Ok, the poll question is for laptops and desktop pre-built systems. It is not meant for home built pc's or particular part lists. I want to know how much of a difference a certain brand may have over another: assume same parts, just how they are configured and tested, quality control and so forth.

My question arises from my laptop being a ton faster than my fathers during hibernate and sleep even though his in theory should be equivalent or slightly faster.

both systems are running vista premium SP1 and i'm having a great experience and when I use his, well, i'm disappointed. His will take around 30 sec's to wake up while mine is on in less then 2 sec. As far as I can tell, they have the same settings in Vista.

My friend who is a computer engineer told me it is most likely because each manufacturer tweaks their own bios code. Any thoughts on this?

I doubt it's BIOS settings.
It most certainly is some type of configuration difference.

It could even be the level of sleep the device is entering.
There can be reasons why some fully sleep and others do not.

When it comes to Laptops, I will only purchase a Dell.
The reason is they have excellent On-Site Warranty Support.
(I've made extensive use of it over the years)

Desktops, I can easily go down to a local computer shop and buy replacement parts. For a laptop, it will mostly become a brick if one of many parts die.

Then again, it depends on the price range of the laptop.
If you go low-end where its not worth buying a warranty, it would not matter.

In my case, the laptops are in the higher range and well worth the warranty.

Zenmaster thanks for the reply.

here is some more information about the systems: they were both in the $750 price range, so they are low end but i couldn't be happier with mine.

mine: Lenovo r61i
dads: Toshiba satellite (i'll add model number when I catch up to him)

They are both set to sleep, maybe it is not the bios but how most manufacturer have there own "system utilities" that are often very redundant.

I thought this would be a good topic because I was really surprised by the difference. I can see why some people have a bad experience with vista because my dad's laptop is sluggish even though it has better specs than mine. (Well, it is actually not that bad --- but compared to my other experiences with vista it is a lot more sluggish)

I voted "some". I like my Sager and my Dad and brother have had good experiences with Dell. My GF has an HP and IMO it's a total piece. Two of my friends own Acer's and they feel cheap to me.

I like Dell's XPS, and if it within the budget, I'm very likely to get one because of excellent experiences with the XPS support. For cheaper stuff, I don't have much of a preference, other than that I don't like HP or Toshiba (bad experiences).

I don't think it's BIos i think something to do with drivers . drivers play a role when u put your computer to hibernation or so . Well I am using a ASUS laptop It's durable and but i doubt about the quality. When it comes to laptops have a good experience with thinkpads. I thnk Manufacture plays a important role. Dell is good also .