Best "Upgradeable" Pc brand?

[Coldkilla]

A friend of mine is not only looking for a good PC brand to purchase, but a PC that can easily be opened up at a later date and updated. I've seen some systems that almost make it impossible to add something to the PC unless something was practically ripped off or broken. That, or there wasn't any flexibility towards what the buyer wanted inside the system before buying it.

Has anyone had good experience with a PC company that had flexibility towards the type of build you wanted, and accommodates for the potential future "upgrader"? (ether purchasing the upgrade via the company or third party)

Thanks!

 

[adammthompson]

Not Dell. Compaq is definitely better. Those are the only two brands I have experience with.

 

[Leros]

I worked on a friend's HP computer and it was too small for a modern video card to fit into. The cases are very very small and are quite cramped.

I would think a Dell would be the best. I've seen friends XPS and it looked quite normal, not too proprietary.

 

[Coldkilla]

Originally posted by: adammthompson
Not Dell. Compaq is definitely better.

Originally posted by: Leros
I would think a Dell would be the best.

 

[Atheus]

None of them make it particularly easy. Even if there's room in the case and a spare expansion slot available, the power supply won't be able to handle a new vid card or whatever, so you'll be replacing that too. Who knows if the machine would be covered by warranty after that.

If you're going to take it to bits and add new components, why not just scratch build a new machine right now? Then you can make it as upgradeable as you want.

 

[InlineFive]

Most manufacturers have enough space in their cases to upgrade hard drives, memory, PCI/PCI-E/AGP cards, and removable drives. The going only starts to get tough with the processor and power supplies.

 

[ViviTheMage]

There will be faults with any name brand PC you go.

Just make sure you get a full tower, I am sure a Dell would be fine. Make sure you get PCI-E 16x on the motherboard to upgrade that video card.

Power supply is not upgradeable unless you want to mod the case.

Ram, you would have to check to make sure it is compatable with dells motherboard, same goes for the CPU.

 

[pkme2]

Its really difficult to say which is better.
I've seen all of them and unless you got the higher end version of either, upgrading is very basic.

If you really planning on upgrading, build your own. This way you have more options to choose.

Get a really solid case and PSU to start. This will keep your options open for a long time. If you scrimp and try just to get by, you end spending more.

If you're limited in funds, the the pre-built is a good start. If you can wait, save your money and pick your spots when and what to buy, you got a great rig.

Good computing.

 

[brikis98]

yeah, it's tough to upgrade any cheap prebuilt machine. they often use crappy mobos, tiny cases, lack expansion slots, memory slots, have weak PSU's, etc... the high end versions (Dell XPS, for example) are typically better, but at that point, it's cheaper to build your own from scratch anyway. if you really do your homework - find out the exact mobo used, make sure it has enough RAM slots, at least one PCI-e x16 slot, a big enough case, etc - you can pull it off, but that'll typically be a lot harder than building your own while saving relatively little money (if any).

 

[Ayah]

Dell will have my vote for their BTX-like system. You'll have to check on the individual motherboards for upgradability.
You'll also have to check on the PSU before upgrading. Their PSUs are generally just enough to sustain the system with a little more.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: ViviTheMage
Power supply is not upgradeable unless you want to mod the case.

I found this to be quite untrue. I worked on a friend's E-Machines and another friend's HP, changing the power supplies was no problem. What I noticed in both of these machines was the lack of room for all of the numerous cables that good power supplies have. The PSUs that come with the machine only have a few wires, but good power supplies come with numerous cables and there isnt much room for them. I suggest getting modular power supplies if you are going to be swapping PSUs.

What I did notice that would be a potential problem for some of us was the lack of a harddrive cage. The E-Machine only had room for one harddrive (the one that it came with) and the HP only had room for one additional harddrive, so if you need large amounts of space, you probably need to think of external solutions. The same goes for optical drives.

While both both the HP and the E-Machine came with a PCI-E 16x slot, they were difficult and/or worthless. I was barely able to force a x800 into the HP computer. It fit, but it was pressed quite tightly against other components in the case. The newer, larger cards would be impossible to install. The E-machine had plenty of room for a graphics card, but there were capacitors right at the end of the PCI-E slot that made it impossible to install any card that hung out past the slot (like nearly every card does).

Also with the graphics cards. Get one that exhausts out through a slot in the back of the case. like this The prebuilt computers do not have adequate cooling. In fact, the graphic cards fit so tightly that they nearly seal themselves off from the rest of the case.

 

[Coldkilla]

I guess this topic is somewhat on a broad basis. The XPS from dell may be different from a typical 'lower' end typical desktop use. I'm sure theres a 150 page license agreement that you would have to read in order to know what is still under warrenty once you mod whats inside the PC.

I would build it, I build dozens of PC's, just havent owned a company brand PC in over 11 years, I didn't know how to build Pc's then. My friend wants one, but I don't want to be his scapegoat everytime something goes wrong. I'd rather have him call the 3rd world tech support staff

 

[BurnItDwn]

I bought a dell server several years ago (back when 120GB drives were new, and you could get a cheap Celeron server with a pair of them for like $350 and effectivly, pay for the hard drives and get the server for next to nothing.)

