Upgrading bought PCs—advisable or not?

[Brian Boru]

I'm against the idea of upgrading a prebuilt

So says one of our learned coterie.

This dummy wonders if that's a widely held view among the cognoscenti.

I rarely upgrade, built or bought—I know what I need, get it, and happy days until next build. This state of bliss is only interrupted by forced pre-built 'acquisitions', but even then it's only to add a drive and maybe a wifi card or similar small stuff.

I think @Lutfij may have been referring to the difficulty of figuring out exactly what components are in a pre-built, which would make the whole exercise troublesome and risky.

What say you?

 

[Lutfij]

Prebuilts like HP, Dell, Lenovo and even a recent thread whereby it was by MSI, will tend to prevent an end-user from tampering with the build. Why? some might ask...? Simple, they want to prevent anyone from sending in a system that was tampered outside of a specified ceiling, falsely claiming warranty. A refund does cost the brand money out of their pockets but a warranty claim is often times more expensive, if it's not repairable.

Prebuilts also find the need to artificially limit an end-user, to force said end-user into buying something new as opposed to upgrading it.

I was also referring to proprietary connectors which are a bane to get around unless you're handy with a crimper and have some semblance of wires and their pinouts.

 

[ZedClampet]

It's been a long time since I upgraded a prebuilt, so I'm not sure about the prebuilt PCs of today, but I'd say to just do your research and make an informed decision. Don't give up on the idea based on someone's statement that, overall, they don't recommend it. Also, why would you be upgrading while it's still under warranty anyway? Did you not buy enough PC to begin with? I haven't seen any warranties that are for more than a year unless you bought an extended warranty. Then you can just wait till the parts are obsolete and can't be obtained anymore and fry the thing and send it in for a free upgrade --just kidding. Don't do that.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Prebuilts also find the need to artificially limit an end-user, to force said end-user into buying something new as opposed to upgrading it.

I was also referring to proprietary connectors which are a bane to get around unless you're handy with a crimper and have some semblance of wires and their pinouts.

Yea its the proprietary parts that arent compatible with off the shelf upgrades, lack of decent cooling and space that make it awkward in the brand name pre-builts. They want you buying a new system in a few years not upgrading what you already bought.

If we talk about custom built prebuilts using off the shelf parts then it could be a different story. The problem is with a lot of those they tend to go as cheap as possible on non headline parts like PSU and motherboard, and with a bit of research you could usually build something better yourself for cheaper. That wasnt true for a couple of years during the shortages and pandemic, but I think its mostly the case now again.

 

[Lutfij]

Yeah, Cyberpower/iBuyPower have been bundling lackluster PSU's in their bottom tier builds. End users, usually, learn of that bit of info after asking around after buying.