"Take home message: don't buy HP unless you absolutely have to."
Gotta chuckle on that one.
The problems you are finding really center on whether you purchase a consumer class or a business class machine. I agree it shouldn't be that way but it is. I would recommend that AC users not purchase a consumer class machine for your office, especially when an office attempts to make their purchase last 3-5 years. You really do "get what you pay for".
In my previous role, we actually had a dedicated team to evaluate desktop and workstation hardware vendors and their hardware offerings. We did comparisons and testing between HP, Dell, IBM (now Lenovo), Gateway & SUN and we monitored our warranty experience with all the vendors.
You guys might laugh after Al's post but HP came out consistently on top. With their business class machines, HP had the best in class performance, durability and design. They just were designed to last.
If I were going to buy desktops again, I would recommend looking at the HP xw4600 Workstation line. Something more like:
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/en/WF05a/12454-12454-296719-307907-296721-3429268.html
