I see PCs for Dell or Gateway and I think that for just a few bucks I could upgrade a component or two and have a pretty good gaming rig, but I’ve heard they all use proprietary connectors that make upgrading them more or less impossible at least as far as the power supply goes.
How universal is this and is there a reliable brand I can buy off the shelf and use as a base to build off?
Some have a few standard components and slots, but the trend has been to save space and money by going to unique configurations. I think only the specialty makers like Alienware use mostly standard cases, mobos, etc.
Some might use microATX boards etc., which is technically a standard, but often more expensive and with limited choices.
Crap. So I guess I’m gonna have to learn up on building a PC.
The problems with proprietary systems often arise not from lack of a slot for a good GPU but from the space available for that GPU - the slot may be low profile or half-length - or from the need to replace the custom PSU.
Tell us what you want to do - don’t forget environmental factors like noise and size - and give us a rough budget. We’ll tell you roughly what you should be looking at buying. Then go to a local PC builder and get a quote, and we’ll tell you if they’re ripping you off.
Building a PC yourself isn’t hard, but you will need some modicum of ability to diagnose what’s wrong when it doesn’t start up the first time.
I just built mine this week. I absolutely love it and am insanely happy. There was an issue I had to fix when it dodnt start up: I didn’t seat the RAM properly.
Though not entirely responsive to your specific query, you might find this recent thread of interest. If you want a gaming rig, my post in that thread might be of particular interest.
The situation isn’t quite as dire as it used to be, since there are good GPUs that fit in low profile slots and don’t require a lot of power. Last I heard, the nVidia GTX 750 TI was well regarded for this purpose. It’ll play any current game at 1080p (though you’ll have to turn down the visual bells and whistles in some of the most demanding games). It’s currently selling for about $100 with rebates.
You should be able to put a GTX 750 into just about any desktop that has a PCI express slot. Just to give the first example I could come up with, Dell’s Inspiron 3847 looks like it’s got the right slot, plenty of space, and plenty of power. The cheapest model has a processor that’s just fine for gaming, and enough memory at least to get started. (If you get out of memory errors you can easily add more memory yourself).
Or just build one and start the easy way with something like Tiger Direct. If you’re comfortable swapping cards, you can build a system. Just add-on whatever you want.
My relatively old HP Pavilion is pretty standard. No problem swapping out the power supply and everything is SATA. Might need to swap out the graphics card for Fallout 4 unless the six-core CPU is enough to take up the slack.
Don’t know if I could swap out the motherboard but would rather just get a new computer when that time comes.