The Dell workstations are nice.. they use Intel and ASUS motherboards like us builders do but they cost 35% more and still are not as high perf as something we can build. My comments were not aimed at the higher end stations as most of them ARE upgradeable. The reason Dell can sell cheap computers is that they untize everything, and that is what we don't like. Most PCs you buy at best buy, fry's etc.. are like this. They put decent processors in them so they can advertise "3 GHZ" and people snap them up 'cuz they're cheap... but then they cripple them with cheap memory, motherboard components and i/o and video. They are OK for many people, but they truly are disposable as you cannot upgrade components.

DP