They all represent different parts. So maybe I should list the parts.
Motherboard, Video Card : ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, EVGA (video cards) Memory: OCZ HDD: OCZ, Western Digital Monitor, Optical Drive: LG, Samsung, ASUS PSU: Thermaltake, Corsair Case: Thermaltake
Changed that up a little, but other than that it sums it up. I've had good experiences with G-Skill, but idk if that's just me or not. I try to stay with OCZ when I can.
EVGA is also one of the top GFX card manufacturers out there, I can't believe you didn't have them on your list. I've heard their motherboards are good, but I don't have any experience with them nor do I know anyone who has.
Also, I don't agree with LG. Not only have I had bad experiences with their optical drives (crashing, unresponsive, etc. etc.), I lost all my respect for them after buying the LG Incite phone. $400 phone that had great specs, but is probably the worst smart phone ever made.... that's not just my opinion. Walk in any AT&T store and ask them about the LG Incite. lol I honestly think it's their company is starting to sell bad equipment. Their TVs are very poor quality when compared against any of the other major brands. Sad, they used to be one of the best manufacturers out there.
ASUS is probably the best brand out there right now. Everything they make is quality. They are like a higher tech Logitech. If something has a Logitech or ASUS brand name on it, you can garuntee it's quality. (except for 1 of Logitech's low grade headphones). If you wanna add Routers to your list, ASUS needs to be on top and pretty much the only brand. Linksys has gone down hill with LG as well, they have only broken their old designs and don't really bring any of the newer technology to their routers.
Guessing this is a gaming rig right? I just put together the parts list for a new HTPC and that's gonna run $800 with the spare case I have in the basement. Not saying it's not doable just might be better to upgrade if your proc, RAM and motherboard are in decent shape.
As far as parts, here's my most trusted by part in order:
Motherboard: Gigabyte, MSI, EVGA (experience not because I trust the company)
Hard Drives: Samsung (F3 if you can find otherwise go >), Western Digital
Optical Drives: Don't trust any of them, LiteOn til they stopped making their own drives. Currently looking at a Samsung though.
Monitor: NEC, ack hate to say this but second is tied, Dell or HP but do your research, this is a great site for that:
Processor: No brand loyalty here, cheapest I can find that will do the job. Looking at AMD for the HTPC because of the price of the proc and motherboard. I can go USB 3.0 and SATA 6gb because of the price difference.
RAM: Crucial, Mushkin, Corsair, maybe OCZ but it'd have to be one hell of a price difference.
Power Supply: PC Power and Cooling and until last year that would have been it but since Corsair bought them out I'll trow them in second place. Do yourself a favor and stay away from the modular crap.
GPU: This all depends, Gigabyte for an nVidia followed really close by BFG. For an ATI Gigabyte (because of warranty and my past experience with them), Sapphire then HIS.
Mouse: Nothing beats Logitech, unfortunately. Absolutely love the G9 line.
Keyboard: Microsoft again unfortunately. Love their Ergonomic line
Mouse Pad: Ulti-mat, get the Original
If you want upgrade advice let us know what you have but building from the ground up for $500 will be tough.
Oh yeah Case: Cooler Master, love the HAF 932, it's really easy to work with but does need to be cleaned regularly if you use air. Silverstone and Lian-Li are both excellent but expensive. I gotta throw a bone to Antec and Thermaltake as well but some of their cases are iffy. Corsair's Obsidian 800D is pretty impressive too.
Played in some form: UO til tram, AC, EQ, AO, WW2O, PS, SB, CoH, AC2, Hor, LoTRO, DDO, AoC, Aion, CO, STO Playing: WoW (for gf), WAR Waiting For: SWTOR, FFXVI Hoping For: DCUO, Secret World, Earthrise -S- (UO Sonoma)
OCZ bought PC P&C btw not Corsair Most Corsair PSU's are Seasonics, and most OCZ are PC P&C
PSU: Seasonic, PC P&C, Corsair, Enermax, Seventeam, most OCZ - look for single or dual rails stay away from 4 rail PSU's. Modular is ok if you aren't using a multi-GPU power hungry system.
Mobo: Gigabyte, MSI, Asus, EVGA of course. ECS or ASRock are fine just don't have as much OC control.
GPU: XFX, BFG for awesome lifetime warranties, Sapphire, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI, Asus
HD: WD (Black), Seagate, Samsung all good. WD has been way overpriced lately.
Monitor: NEC, Samsung, Dell (who'd have thought)
Mouse: Logitech has the only ergonomics I like. Can't stand Razer or MS ergonomics..
You need to know only 2 things about computer hardware. Build it yourself and BUY AMERICAN! Boards like gigabyte are great, cards like bfg are great. Follow those two rules and youll never go wrong.
