yes, the worst part about buying a HP, Sony, or whatever, probably even Dell, is that these companies go to a mobo mfgr and say, ok, we are going to buy 100,000 of this mobo of yours, here is what we want to work, that is all we want, but here is the very low price, so if you have to disable or leave things out, we dont care, as long as the mobo will last for (plug in warranty time) and do the things we want it to do, and the price is this, we have a deal. So the mfgr supplies the minimum at the low price point to keep his factories going, keep the company name out there, etc.
And what the buyer gets is a mobo that cannot be upgraded in terms of a faster cpu. What you get is all you get.
Whereas, if you build it yourself, which is done every day with the help of forum people, or if you know someone who will build one for you, or even a mom and pop type small computer store to build one for you, its best to go that way. Then you can at least get a mobo that can be upgraded to a faster cpu down the road (you sell your original cpu and buy a new one and installation is easy), and upgraded in other ways too. Plus, you only get what you need. Plus you get a manual for the mobo, you can download updates for the mobo from the internet, etc, etc. Another thing, this way you can go on the net and download for free things like a word processor that will import microsoft word docs and other free progs that take the place of programs that you pay for when you buy a brand name computer at a retail outlet. And you only get what you want or need, no wasted money. Its the best way to get a new computer! Also, you can get progs from friends that dont want the prog any more, or maybe they got a newer version, thing like that.
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