if not DELL, then what?

[kerosene]

Originally posted by perth

It's really a question of who sucks the *least*. And of the big ones today, I would say that's IBM, and I personally think HP is somewhere at either 2 or 3, remembering that I mean *business* support, not home user. As I said, I know these guys, I'm biased. But I also know they're well-trained and have access to very good resources.

I am very much in agreement with this. Of course, I am also biased, because I also know how well the people who support HP business machines are. Perth and I both worked with them. I would discourage him, however, from purchasing any of the consumer level products from any of the major computer labels. Dell, IBM, HP...they are all crap when it comes to consumer support. And a person with little technical knowledge is going to have much less luck with the average dimwit in Pavilion or Presario support than someone with a technical background of any kind. The other idea behind this belief is that *if* he buys a consumer machine he *will* have to call support, but if he purchases a business machine, he will have less of a chance of that. Pavilions and Presarios come preloaded with so much crap that it's a wonder the systems boot at all (when they do). He will pay more for a business system, but he is paying for better support and less of the stupid crap that pavilion owners must contend with.