Quote:
Originally Posted by MegaErtz
I don't know much about computers but I've taken a bit of an interest over the last couple of years. I own a cheap Acer laptop that I bought in 2016 but I was able to add in a second SSD and upgrade the RAM from 8GB to 32GB. I also swapped out my girlfriend's hard drive and upgraded the RAM in her MacBook Pro and man, what a difference it makes.
I've noticed that it seems like all the major computer manufacturers seem to be soldering this stuff so that you can't upgrade it anymore. For this reason, I'd like to buy (or build) a tower that can be constantly upgraded and modified over the years, without the need to shell out for a new computer every few years. Is this possible? If so, where would I even start? Am I better off buying a complete system and then just swapping out components as I go, or building from scratch? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
|
You could buy a pre-built, but you're paying for the privilege. Often you will pay at least a 100-200 premium, and sometimes they use proprietary parts that can be difficult or impossible to replace. Additionally, often they will skimp on "less important parts" like PSUs, motherboards or RAM to save $$$ (since most people only look at the CPU, GPU, RAM total and case).
If you're comfortable with it (and it sounds like if you've noodled around in a laptop's guts, you're at least at the basics level), there are lots of "build one yourself" videos on YT that are very good to follow as a basic guide. There are definitely parts of the building process where you could throw money down a hole if you screw up (placing the motherboard, seating the CPU, installing the cooler), but with due care and understanding it's not difficult at all.
Personally, I build/rebuild 4-6 PCs a year for friends/acquaintances/myself, and really enjoy it. In the end, building yourself will save money, but even if you go price-point to price-point with a pre-built, you will have better parts and a system tailored to your needs/taste.
This video is a bit older, but I always refer it to people when they want to try building for the first time:
This video is good as well: