HP vs Gateway

[Deja Q]

[Wcross]

1. Roll your own!

http://www.pricewatch.com/

[Deja Q]

2. Hey, they don't have tramps!

:rofl:

I was talking peoples' perceptions of product, not price.

Personally, both brands are good.

[dropkickpa]

3. Having owned both

I have to go with HP.

[Deja Q]

4. Better quality, more features for the price?

I was torn yesterday (and still have time to change my mind) between both a HP and Gateway; but the Gateway had a little more oomph for the money and had cost a bit less... not by too much, mind you and I did like them both...

[dropkickpa]

7. My gateways (had 2)

Both burned out on me. Not sure exactly why, they just ended up dying a relatively short time after purchase (just out of warranty, about 2 years for each). Most of my family had similar issues with their gateways (we all went gateway for a while there, lured by the lower price and oomph factors). I had issues with their tech support a couple times, with them basically telling me "I don't know what else to do" with no follow up.

My cheap ass 6 year old HP paviliion, on the other hand, is still going strong (damn the thing, I have no excuse to get a new 'puter!!). I've also had better luck with tech support with my HP. Prior to my warranty running out, all help was free and they were awesome. My warranty has long since run out, but I had an issue about a year ago (my brother had done some things that screwed up the computer) and trying to get it fixed was a huge pain in the ass until I called HP tech support (had to pay a $45 fee since I was out of warranty). The guy who helped me was fantastic and extremely nice, spending hours on the phone with me and consulting with others to try to find the fix, and he helped me fix everything! Money well spent, and I called back to give him a big ol' thumbs up to his supervisor.

It HAS been 6 years since I've owned a gateway, so maybe things have changed :shrug:

[DarkTirade]

8. That's odd, my experience has been the opposite. :)

Every HP computer I've used has been a piece of shite that died or glitched up far too early and often, and the only reason my parents aren't STILL using their old 486 Gateway with Windows 3.1 or their Pentium-90 is because they got better computers. :)
Of course, Gateway's quality could have gone down since we got our first two computers from them. It has been a while.

[NMDemDist2]

11. me too, I still have my Gateway from 2002 running as my wireless and print server

HP's suck at everything but printers in my experience.

I have another Gateway I'm tuning up to give away from 1999, she's still running like a champ and I have upgraded both boxes (added video cards or more memory) with no problems

opppsss, I did have to add an additional cooling fan to one when we moved it into a new desk in Arizona but other than that no problems with either box and the first Gateway I bought is still running for the gal I gave it to almost 6 years ago.

[DarkTirade]

12. Of course, homebuilt is better than either one IMO.

But that wasn't an option. :)

[Deja Q]

16. Not for laptops, and even Asus would sell their own rather than let me build...

:evilgrin:

[DarkTirade]

17. Yeah, laptops I wouldn't build myself.

But then again, I don't travel much and I'm cheap, so I've only ever owned desktops and towers.

[Deja Q]

18. As I want to get out of the house more, a laptop would suit me better...

Heh, lugging around a massive 50LB desktop, 15LB monitor, mouse, keyboard, and 20LB UPS just to use it for 21 minutes seems naff...

[Deja Q]

14. Yipes.

My parents had a gateway desktop that lasted 8 years and still runs perfectly.

I did get the extended warranty for the Gateway, so I'll probably be A-OK... (I wanted to like the HP models BB sells, but neither was Linux friendly and a lot of people were having trouble finding XP drivers.)

[QMPMom]

5. Which one is easier to upgrade? Last thing I knew, it was hard to

do much upgrading on an HP. I had an HP at one time and it was almost obsolete by the time I bought it. Don't know what the situation is with Gateway on that front.

[Deja Q]

6. A brief checking on the web has Linux video support for the Gateway but not the HP

Downgrading to XP on the HP was said to be a hassle too.

Haven't checked into wifi, network, or audio yet... but I'm more inclined to stick with the Gateway for now.

[pokerfan]

13. It all starts with the motherboard

That dictates pretty much everything. Research that to death and if you're still happy, go with it.

My third Gateway is getting a little long in the tooth but I was more than happy with my Gateway Intel P4 Monterrey Motherboard.