Never take life too seriously youre never gonna make it out alive.
Originally posted by linren I am surprised I didn't see Antec in the for power supply. Did they turn into crap or something?
Most PSU companies actually rebrand from just a few actual manufacturers. Antec uses 4 or 5 different manufacturers, one of which is Seasonic which are awesome, but they also use some crappy manufacturers. So can't give them a blanket recommendation, all depends on which line and wattage but since other companies have simpler product lineups I just avoid Antec.
... and BUY AMERICAN! Boards like gigabyte are great ...
Ummm...
Gigabyte is Japanese.
The Founders
Great company. I use their motherboard in my current computer and my wife's ATI GFX is Gigabyte........ but they are still Japanese. lol
Jogged my memory they are huh. Japanese usually make good products when it comes to electronics. Just beware of japanese companies producing their equipment in chinese factories. Chinese factories are dated using hand me down equipment from japanese companies who have updated their equipment and sold the old to the Chinese. I always try to buy gigabyte for boards. Cant beat the quality. Whatever they make seems to last forever. Cant be said of most other companies.
Never take life too seriously youre never gonna make it out alive.
Originally posted by Rover64dd Originally posted by TheHatter Originally posted by Rover64dd ... and BUY AMERICAN! Boards like gigabyte are great ...
Ummm...
Gigabyte is Japanese. The Founders
Great company. I use their motherboard in my current computer and my wife's ATI GFX is Gigabyte........ but they are still Japanese. lol
Jogged my memory they are huh. Japanese usually make good products when it comes to electronics. Just beware of japanese companies producing their equipment in chinese factories. Chinese factories are dated using hand me down equipment from japanese companies who have updated their equipment and sold the old to the Chinese. I always try to buy gigabyte for boards. Cant beat the quality. Whatever they make seems to last forever. Cant be said of most other companies.
Heh, yeah. I probably wouldn't have even thought about it, but I just happened to be on the Gigabyte page on another tab looking at the latest utilities and drivers, when I read that. lol
OCZ bought PC P&C btw not Corsair Most Corsair PSU's are Seasonics, and most OCZ are PC P&C PSU: Seasonic, PC P&C, Corsair, Enermax, Seventeam, most OCZ - look for single or dual rails stay away from 4 rail PSU's. Modular is ok if you aren't using a multi-GPU power hungry system. Mobo: Gigabyte, MSI, Asus, EVGA of course. ECS or ASRock are fine just don't have as much OC control. GPU: XFX, BFG for awesome lifetime warranties, Sapphire, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI, Asus HD: WD (Black), Seagate, Samsung all good. WD has been way overpriced lately. Monitor: NEC, Samsung, Dell (who'd have thought) Mouse: Logitech has the only ergonomics I like. Can't stand Razer or MS ergonomics..
Absolutely right about OCZ owning PC Power and Cooling, sorry grabbed the wrong RAM manufacturer. And yeah single rail is best. I said avoid the modulars because of the extra step (the plug from the SATA cord or whatever to the power supply) and the problems more steps cause. As long as the case allows for the PSU to be installed on the bottom the extra cables are out of the way. My biggest pet peeve was looking for another cable when I added a hard drive etc. but it's a personal thing, not really a tech one.
Played in some form: UO til tram, AC, EQ, AO, WW2O, PS, SB, CoH, AC2, Hor, LoTRO, DDO, AoC, Aion, CO, STO Playing: WoW (for gf), WAR Waiting For: SWTOR, FFXVI Hoping For: DCUO, Secret World, Earthrise -S- (UO Sonoma)
Best brands in my opinion are ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, Thermaltake, Corsair, OCZ, Samsung, LG, and Western Digital.
lols, out of all of those which one would be on top?
i like gigabyte but im not to much of a fan of intel (even though i have one lols)
not sure what your asking. They all make parts for a computer, not the computer itself.
If your looking for the top of the line pre-built computer then don't forget you are paying for the building of the computer, the parts AND the brand name and this can all get quite expensive, quite quickly.
As an Australian the only pre-built brand i know of (that is decent) is Alienware but they are horrendously overpriced.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds -Solid non level based game -Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
I am surprised I didn't see Antec in the for power supply. Did they turn into crap or something?
Most PSU companies actually rebrand from just a few actual manufacturers. Antec uses 4 or 5 different manufacturers, one of which is Seasonic which are awesome, but they also use some crappy manufacturers. So can't give them a blanket recommendation, all depends on which line and wattage but since other companies have simpler product lineups I just avoid Antec.
