[OPLINTECH] Eval of HP or Dell

Fri Oct 29 09:41:24 EDT 2010

Frank, et.al.

I purchase (as I'm sure you all do) the hardware that in my opinion will serve our library the 
best OVERALL. Since the greatest cost of hardware is not the purchase, but in support and 
maintenance, these factors weigh very heavily in my decision. I have had most major brands of 
hardware introduced into my purview from various sources over my tenure as a Net Admin. for the 
Wood County District PL, and I can say I have had very similar 'mean time between failure' 
rates on them all, including Dell and HP. None are perfect (of course) and all have various 
good an bad models. That being said however, I have had dramatic and consistent differences in 
the way a company supports and/or rectifies these problems. To date, I have never had a Dell 
problem addressed and resolved with anywhere near the ease and speed of a similar problem I 
have had with HP hardware. The difference in my personal experience has been so consistent, 
that I will not even consider Dell for purchase regardless of the price. Even though I have 
Dell computers currently active in my library, for the past 6 years or so, I have been 
purchasing HP hardware exclusively, and have been very satisfied with the level of service and 
support from HP. 

Just my opinion based on my experience; I know others have had dissimilar experiences. 
KP

Date sent:	Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:24:15 -0400
From:	Chad Neeper <cneeper at level9networks.com>
Organization:	Level 9 Networks
To:	oplintech at lists.oplin.org
Subject:	Re: [OPLINTECH] Eval of HP or Dell

HP requires its resellers to be authorized by HP before a reseller can sell most HP 
systems/components. I'm not an HP reseller and so when I'm looking at my distributor's pricing 
information, I can see the HP items, but I'm not privy to most of the HP pricing. However, that 
being said, there are numerous times when a particular HP item IS available to me to resell. 
Anecdotally, I've noticed that the pricing assigned to those HP items that ARE available to me 
are usually significantly higher cost. I can't think of a single time when I've chosen an HP-
branded component over another manufacturer. I don't know the reason, nor have I really cared 
enough to pursue the issue.

That being said, however, the HP branded equipment I see from HP authorized resellers seems 
competitive enough in pricing. I've also had experience in using various HP workstations over 
the years. In general, when comparing a similarly-spec'ed business-class computer between Dell 
and HP, I personally would be perfectly fine with either one with regards to hardware quality.

I can't speak as to warranty issues for HP, but I do have a client with 200+ Dells that have 
needed various warranty work over the years. The Dell warranty experience was reportedly very 
good every time.

In general, if your motherboard problems were with computers that all used the same 
motherboard, then (it would be hard, but) I'd suggest trying to not let it color your 
experience with that particular company too overly much. Over the years, I've seen more than 
one otherwise very good manufacturer be plagued by a bad run of motherboards in a particular 
model of computer. Bad components, bad manufacturing process, bad design, maybe even bad luck 
can really put an end-user off from a particular manufacturer. Where, in the grand scheme of 
things, any other component model from the same manufacturer would have been completely 
reliable.

Switching manufacturers because of a bad run of identical computers may not gain you anything. 
You could have easily had the same issues with another manufacturer.

HOWEVER, if you've had considerable problems with various non-identical components from the 
same manufacturer, then I'd be more tempted to jump ship. Also, having bad experiences with 
support would definitely put me off the manufacturer.

...Just some thoughts on the matter. Hope they are useful.

Chad
______________________________
Chad Neeper
Senior Systems Engineer

Level 9 Networks
740-548-8070 (voice)
866-214-6607 (fax)

Full LAN/WAN consulting services -- Specialized in libraries and schools

On 10/28/2010 1:00 PM, Pantuso, Frank wrote: 
    Sorry for any cross posting.

    We are currently using Dell workstations exclusively and are looking into possibly replacing 
    them. We have had so much trouble with the motherboards on the units, I was considering HP as 
    an alternative

    Anyone have any insight, comments or general feedback on one over the other. Could anyone 
    recommend some Web sites that can provide a reasonable evaluation of HP and Dell.

    Thanks for any input you can provide

    Frank Pantuso
    Network Services Coordinator
    Akron-Summit County Public Library

    _______________________________________________
    OPLINTECH mailing list
    OPLINTECH at lists.oplin.org
    http://mail.oplin.org/mailman/listinfo/oplintech
    Search: http://oplin.org/techsearch

        ----------------------------------------
        Kevin Puffer   ---    kpuffer at wcnet.org     
        Network Administrator
        Wood County District Public Library  
        251 N. Main St.  Bowling Green, OH  43402
        (419) 352-5104 Ext.200    
        http://wcdpl.lib.oh.us/              
        ========================================

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.oplin.org/pipermail/oplintech/attachments/20101029/92577b8f/attachment-0001.html