Never had any problems that I couldn't fix.

The soundcard died after a couple of years but that was an easy replacement. Cost me twenty bucks at CompuUSA. And I added a hard drive.

But this four year old is still chugging along. Still on SP2, not even considering Vista at the moment.

[Lionel Mandrake]

9. HP makes good printers.

My wife and I have three of them. Tech support from HP has also been good. My only complaint is lack of software (other than drivers) for Macs.

[Deja Q]

15. Laser printers, yes...

Though their quality has dipped a bit over the last 5 years. Still much better than Dell's...

But deskjets? I bought the 1220C in 2000. Lightly used, the roller started flaking and burning just after the extended warranty ended, 3 years later. Lightly used. That angered me.

Since then I've used Epson. The wide format Stylus Photo series with pigment inks... Print quality is light years ahead of everyone else and has held up nicely, with moderate printing over the last few years. Though I've trailed off slightly since.

Can't complain about Macs; that's up to the OEMs and software makers and when Adobe starts dropping Mac support (Premiere), you know there's trouble. I know a lot of Mac people tend to complain on certain products, usually the ones I buy for the same reasons which really seems odd (another reason why those TV adverts are misleading). And then Apple does the same thing by saying "Our award winning monitors are PC compatible!!" yet they don't bother with even a single ICC profile. Dell's high end line uses the same flat panel as Apple does, so one day I may risk buying one of them. Never mind opening up any Apple and you'll see nothing less than the same Intel processor and IDE hard drive used in any PC, and an OS that came from open source - hence Apple's easy transition to the x86 platform.

[Lionel Mandrake]

20. Uh, you lost me there.

What's an ICC profile?

People with Wintel machines are unlikely to buy Apple monitors, because they are so expensive. Maybe that's why Apple isn't trying very hard.

You mentioned Dell. I recently bought a Dell computer with a high end Dell monitor. My other machines are Macs. I need to run some software under Windows, and I don't want to use a Mac keyboard to run Windows software (hence I chose not to buy a Mac with dual OSs). I screwed up slightly by buying the Dell machine with a cheap graphics card; Vista performance is not what it should be, but I can live with it.

[Deja Q]

21. Okay

ICC profile - color profile so the computer can properly identify the monitor and work with its capable color gamut. Indispensable for graphic designers, dilettante even as I am...

Apple monitors are expensive; but they also use the best quality flat panel technology (S-IPS?) to show the widest range of colors. It's said Apple's platform is most used by graphic designers.

Apple also knows certain regular PC users would buy their brand (again, graphic designers); hence their calling out to them and claiming "PC Compatible".

What's the video card in the Dell? Vista definitely wants a higher end model to run optimally as it uses DirectX to manipulate the front-end GUI. (I'd otherwise avoid Dell as well, though if I recall it's their 2007FPW that uses the same brand S-IPV... at least for a while, some rumors claim Dell switched to PVA (or possibly S-PVA) to cut costs...)

[Lionel Mandrake]

23. My graphics card is 128MB nVidia GeForce 8300 GS

(whatever that means). It gets a score of 3.3 on Microsoft's test of Vista performance. A score of 3 is required for "aqua" (if I remember the jargon correctly). I should probably upgrade to 8600 GT or GTS. My Dell monitor is an "UltraSharp 2407FPW" (24 inch, flat panel, widescreen).

[Inchworm]

10. Gateway has excellent support after you buy one

That has been my experience.

:hi:

[CatholicEdHead]

19. Gateway

As I have a good eMachines laptop (back when they were branded as such) which has been rock solid.

I am not a fan of HP or Compaq computers at all going back a decade and their weird setup and reinstall ways.

For printers HP all the way. Lexmark is crap all around. Whereas my lowend HP DeskJet 3720 still keeps going without a problem (it recently got demoted by a LaserJet 1020).

[Deja Q]

22. Their laserjets are good, I'll agree...

Still won't backtrack in saying they've dipped in quality (I've seen 8100s and HP5s work far longer than some 4350s and 2420s, the latter from even mild use...), but I sure prefer them to anyone else's laser printers.