are HP's overpriced?

yes they are!!!!!

I live in London and i needed a budget desktop for my work so i looked at hp.They had a desktop without monitor for £399 (AMD sempron 3.00ghz) i was outraged!!!!! I got my dell with 15" TFT monitor Celeron 3.2ghz

But that is desktops i still think HP are expensive in all there systems.

This type of question is always a difficult one to answer. Things are not always apples 2 apples... Let's say you compare the 8000t to the Dell Inspiron E1705. They are pretty close, and both have things that may or may not appeal to different users. The E1705 has a higher resolution screen, the HP offers what many consider to be a superior LCD experience. The E1705 definately has better graphic card options, while the HP has the capability for dual hard drives, a numeric keypad and a somewhat more pleasing design. In my own personal experiences, HP support was superior to DELL...is that worth anything that you'd a little extra on the purchase price?

I think that what HP needs to do is to really take a look at the competition (namely DELL) and make sure that they either meet or beat them at comparable price points. Dell really does have cut rate prices, but I don't think they get there by not cutting corners. These things have to be considered when you make a purchase. You're not just buying a laptop, you're also buying the company behind the laptop.

The price is determined by the market. You can always look for promotions. Dell's computers' list price is way overpriced. That's why they can afford huge discount coupon every week. 30-33% off is not uncommon from Dell.

Good info and I'll add the HP Pavilion dv8000t notebook has recently started shipping with the 7600 series 128bit video card... before it was the 7400 ... 7600 is supposed to be a pretty decent video card. The 7600 Go is a substantially more powerful part if only due to the 128 bit memory bandwidth as opposed to 64 bit on the 7400 Go. The graphics comparison chart on this website also mentions the 7600 Go as the equivalent of an x1600, which has been getting ~2500 to 3500 3dMark05 scores. The 7400 gets around 2000 out of the box. DV8000T - now with GeForce 7600 Go http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=55821 To the orginal poster... I checked out DELL but everything I looked at was higher priced than HP. DELL may be cost effective if you know how to "work" their coupon system....For each machine I spec'd out DELL was several hundred dollars more than the HP's. I don't know how their coupon system works but I would not be a "happy" camper if I ordered something thru them, only to find out that if I'd placed the order with some kind of super-duper coupon I could have got it cheaper.... Placed the order on the wrong day.. wrong time of day, etc thereby missing out on their "special" pricing... (Anyone that knows how to get the best price on a DELL, please do tell... I'd hate to place an order to find out I missed out on a deal because I didn't give them the special handshake, or whatever ) I sort of like vendors who post a final price... don't mark their "list" up on everything 30%.... Then offer some kind of limited time offer, rush, rush rush to buy now type promo. Could be wrong on that, just remember that the pricing I saw thru DELL was higher... Probally APPLES and ORANGES fiqure into that since the machines I spec'd were not the "same" as spiderkhan has pointed out above. Each has it's pro's and cons... Depends on what you're going be be USING the machine for. For example it makes NO sense to spend hundred of dollars more for a machine with a good video card.... If you're not going to play "games" (Or do some kind of CAD drafting) That being said if I can find "deal" I'll go with the "deal", jumping thru the hoops as needed...

The interesting thing about HP is that the dv5000t (15.4") and 8000t (17") are only $10 apart in price, with identical components-- except the 8000t also has a better graphics card-- the nvidia 7600 vs. the 7400 in the 5000t.

Dell, on the other hand, charges a premium for moving up in screen size. The e1505 is cheaper [again, assuming a similar configuration] than the 5000t by a couple hundred dollars, but the e1705 is actually a bit more expensive than the 8000t. (I configured the e1505 and the e1705 with the aTi X1400 cards, as they are more comparable to the nvidia 7600 than the nvidia 7800GTX)

So the dv8000t is a steal IMO for a 17" notebook; the 5000t is average as far as pricing.

Exactly, Dell does play the price game and HP is definatly more "here is what you get". For an informed buyer though, the Dell coupon madness can yield a sweet system for a good price. I wish they would just price these things fairly to begin with, but thats thier bad. I think that the coupon game gets addictive, and I think that's how Dell keeps a certain segment of their online buyer. The make you think you're gettin the laptop for a steal, and you keep jumping the hoops over and over again trying to "beat" the system.

Yeah.

Just last week they had a few great deals. Basically,

$250 off for any Inspiron
$500 off any Inspiron over $1500 normally
$750 off any Inspiron over $2000 normally.

All you had to do to get the latter 2 deals was enter in the coupon code they gave you after configuring a system over that minimum price. You could load one up with 2Ghz, 2GB RAM, top end video card, tv tuner.... all for about $1250 before shipping/tax.

Can't go wrong with buying HPs at costco.com. There's always the occassional rebate and the 6 months return policy.

Hmm, are we talking 1750 AUD? That's about 1312 USD. If this is the configuration then I would say it's a fairly good deal. The US equivalent comes in this price range, about 1865 AUD w/o discounts for a dv5000t CTO with the identical options.

I would still go with Dell though if you can get a killer coupon like they have in the US.

HP also has a 10% coupon for completing their online survey.