Looking to buy a new Laptop. How is HP?

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Bananapie

New Member
I am looking into getting a new laptop, for the sake of having a new laptop. All of my computers, besides the one I just built(desktop) has been a Dell, and the quality of their equipment has not failed me yet.

So I was looking at the customizable laptops, and so far, I can get a better deal going through HP than Dell. I do a LOT of gaming, so I tend to like to upgrade the video card and ram a bit, processor if it isn't to crazy.

Well it seems, as I said before, that I get a better deal going through HP, rather than Dell, on paper. But how is the quality of their equipment and service?

It will be a couple months before I even order, just trying to get ideas on if they are reliable, or just the standard for computers, which is why everyone has one.
 
HP are good machines and the support is excellent.

However your statement here;

So I was looking at the customizable laptops, and so far, I can get a better deal going through HP than Dell. I do a LOT of gaming, so I tend to like to upgrade the video card and ram a bit, processor if it isn't to crazy.
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Will not work unless you have a dedicated GPU card and not integrated like most laptops are.

Memory is another matter and can be upgraded.
 
I have several HP laptops, one of them was a custom model.

Be sure to research the models you are looking at, as some have have well-known design flaws that HP refuses to recognize: the G72, for instance, is a very thin 17.3" LCD model, but little in-built support for the LCD, making it much easier to break and the early DV series, (DV2, DV4) have insufficient cooling (and a bad batch of graphics chips) which make them not suited to gaming.

With that said, I can't complain about HPs warranty repair service-- they earned my loyalty when dealing with my DV4 graphics issues.

Be sure to buy accident insurance for those units with larger screens, though-- HP won't repair a broken screen under warranty without it.
 
Dngrsone said:
I have several HP laptops, one of them was a custom model.

Be sure to research the models you are looking at, as some have have well-known design flaws that HP refuses to recognize: the G72, for instance, is a very thin 17.3" LCD model, but little in-built support for the LCD, making it much easier to break and the early DV series, (DV2, DV4) have insufficient cooling (and a bad batch of graphics chips) which make them not suited to gaming.

With that said, I can't complain about HPs warranty repair service-- they earned my loyalty when dealing with my DV4 graphics issues.

Be sure to buy accident insurance for those units with larger screens, though-- HP won't repair a broken screen under warranty without it.
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I will probably order the 15.6" models. I'm not to big of a fan when it comes to the 17". Just feels to big for me.

I'm also not aiming at hardcore gaming, but looking for something that could play BF3 or the new MMO Star Wars: KOTOR coming out, that would be a huge plus. It is kind of hard to tell right now as they don't have minimum requirements out yet, but just getting on idea on the brand. They seem relatively cheap.
 
To tell you the truth, I'm not a fan of the 17.3" screen myself. I have one now because it was what my wife bought for watching movies on and she got a new one after breaking the LCD on the first (and my DV4Z was just giving me too many problems... a combination of the aforementioned heating problems and temperature-sensitive hard drives).

My next one will likely be smaller.
 
Yeah, not a fan of the 17" at all.

So would you recommend ordering an HP, or going elsewhere?

I personally have had NO problem at all with the past three Dell's I have ordered, but the price for what I get lacks compared to what I get from HP, so I was just checking around.

Any other companies let you customize, for alright prices? I looked up Asus, but it seems what it says, you get. No customization?
 
Wolfeymole said:
Well I like Acer machines and their support is very good.
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Acer even. Do they have any custom option, or is it just straight forward "This is what we sell"

I suppose I don't need the customizable option, but it will just take a bit longer to find one that fits. haha
 
Well just how customizable do you want it to be?

Laptops are not like desktops Banana and you are very limited in what you can do.

Stripping a laptop down can be a nightmare in its own right and if you don't know what you are doing you could end up trashing the whole machine.
 
Wolfeymole said:
Well just how customizable do you want it to be?

Laptops are not like desktops Banana and you are very limited in what you can do.

Stripping a laptop down can be a nightmare in its own right and if you don't know what you are doing you could end up trashing the whole machine.
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Completely aware of that. Just like the customization that Dell and HP offer. You setup from a listing of components what you want in your machine, and they build it to that specification. Given I want a Blu-Ray player, etc... there could be an option to put that in there. Or upgrade the hard drive, ram, etc for $(enter amount here) and whatnot.

I'm not looking to do it myself, which I think is what you are aiming at. I'm sure Acer has such laptops with said components, just takes more hunting down. I'll have to play with their filter more tomorrow.
 
Bananapie said:
Yeah, not a fan of the 17" at all.

So would you recommend ordering an HP, or going elsewhere?

I personally have had NO problem at all with the past three Dell's I have ordered, but the price for what I get lacks compared to what I get from HP, so I was just checking around.

Any other companies let you customize, for alright prices? I looked up Asus, but it seems what it says, you get. No customization?
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Most laptop companies have a custom series, it's just a matter of shopping around for the best features/price ratio. HP is, in my opinion, good, but like every company they have better products and not-so-good ones. Again, it's up to you the buyer to determine which are which.
 
Well I had an HP laptop that broke within a year and it was over $1000, and my older bro had one prior to that, that also had a failed motherboard. So with past experiences, I would never recommend HP anything, but printers.
 
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