Well, I did go with the better manufacturers when I do buy Antec. Never really had problems with them and it provided the power it claims. Antec also have a very good price range from time to time, but I guess people not so familiar with it might need to do alot of research before buying it.
I guess some brands are simpler as you said since sometimes better to be safe than sorry when it comes to a psu.
Comments
Best brands in my opinion are ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, Thermaltake, Corsair, OCZ, Samsung, LG, and Western Digital.
lols, out of all of those which one would be on top?
i like gigabyte but im not to much of a fan of intel (even though i have one lols)
I like Alienware, simple and Sweet, Ultimate PCs and uber Cool looks with all the gizmos u want. but Corsair and Samsung are good vendors
Super Noob
They all represent different parts. So maybe I should list the parts.
i would add sapphire to that list aswell
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
Changed that up a little, but other than that it sums it up. I've had good experiences with G-Skill, but idk if that's just me or not. I try to stay with OCZ when I can.
EVGA is also one of the top GFX card manufacturers out there, I can't believe you didn't have them on your list. I've heard their motherboards are good, but I don't have any experience with them nor do I know anyone who has.
Also, I don't agree with LG. Not only have I had bad experiences with their optical drives (crashing, unresponsive, etc. etc.), I lost all my respect for them after buying the LG Incite phone. $400 phone that had great specs, but is probably the worst smart phone ever made.... that's not just my opinion. Walk in any AT&T store and ask them about the LG Incite. lol I honestly think it's their company is starting to sell bad equipment. Their TVs are very poor quality when compared against any of the other major brands. Sad, they used to be one of the best manufacturers out there.
ASUS is probably the best brand out there right now. Everything they make is quality. They are like a higher tech Logitech. If something has a Logitech or ASUS brand name on it, you can garuntee it's quality. (except for 1 of Logitech's low grade headphones). If you wanna add Routers to your list, ASUS needs to be on top and pretty much the only brand. Linksys has gone down hill with LG as well, they have only broken their old designs and don't really bring any of the newer technology to their routers.
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lols, out of all of those which one would be on top?
i like gigabyte but im not to much of a fan of intel (even though i have one lols)
Different brands do different things better.
Case- Thermaltake/Antec
Harddrive- WD/Samsung
RAM- Corsair/Kingston/Crucial/OCZ
Power Supply- Corsair
Motherboard- ASUS for AMDs... probably Gigabyte for Intel
Graphics Card- XFX (double lifetime warranty) or Sapphire
Monitors- Samsung
Those are just my opinions based on price/performance.
Guessing this is a gaming rig right? I just put together the parts list for a new HTPC and that's gonna run $800 with the spare case I have in the basement. Not saying it's not doable just might be better to upgrade if your proc, RAM and motherboard are in decent shape.
As far as parts, here's my most trusted by part in order:
Motherboard: Gigabyte, MSI, EVGA (experience not because I trust the company)
Hard Drives: Samsung (F3 if you can find otherwise go >), Western Digital
Optical Drives: Don't trust any of them, LiteOn til they stopped making their own drives. Currently looking at a Samsung though.
Monitor: NEC, ack hate to say this but second is tied, Dell or HP but do your research, this is a great site for that:
http://www.digitalversus.com/
Processor: No brand loyalty here, cheapest I can find that will do the job. Looking at AMD for the HTPC because of the price of the proc and motherboard. I can go USB 3.0 and SATA 6gb because of the price difference.
RAM: Crucial, Mushkin, Corsair, maybe OCZ but it'd have to be one hell of a price difference.
Power Supply: PC Power and Cooling and until last year that would have been it but since Corsair bought them out I'll trow them in second place. Do yourself a favor and stay away from the modular crap.
GPU: This all depends, Gigabyte for an nVidia followed really close by BFG. For an ATI Gigabyte (because of warranty and my past experience with them), Sapphire then HIS.
Mouse: Nothing beats Logitech, unfortunately. Absolutely love the G9 line.
Keyboard: Microsoft again unfortunately. Love their Ergonomic line
Mouse Pad: Ulti-mat, get the Original
If you want upgrade advice let us know what you have but building from the ground up for $500 will be tough.
Oh yeah Case: Cooler Master, love the HAF 932, it's really easy to work with but does need to be cleaned regularly if you use air. Silverstone and Lian-Li are both excellent but expensive. I gotta throw a bone to Antec and Thermaltake as well but some of their cases are iffy. Corsair's Obsidian 800D is pretty impressive too.
