Swifty said:
I personally don't think I would ever have one because companies like them are very proprietary making future upgrades or add-ons difficult to impossible without getting the hardware directly from them and paying twice as much as aftermarket for it.
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This is somewhat true -- except that most computer vendors use fairly standard parts as well.
Also the idea of upgradability is somewhat of a red herring. Yes, you can do it piecemeal to an extent, but the performance of a computer is so interdependent that it's generally rather futile.
For instance, let's say you built a computer 2 years ago, and the processor is now too slow for you.
Okay, you want to upgrade the processor. If you can find a newer processor that will fit onto your old motherboard, you won't get the performance gains you're hoping for, because you'll be saddled with an older, slower memory bus architecture.
Keep in mind also that newer processors also often have different pinouts, and you may not be able to shoehorn them on your old mobo in many cases anyway.
To upgrade your memory bus requires tossing out the motherboard... which means tossing out the RAM you had on it too. At that point you'd be left with an older, slow video card, so it's time to toss that out and get a new video card too.
At this point, the only thing you've really kept is the computer case... which is probably a bit beat up by now anyway.
I guess I don't see the point. Sell/donate the old computer, and use the money/write-off to help buy a new one when it is time.
That's my 20 or so years of experience with computers anyway -- the only things I generally upgrade is RAM, sometimes a video card, and that's about it. It just isn't as cost/performance effective as one might think.