It's got thumbscrews for the side panel, so it's easy to work with.
Also, the drive bays are easy to get at though the quantity is suboptimal for a server, there are only 4 internal 3.5, 1 external 3.5, and I think 2 external 5.25 bays.
The only upgrade I've done was stick a bunch more drives in it, a second nic, and 256mb more of ram. I've been running Linux on it since the day I got it, and it's been my Nat box, FTP server, web server, etc. I have no complaints.

Their non-server machines probably aren't as upgradable though, and it would be unwise to use a server for things like gaming, etc, as they generally don't have pci express or AGP slots.

 

[humanure]

get a gateway or HP, usually they will have 2 extra RAM slots and a pci-e slot, 3 pci slots. One of the pci slots will have a modem in it, and some of the higher end ones will have a tuner card as well. The gateways have a slighty larger case and are a little easier to work in. It's true about cooling issues, a lot of new computers don't have a rear case fan, which is easy enough to fix, but annoying. I would stay away from dell, too many propreitary parts/connectors in them.

 

[40sTheme]

Well, as for upgrades, my Dell Dimension E510 (discontinued, AFAIK) works great. The only small problem was with the power supply upgrade. Sometimes it would move over and vibrate against the case, but it stopped doing it about a month ago.

 

[Seekermeister]

DIY

 

[Bateluer]

DIY is the best route to go, but if you buy from any boutique vendor, such as Falcon, their systems can be upgraded later. You pay a premium for their name though.

From what I hear, the high end Dell XPS models also have fairly easy upgrading options.

 

[Coldkilla]

I would build it, I build dozens of PC's, just havent owned a company brand PC in over 11 years, I didn't know how to build Pc's then. My friend wants one, but I don't want to be his scapegoat everytime something goes wrong. I'd rather have him call the 3rd world tech support staff [/quote]

 

[n7]

Dell = proprietary PSUs on their cheaper stuff, so why would guys recommend their crap?

HP/Compaq/Gateway/eMachines/Acer all use PSUs that can be upgraded (to power better video cards), & usually sport 4 dimm slots for DDR2, not to mention an open 16x PCI-e slot, SATA ports, & whatever else on all but the cheapest systems.

 

[dev0lution]

I think any of the major brands is a crapshoot when it comes to upgrade options. In general, the higher base system model you get means there's more likely options for adding additional or upgraded parts. They have more to work with in terms of drive cages, expansion slots, and PSU overhead than a lower end model.

Example ~ I had an old Dell that was somewhat near top of the line when it was current and it had a decent amount of space in the case, HDD mounts that were available and an AGP slot for graphics. Several years later, a Dell that was a bargain model had none of these attributes, because to hit the price point for the budget space they'd gone with a custom motherboard with no AGP/PCIe slot, and a single HDD cage. On both, the PSU had available connections, but I wouldn't trust any decent component on what the unit was probably rated for.

Bottom line is that unless you're going to do very basic add-ons, there might be little benefit to going with a major brand in terms of cost. At a very minimum, check the technical documentation for each model to get case dimensions, available PCIe/PCI/AGP slots so you don't get blindsided by their absence. That budget Dell I bought was my last pre-built. The extra research into DIY is worth it in adding an upgrade path or two to your base system using standardized components. Plus with all the old one components I have laying around now I can build a halfway decent MCE or file server box

 

[Butterbean]

I wouldn't get a Gateway if service for your friend is important - especially if you want to upgrade. If you don't buy the upgrade component from them they won't help you. You can tell as soon as you call that by the questions they ask they are looking for a reason to dump you and your call. I still have a 4 year old Gateway 500 SE that is/was a workhorse - but their service became awful after my first year with them.

At first they would help with problem, then they would just cut to the re-install option, then they wouldn't do anything unless upgrade part was from Gatway. Thankfully after 2 years I could fix things myself. I built a new puter myself now but if I was in your shoes I would get a fulltower from company with best service. Hard to say what that is now because they have the basic services and then the extended plans. I don't think many of them will be eager to help a newbie with upgrades.

The biggest problem I had was getting a video card to work on a mobo with integrated video. The fix was easy (disable the drivers for integrated) but a lot of the Gateway peeps said it couldn't be done. Another prob is that the big makers issues their own tailored BIOS updates and such for their crimped systems. Gateway sent me a bios update that I flashed in and it knocked machine out of service. I called Gateway and they said they can't assist with BIOS updates (even though they sent it to me via update disk). Turned out I just had to reinstall video drivers and BIOS was fine. I fixed that myself though.

I've come to regard service plans as almost useless beyond a few basic issues a newbie might have. You can find free agent "fix-it" guys in India yourself for less than a service plan cost and they wont just make you reinstall.

Dell WAS the best awhile ago. Not sure who is rated high now. Sure its not Gateway though