What's Your Preferences In Various Hardware?

Q: What brand(s) do you prefer in the following hardware? (For gaming and/or general purpose use | In the sense of buying hardware and what you can afford)

1- Processor
2- Motherboard
3- Graphics Card
4- Boot Drive
5- Storage Drive
6- Chassis or Casing
7- Power Supply
8- Ram modules
9- Peripherals (mice, keyboard, and other stuff you would want to have in your PC)
10- Monitor
11- Audio devices
12- Cooling solution (aircooling or watercooling)

*I hope that completes the list
Optional: Give a brief explanation why you prefer the brand. No need to mention brands you dislike.

From all the testing I have done my list is bellow numbered by how I would choose if had to and while it is important to stay unbiased in reviews when checking out hardware, here is my ranking from tested hardware I have done, so not purely ranked by brand name, but by my experience with each product.

1) #1 Intel / #2 AMD
2) #1 ASUS / #2 GIGABYTE / #3 MSI
3) #1 ASUS / #2 MSI / #3 GIGABYTE
4) SSD: #1 Kingston / #2 Samsung / #3 OCZ or Corsair, HDD: #1 WD, #2 Seagate, #3 Hitachi
5) SSD: #1 Kingston / #2 Samsung / #3 OCZ or Corsair, HDD: #1 WD, #2 Seagate, #3 Hitachi
6) Hard to say, I like many and I can't rank, but right now NZXT Phantom 820, then CM Storm Trooper,
7) #1 Seasonic / #2 Corsair / #3 Cooler Master

Ranked for my experience with product. All things considered like quality, customer service, how far you can push said product, price, looks, ect.

1 Intel
2 ASRock
3 eVGA
4 PCI-E Revodrive or SATA Samsung SSD
5 Seagate
6 This really depends. So far the best looking and easiest to work with has been Corsair.
7 Corsair (essentially Seasonic)

Processor: Intel
Motherboard: ASUS > Asrock
Graphics Card: eVGA > ASUS
Boot Drive: Seagate
Storage Drive: Seagate
Chassis: Coolermaster > Lian Li
Power Supply: Corsair > FSP
Rams: G.skill! (cheaper than the competitors, good overclocking rams)
Peripherals: Generic mice user only coz it tends to break down after a few months due to the nature of my usage LOL
Keyboard = a Logitech with a lot of macro keys (currently using a G110)
Monitor: Samsung (but im using a toshiba)
Audio: Creative (cheap in my country)

1 Intel / AMD
2 MSI / EVGA / Gigabyte / ASUS
3 PowerColor (If AMD) / EVGA (If NVIDIA)
4 Something SSD like. IDK yet as my only experiences with SSDs are what I have in my laptop
5 Anything from WD or Seagate that is 7200RPM and has 64MB cache. Oh, lots of storage capacity too :p
6 It depends. For sure nothing with a door
7 Lots: Corsair, Seasonic, OCZ / PCP&C, Enermax, Antec, Cooler Master, Thermal Take, FSP-Sparkle, Silver Stone

1) Processor - Intel (1), AMD (2).

Intel b/c they're the best. AMD because they're budget friendly. And also b/c there're only two choices.

2) Motherboard - ASUS (1), AsRock (2)

ASUS always puts out gorgeous, hardworking, and reliable boards. I like the aesthetic of AsRock's Extreme series boards.

3) Graphics Card - EVGA (1), MSI (2)

EVGA because their customer service is fantastic and they have great cards.

4) Boot Drive - Corsair (1)

Their Neutron GTX is a great SSD.

5) Storage Drive - Western Digital (1), Seagate (2)

Western Digital because their customer service (while outsourced to India, true) is great - ask for anything and they'll send it to you, if it's relevant to your warranty. I.E. I needed a SATA cable so they sent one. And a PATA cable.

6) Chassis or Casing - NZXT (1), Silverstone (2)

NZXT has beautiful cases that are large and pretty. I only put Silverstone number 2 b/c of the price. Although their gorgeous RV002 case is only $140ish.

7) Power Supply - Corsair AX Series (1)

Fully modular, reliable goodness. Also, OCZ makes some nice PSUs as well.

1) Processor - Intel - Raw power house chips.

2) Motherboard - Asus - Overall just awesome boards- design, features, overclocking features, etc.

3) Graphics Card - Nvidia (EVGA - Top notch customer service).

4) Boot Drive - Corsair SSD or Samsung SSD - Excellent SSDs.

5) Storage Drive - Seagate edges out WD by a small amount. Both companies have great customer service but I've had more dead HDDs from WD than Seagate. 3 dead HDDs in 3 months? Common WD.

6) Chassis or Casing - Cooler Master - Great cases with exceptional value.

7) Power Supply - Corsair - Reputable PSUs.

Maybe a cooling preference should be mentioned as well? Air for me and the Phanteks PH-TC14PE gets my vote.

ok this is my view point:

Graphics Card
Processor
Motherboard
Boot Drive
Power Supply
Chassis or Casing
Storage Drive

1) Processor: Intel
2) Motherboard: Asus, MSI, EVGA
3) Graphics Card: EVGA
4) Boot Drive: Intel SSD
5) Storage Drive: Western Digital
6) Chassis or Casing: SilverStone
7) Power Supply: Seasonic

1) Processor: Intel
2) Motherboard: ASUS
3) Graphics Card: EVGA for Nvidia, ASUS for Radeon GPUs.
4) Boot Drive: Vertex 4 or Samsung 830/40
5) Storage Drive: WD Caviar Black
6) Chassis or Casing: SilverStone TJ11, Silverstone TJ07, Silverstone RV001, or NZXT Phantom (not the 820)
7) Power Supply: Corsair, SeaSonic, Kingwin, Rosewill (has some really nice PSUs, Platinum 80+ for cheap)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by werty316

Maybe a cooling preference should be mentioned as well? Air for me and the Phanteks PH-TC14PE gets my vote.

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Good idea. But I'd say that if you're going hardcore, you can't mess with liquid. Hard to say a brand for this, but EK waterblocks get my vote. For air, maybe the Hyper212Evo just for cheap, efficient cooling that's better than the stock HSF.

Wow! We got a lot of EVGA fans here.. maybe we should call for some contest sponsorship :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by najiro

Wow! We got a lot of EVGA fans here.. maybe we should call for some contest sponsorship :)

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Earlier this year there was one contest here where Jenseng Huang or w/e his name is (I forget right now) signed an NVIDIA card. The card was an EVGA card.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CDsDontBurn

Earlier this year there was one contest here where Jenseng Huang or w/e his name is (I forget right now) signed an NVIDIA card. The card was an EVGA card.

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waaaaaaaaaaaah! really?! I discovered this forum too late then X__X

It's cool. I wasn't around for that competition either. I only picked up my activity here again like 3 weeks ago or something like that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CDsDontBurn

It's cool. I wasn't around for that competition either. I only picked up my activity here again like 3 weeks ago or something like that.

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:( evga cards is so hard to find in my place.. stores don't sell them.. I would need to order one in an order basis where I need to pay for shipping and other extra fees. Well.. gamers here don't really do high-end builds like those with crossfire or SLI. You might even find it funny how people here brand a "gaming PC" build.. on the average, specs PC specs like AthlonII X2 250 + GT 220 or HD 5450 is already qualified as a "gaming PC" as long as it can run DOTA, CS, GTA and your average browser.. I know westerners would totally reject such classification X__X
So just imagine how hard it is to look for high-end parts here.. the demand for them is close to zero...