What is the difference in dell and hp? if they have the same processor, graphics...

[shelbyguy84]

There are several major laptop mfrs(all in China and Taiwan); they are contracted to make the laptops for every major brand of laptop that you can think of, including Dell, HP, Sony, Acer, you name it. A lot of them do use the same internal hdwe across different brands, but with external cosmetic appearances.There are also differences in the quality of components used, but the BIG difference is not in the hardware, but in the support, when something goes wrong. Cheap laptops usually get minimal or no service and you get a phone # of a support center in India that will probably give you the runaround, while a higher priced system may have a totally better phone support system as well as higher grade hardware, regardless of brand.

follow the link for the full article...but here's an excerpt...

""A huge percentage of notebook PCs shipped out of mainland China are actually made by Taiwan-based companies.

According to Taiwan's Market Intelligence Center (MIC), the island's notebook PC suppliers will account for about 67 percent, or 33.5 million units, of total global production in 2004. These suppliers are the contract manufacturers of the world's leading notebook PC brands such as Sony, Toshiba, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Fujitsu-Siemens and Dell, and large retail chains such as Wal-Mart.

Three categories of notebook PC suppliers in Taiwan
Notebook PC suppliers in Taiwan are either pure contract manufacturers, contract manufacturers with their own brands, or big-brand, non-manufacturing companies.

The pure contract manufacturers include some of Taiwan's largest privately owned companies, such as Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, Wistron, Inventec, Arima Computer, First International Computer (FIC), Mitac and Uniwill Computer. These companies focus on OEM and ODM services instead of marketing their own brands.

Contract manufacturers that also market their own brands include Clevo Computer, Twinhead International and motherboard makers Asustek Computer and Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), which are new entrants in the line.

Makers that supply notebook PCs bearing their own brands but without manufacturing capability include Acer Group and BenQ. These vendors rely mainly on pure contract manufacturers. For instance, Wistron is a spinoff of Acer and is one of the latter's major notebook PC contract manufacturers.

Taiwan's notebook PC makers rely heavily on orders from the world's top 10 vendors. Orders from other companies are relatively small. The two top pure contract manufacturers, Quanta and Compal, account for nearly two-thirds of production, with the remainder divided among half a dozen other large makers. Quanta has initially targeted to ship 14 million notebook PCs in 2004, while Compal projected 8 million units. Quanta has since lowered its target to 11 million units in Q3 2004, after shipping only 4.5 million units in H1 2004. "

[cloud9vr4]

...card, wireless card ect.? Do all computer brand use the same everything else, like motherboard and such. If so why would a dell be worse than a hp or gateway ect.? Do they all use the same parts, is anything made by individual company's themselves, or no. thanks! also this question is regarding laptops btw

[thesnakedoctor8]

When you buy dell or Hp, you are simply buying the brand. You can shop almost anywhere and get "The Exact" same computer (hardware is identical) from dell, Hp, acer, and some other brands. They generally use the same parts. For motherboards, all brands tend to go with an integrated amd/intel mobo, asus, nvidia, or a couple other brands. You can order a dell or Hp with the same identical processor (amd or intel). Ram is standard ram unless upgraded. Dell and Hp uses the same type of video cards, integrated to any series within ati or nvidia. All these properties are the same regarding laptops. The main difference between Dell and Hp is, how the case looks and what the logo looks like thats slapped on the side of the case.

[Joseph F]

The answers here by and large are correct. Most low end to medium range laptops all use standard off the shelf parts. Motherboards by Asus. Hard drives by Toshiba. CPUs from either Intel or AMD. Sometimes VIA. Graphics cards from NVDIA or ATI. RAM has a dozen or so different manufacturers. The laptops themselves are assembled by this one company in Taiwan whose name escapes me right now. Basically, the manufacturers are system integrators.

So what is the differentiating factor. Price. Brand name.

If you want premium go Acer (top end models only). Asus (top models only). Sony. Lenovo. However top quality demands top price. Let your wallet be your guide.