Okay, probably going to start a bit of a war here, but hey.
I wouldn't go with a DELL or HP.
Firstly, DELL
They are over priced and lately, there are not up to scratch with their supposed quality. For my work, I was going to get a DELL. After going onto the DELL website, 6/21 reviews gave the laptop 1 star (out of 5) with many complaining about numerous returns for repairs. And I know it might just be a bad series, but if DELL really cared, then they would pull the series, and replace all the effected laptops with a new version, etc to protect their rep.
Secondly, HP
How many of you are aware of the problem with Nvidia 8400/8600 chips? Well, HP had a problem with a lot of them over heating. I have a friend whose one over heated, but HP refused to do anything about it ( was out of the 1 year warranty by a few months) even though it was not a hardware failure due to my friends fault, but a general design failure. They hadn't attached a proper heat sink to the chip, but used the heat shield under the keyboard! Needless to say, the chip overheated and melted his mother board, but HP couldn't care less.
Basically, what I am saying is, there is no make that can be recommended. What I would rather do, is look at what features you want and then compile a list. Then search like crazy on google for reviews on those models and base your decision on those reviews.