With Dell’s ending of their Digital Cable Tuner sale, HP has taken the lead in the mainstream CableCARD desktop price battle.  You can now pickup an HP m9200t that includes a single CableCARD tuner for as low as $1,099.  Dell on the other hand will cost you $1,304 for the lowest spec’ed XPS 420 with a single CableCARD tuner (an equal spec’ed HP m9200t is $1,189).

Of course the main problem with HP has been CableCARD support, which for the most part is non-existent.  Pair that with HP still only offering single CableCARD and the on again off again availability of Digital Cable Tuners from their site and it might still be a tossup.

One key advantage of HP is use of standard ATX (Micro ATX?) hardware.  Dell on the other hand uses BTX which makes case transplants near impossible.

Update:

Dell Drops Prices on CableCARD Tuners