Old article, but, I feel like posting about this.
Tim, I know the feeling. And I'm going to say this, HP and Dell are some of the worst. For those built systems that you get, if they don't include all the drivers on some sort of disk (be it CD, DVD, floppy, etc), to me, that says someone isn't doing their job. If you have to go to the website, they should offer 2 choices, a package of drivers of all the drivers for that pre-built system, or individual drivers, incase you want to update the video drivers, and say, not the bus drivers.
So many times have I gone to HP's site (I'm not even going to get into Dell's), and have not been able to find either; either by model/serial number of the system, or the type and model of a specific piece of hardware.
That is why I'm such a big fan of custom built systems. Manufacturers of their own hardware seem to be better at posting drivers, updated drivers, and in a place where you can easily find them.
That's all I feel like saying for now.