I always thought OEM PCs are upgradable (new HD and/or RAM) but not quite repairable like home-built PCs (new mobo, PSU). Do you agree? i_XpUser

It depends a whole bunch on the brand and model. Grateways used to use commonly available ATX boards by Intel that were almost exactly like you could "buy in the store." You could stick a newer board in them. For years, most Comcraps (ya there's a reason for the name) used proprietary hardware, including special hookups on the power supplies, special RAM, and non standard boards. Many OEM cases use "molded" fronts that take special floppy and CROM drives. IBM, who "used" to make excellant laptops, has their share of proprietary nightmares, too. It just depends. Until you've seen the "history" of years and years of old hardware, you can't appreciate how stupid some of these people are. IBM made a STUPID black Aptiva, that had a monitor on a special elevated stand. The tower had a HUGE cable that went to a special console, on which was the power switch, the floppy, and the CDROM. STUPID http://www6.plala.or.jp/takkuweb/mycomp/cpu05a.jpg There was a discussion here some time ago about "My Aptiva doesn't have a power switch"

Gateway also had the Astros and those AOL internet countertop console with no HDD's. Brilliant !!! When Google isn't your best pal

I have an older Inteva (OEM-IBM Clone) that I have replaced the PSU, RAM and HD. All items purchased at CompUSA. And an older Dell's PSU and HD. PSU bought from Dell as it was proprietary but the HD was a new Seagate from EBay. Bryan

I've had two e-machines--a 400 Mhz in '99 and a 2.7 GHz in '04. On the older machine no problem in addding an LS-120 drive and new 15G hardrive replacing stock 4 G. Also added an HP CD burner which later was replaced with a Lite-On Cd buner which was replaced with a LG CD-RW/DVD combo drive from the newer computer. Also got a MicroAT PSU from Newegg to replace the 400machines PSU when it quit. New Pioneer DVD-RW went in the newwer machine to replace the stock combo drive. No fit issues with these two e-machines.