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My father is in the market for a PC and he wants a reliable brand-name. He used to use Dell, but given what I've heard about their customer support and quality lately, that seems like a bad idea. Does anyone know what brand names have the best reputation for reliability and customer service?

Darth Wong wrote:Does anyone know what brand names have the best reputation for reliability and customer service?

Compaq is still pretty good despite HP's presence.

Xisiqomelir wrote:

Darth Wong wrote:Does anyone know what brand names have the best reputation for reliability and customer service?

Compaq is still pretty good despite HP's presence.

Ummm... Compaq was the worst BEFORE HP bought them out.

IBM and Acer have good reputations, as does (to a lesser extent) Toshiba.

I don't have any particular recommendations for, but stay the hell away from eMachines.

Master of Ossus wrote:IBM and Acer have good reputations, as does (to a lesser extent) Toshiba.

Lenovo has the old IBM PC business. I agree that they are good.

I never had any problems with Medion and my current one, a Fujitsu-Siemens, is great.

IBM/Lenovo's PC line seems like a big pile of meh to me and those machines are generally built for the managed corporate environment anyways so you'd be paying a price premium.

Xisiqomelir wrote:

Darth Wong wrote:Does anyone know what brand names have the best reputation for reliability and customer service?

Compaq is still pretty good despite HP's presence.

I think it's the other way around.

Compaq has been better since HP bought them.


IBM and HP are probably the best.


HP I really like because all their computers have firewire ports and it doesn't have the price markup of other brands that do (like Sony).

I can't recommend HP consumer computers. My fiancee's laptop had too many problems in the 3 1/2 years she owned it, culminating in the power socket breaking.

I've had good success with Gateway, actually, though they might have changed since we last bought some.

phongn wrote:I've had good success with Gateway, actually, though they might have changed since we last bought some.

We've had pretty decent experiences with their corporate products at work, although I don't know if that relates to their home-oriented computers.

If you are looking at a notebook I would suggest BenQ or Acer.

Beowulf wrote:I can't recommend HP consumer computers. My fiancee's laptop had too many problems in the 3 1/2 years she owned it, culminating in the power socket breaking.

HP's desktop division is a somewhat different beast than their laptop division, though. Every HP desktop I've seen has been fairly well made and generally sturdy. Even if their laptops are a bit flimsy in comparison. (Though the HP laptop I own right now hasn't had any serious issues, and the one issue I had was resolved fairly quickly through their customer service via email.) So at least as far as customer service goes, HP's got it down fairly well.

I don't know why HP's laptop division has such a bad reputation. My friend made me carry her Inspiron laptop yesterday, and I was STUNNED by how cheap the thing felt compared to any of the HP laptops that I've used--the plastic cover flexed noticeably when I just picked the thing up!

Master of Ossus wrote:I don't know why HP's laptop division has such a bad reputation. My friend made me carry her Inspiron laptop yesterday, and I was STUNNED by how cheap the thing felt compared to any of the HP laptops that I've used--the plastic cover flexed noticeably when I just picked the thing up!

My girlfriend has gone through 2 Inspirons in 3 years. Both have battery/cooling problems. She's getting an MBP in Spring.

Xisiqomelir, were both Dells/batteries specifically in the Dell-battery incident?

Beowulf wrote:I can't recommend HP consumer computers. My fiancee's laptop had too many problems in the 3 1/2 years she owned it, culminating in the power socket breaking.

Eek, what model was that and when were these?

Incidentally, that sounds similar to what happened to my dv1000, as recounted on previous threads here, albeit the problems only started this year... (Beforehand, "only" the DVD burner stopped working, the power woes came way more recently; although oddly they seemed to go away before coming back more severe recently. No other problems, though.)

I don't know why HP's laptop division has such a bad reputation.

I don't know this either.

Master of Ossus wrote:the plastic cover flexed noticeably when I just picked the thing up!

Had the point-of-movement between screen and computer on my laptop become loose, but only very recently.

Hopefully the youth of my newer laptop will help -- if I don't return it.

I hear Cray makes good computers

A business-class computer would be acceptable. I'm not a student, and neither is my father. A few hundred extra bucks is not significant for me and it's certainly not significant for him, if that's would actually get a more reliable machine instead of one that just has some extra whizbang features like "Media Center" or some other shit.

If money isn't as much of an issue, your father would probably be best off with a Lenovo notebook. The only knock that I've heard about them is that you have to pay a premium for their products. In return, their service and support is about as good as you're going to find in the industry. I've also heard good things about Panasonic notebooks, but they are even more expensive, and they're really meant for more people who need ruggedized products.

As a side note, an extended warranty may also be of interest to your father. The three-year warranties tend to cover stuff like accidental damage and the like as well. This isn't a big deal for a sub-$1000 notebook since the additional warranty usually costs $300+, but it's worth looking at for a $1800+ system.

There's definitely a difference between HP's business and consumer lines - the business models are put together much better, though HP's new consumer also feels quite solid to touch, and a world beyond Dell.

I've got an Asus notebook sitting on my desk that I'm quite happy with. They come with a two year global warranty and I think they get same day service at most places when claiming in North America, I could be wrong about that though.

Ypoknons wrote:There's definitely a difference between HP's business and consumer lines - the business models are put together much better, though HP's new consumer also feels quite solid to touch, and a world beyond Dell.

Are the HP Pavilion dv2000's that new? (Glad to hear that they > Dell.)

Darth Wong wrote:My father is in the market for a PC and he wants a reliable brand-name. He used to use Dell, but given what I've heard about their customer support and quality lately, that seems like a bad idea. Does anyone know what brand names have the best reputation for reliability and customer service?

Velocity Micro builds outstanding machines, and treats their customers like gold. If there are any problems or complications with a machine during delivery, or throughout the course of use while under warranty, they resolve all issues at their expense, as fast as can be reasonably expected.

The only problem for your particular case, however, is the fact that Velocity Micro focuses on building machines for computer games, something I doubt your father really cares about. Because of that, their cheapest rig starts at 999, but you get good hardware and a virtual guaruantee that the machine you get will fullfill your expectations.

If it's not too pricey for you or your father's budget, you can't go wrong with Velocity Micro (make sure to get the extended warranty).

Ypoknons wrote:There's definitely a difference between HP's business and consumer lines - the business models are put together much better, though HP's new consumer also feels quite solid to touch, and a world beyond Dell.

HP's business line is rock-solid and I wouldn't hesitate to suggest them.

phongn wrote:

Ypoknons wrote:There's definitely a difference between HP's business and consumer lines - the business models are put together much better, though HP's new consumer also feels quite solid to touch, and a world beyond Dell.

HP's business line is rock-solid and I wouldn't hesitate to suggest them.

Friend of mine has an HP laptop, works quite well.