide to get a Toshiba, get the Satellite versions)
 
SnYpaJY said:
Don't get a dell or hp. There both equally bad and expensive. If you want to get a good, affordable, and thin laptop, go for Toshiba. They make some of the best laptops around. You will not regret it.

(if you do decide to get a Toshiba, get the Satellite versions)
Click to expand...

I'll vouch for this. They're nizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzeeee!
 
dell, hp, toshiba, all are good laptop companies. you shouldn't buy a laptop based on the name. buy based on the hardware. make sure you have at least 2GB RAM, 80GB hard drive, a core duo or athlon x2 processor, a size 14" or smaller monitor (if you plan on carrying it around). the big thing that people often forget, especially with a sweet price tag, is the fact that the laptop probably has a celeron m processor or 512MB RAM which are components that will make your computer obsolete in the next year or so.

that and check with your med school. certain med schools will give you a laptop (well it's factored into your tuition and fees) so it'd be a waste to buy another laptop. either that or they have specific requirements on hardware.
 
I had a dell Inspiron, really poorly built computer and had a graphics card failure (monitor started to pixellate) within a few years.

Buy a Mac. End of story.
 
I have a Dell, and it has given me no issues whatsoever.

I got it the summer before I started undergrad, and I'm starting med school this fall. Four years later it still runs great and I've never had any problems with it. I've only had to call Dell support once, and it was to fix an wireless internet issue (had to change some settings to get it to pick up a different network). And this baby's probably coming to med school with me, because I see no reason to replace a computer that runs just fine.
 
notdeadyet said:
Personally, on the PC side, I go IBM >>> Dell >> HP.

That said, regardless of who you go with, pony up for the extended warranty that includes 1-2 day turnaround for on-site repairs. I always get it for 2-3 years. Computers (Dell is very guilty of this) can come to you buggy, but the kinks usually all work out (read: the faulty parts die) within a year or two.
Click to expand...

I completely agree, I am a big computer geek and have owned several notebooks of all different kinds of make. That said for medical school you will probably want to invest in a business class notebook as these are more reliable, better built, etc.

Every manufacturer makes business and consumer models - most people buy the consumer models which break easier. For Dell i think the business class is the latitude brand, for IBM its the thinkpad.

Personally, my old IBM t40 which got me through undergrad was really abused - I dropped it MANY times, spilt water all over the keyboard, etc and it still works good as new.

Any notebook will last longer if you just have to know how to take care of it (run routine maintenance, defrag, clean up registry once in awhile, have antivirus/spyware/adware filter etc.)
 
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