Hp vs Dell vs Compaq vs Gateway?

cheapest is to build your own and those are better too.

You are comparing three company's products...

HP/Compaq are the same company, and they too the best of each line and brought it together. :D

So, HP/Compaq are better computers than Dell or Gateway.

Dell has the better Customer Service (currently rated as the best in the market right now).

Gateway are good budget computers, at an "above" budget price.

Dell are the most expensive, and have the worst reputation (Corporate)...they have been known to take refurbished parts, install into a new system and then charge as if *all* the parts were new. Then there is the $200-500 premium you pay for the Dell name.

But...as someone else said...they all have their own quirks, good or bad. Personally...I'd buy a Gateway before a Dell and a Dell only if you put a gun to my head and then paid for it out of your own pocket.

As for HP/Compaq...the HPs are the "Bargain" units, and the Compaqs the higher end stuff. Either way, they tend to be solid computers...even the ones that use Intel and nVidia chipsets.

As for which one is "cheap and reliable" All four lines have computers that fulfil that requirement...although prices vary.

For "games"...if you mean the higher-end games that have come out over the last couple months...

You'll need a minimum 2.4Ghz processor - a 2.6 would be better if you can find it (Good Luck!!!). At a minimum, you'll need the mobile version of the nVidia 8700, or the mobile ATi 1600 chipset (1900 mobile chipset would be better)...in short, ideally one that can effectively run DirectX 9.0c. Next, you want a minimum of 2 Gb of RAM, a DVD drive, and preferrably XP for the OS. Vista is a fine OS, and works wonderfully, but it tends to drag laptops down by the short and curlies with the tenacity of a 10tonne pit bull. (Oh, and make damn sure that you have the actual OS disk and not the Recovery Disk. If worst comes to worst, a Recovery Disk will only work if the HDD isn't fried. In otherwords, it needs a working OS in which to work to effect it's repairs. The OS disk allows you to re-install.)

If you have to have Vista, make sure the graphics solution is the 8800 generation for nVidia, or (my preference) the 2000 generation for ATi.

Incidentally...if you do manage to "go XP" go for the Pro edition if you can, and avoid the Media Centre edition like the plague... A co-worker did that...and he's had nothing but troubles since day #1.

Good Luck!

EDIT: Do yourself a favour...if you can, don't have MS Office installed on the machine. Go for the Office Suite offered by the fine folks that brought you Word Perfect. Why? WP is 100% compatable backwards and forwards, and will save as a WP doc, an MS Word doc, and any one of 20 other possibilities (including older versions of WP or MS Word, etc). It will also open MS docs as well as any doc from a format it can save as. ...oh, the program is also less clunky, takes less space, and it's files take less room as well.

EDIT 2: Unless you are a masochist...avoid Sun Tzu's suggestion...DIY laptops are a nightmare. Small spaces, tight tollerances, easily damaged parts (when doing everything as directed!!!), SMALL parts, etc. Simply building them can cause fatal damage in pinched wires and risk of shorts!

I've never owned a Dell, but I have a bias against them for some reason. Most of my friends have dell computers and they constantly have problems with them. I don't really see anything specialy about Dell's and they're kind of chunky.

We've had quite a few gateways, and their desktop's are amazing, but their notebooks are complete JUNK. They don't look nice, they don't offer much, they can get expensive, and they break very easily. I had one just last year, and first one of the monitor hinges broke, and then the wireless card burned out for some strange reason, and then the backlight for the screen went out. I never mistreated it, and it wasn't even a year old.

Now I have an HP and I love it to death. You can buy a very nice system with a lot of features (very nice looking too) for well under $1k. Some notebooks even come with a little remote controller that fits inside the body of the computer.

Mine has not given me any problems yet, and I think I will now only buy from HP. (I use it for exactly the same purpose as you..internet, word processing, watching dvds, and playing games.)

Just a word, if you want to play the newest best looking games, you will have to spend a lot of money. Mine plays Crysis well, but on the lowest settings (have a DV6000).

good luck!

Ok you've got these types of laptops to choose:

1. Compaq

2.Toshiba

3.Dell

4.Panasonic

5.eMachines

6.Sony Vaoi

8. Gateway

9. HP Invent

10. Mac AirBook

These are all the types out there in the market the ones you wanna look for are these in an laptop

1. 200GB or greater in an hard drive

2. At least 2GB of RAM

3. Tech Support

4. Long Battery life

5. Wireless connection compatibility

6. CD/DVD drive

With these yo are sure to be able find something but in my request:

1.HP (Range of $799 or higher

2.DELL (range of $799 or higher

3.SONY (range of $899 or below

4. Mac AirBook (This one is about the range of over $900

hp owns compaq so those units are the same (compaq makes you pay more for the case and the screen flash)

gateway is cheapest for a multitiude of reasons

dell is well dell need i say more??

depending on how much you want to spend features you want or bling bling bells and whistles

durtability and shgeer sh*Tkicking notebooks are toshiba

but they will cost you a little more

All of them have their flaws depending on what model your looking at. I personally would go with a dell or gateway. I have had a lot of problems with the other two in the past.

Well for your info HP and Compaq are one company. So their brands do not differ that much. I like Hp their sleek looks, Support even though it is in India. Well I can brag about them since almost all my comp. stuff in the house are Hp.

Dell customer support sucks. Breakups everyday I think too much refub. stuff.

Gateway not sure since I havent seen that many frinds use.

DELL