other than the hp was referbished i would go with that one. has larger ram, and hd (both of which you could change on either) but it also has usb 3.0 and if you plan on using external hard drives the speed with usb 3.0 is much faster and noticeable with larger files. I have owned both and and both worked fine with there intracacies about how to do things. my experience with hp in-warranty repair was great about 8 years ago and other than that on about 4 hp pc/laptops i have had only one had a failed hdd after warranty and with my imaging software had it back up in about 30 minutes (but that software is another discussion)