Played in some form:
UO til tram, AC, EQ, AO, WW2O, PS, SB, CoH, AC2, Hor, LoTRO, DDO, AoC, Aion, CO, STO
Playing: WoW (for gf), WAR
Waiting For: SWTOR, FFXVI
Hoping For: DCUO, Secret World, Earthrise
-S- (UO Sonoma)
OCZ bought PC P&C btw not Corsair
Most Corsair PSU's are Seasonics, and most OCZ are PC P&C
PSU: Seasonic, PC P&C, Corsair, Enermax, Seventeam, most OCZ - look for single or dual rails stay away from 4 rail PSU's. Modular is ok if you aren't using a multi-GPU power hungry system.
Mobo: Gigabyte, MSI, Asus, EVGA of course. ECS or ASRock are fine just don't have as much OC control.
GPU: XFX, BFG for awesome lifetime warranties, Sapphire, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI, Asus
HD: WD (Black), Seagate, Samsung all good. WD has been way overpriced lately.
Monitor: NEC, Samsung, Dell (who'd have thought)
Mouse: Logitech has the only ergonomics I like. Can't stand Razer or MS ergonomics..
I am surprised I didn't see Antec in the for power supply. Did they turn into crap or something?
You need to know only 2 things about computer hardware. Build it yourself and BUY AMERICAN! Boards like gigabyte are great, cards like bfg are great. Follow those two rules and youll never go wrong.
Never take life too seriously youre never gonna make it out alive.
Antec isnt very good. You can get great deals are much higher effinciency longer lasting PSU's
Never take life too seriously youre never gonna make it out alive.
If you can build your own computer you can get a computer thats 140% faster for 50% the price of alienware.
Never take life too seriously youre never gonna make it out alive.
Most PSU companies actually rebrand from just a few actual manufacturers. Antec uses 4 or 5 different manufacturers, one of which is Seasonic which are awesome, but they also use some crappy manufacturers. So can't give them a blanket recommendation, all depends on which line and wattage but since other companies have simpler product lineups I just avoid Antec.
Ummm...
Gigabyte is Japanese.
Great company. I use their motherboard in my current computer and my wife's ATI GFX is Gigabyte........ but they are still Japanese. lol
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So the 2nd question the OP had was to build a system for $500.
AMD Athlon II X3 435 $75
ASRock 770 Mobo $60
HIS Radeon 5770 + OCZ DDR3-1600 4GB RAM Combo deal $236 (-$40 Mail in rebates)
OCZ ModXStream 500W PSU$65 (-$25 MIR)
Seagate 7200.12 500GB HD $55
Samsung 22X DVD-RW $20
Some case $40
$551 total, $486 after MIRs.
Ummm...
Gigabyte is Japanese.
Great company. I use their motherboard in my current computer and my wife's ATI GFX is Gigabyte........ but they are still Japanese. lol
Jogged my memory they are huh. Japanese usually make good products when it comes to electronics. Just beware of japanese companies producing their equipment in chinese factories. Chinese factories are dated using hand me down equipment from japanese companies who have updated their equipment and sold the old to the Chinese. I always try to buy gigabyte for boards. Cant beat the quality. Whatever they make seems to last forever. Cant be said of most other companies.
Never take life too seriously youre never gonna make it out alive.
Ummm...
Gigabyte is Japanese.
The Founders
Great company. I use their motherboard in my current computer and my wife's ATI GFX is Gigabyte........ but they are still Japanese. lol
Jogged my memory they are huh. Japanese usually make good products when it comes to electronics. Just beware of japanese companies producing their equipment in chinese factories. Chinese factories are dated using hand me down equipment from japanese companies who have updated their equipment and sold the old to the Chinese. I always try to buy gigabyte for boards. Cant beat the quality. Whatever they make seems to last forever. Cant be said of most other companies.
Have to say I like Gigabyte also.
Motherboards: Asus, Gigabyte
Memory: Corsair
Hard drive: Western Digital
Video cards: Sapphire (avoid Diamond multimedia)
Monitor: Dell
good site for reviews
http://www.pcper.com/
also
Tom's Hardware http://www.tomshardware.com/
Anandtech http://www.anandtech.com/
Jogged my memory they are huh.
Heh, yeah. I probably wouldn't have even thought about it, but I just happened to be on the Gigabyte page on another tab looking at the latest utilities and drivers, when I read that. lol
Like Trading Card Games? Click Here.
Absolutely right about OCZ owning PC Power and Cooling, sorry grabbed the wrong RAM manufacturer. And yeah single rail is best. I said avoid the modulars because of the extra step (the plug from the SATA cord or whatever to the power supply) and the problems more steps cause. As long as the case allows for the PSU to be installed on the bottom the extra cables are out of the way. My biggest pet peeve was looking for another cable when I added a hard drive etc. but it's a personal thing, not really a tech one.
Played in some form:
UO til tram, AC, EQ, AO, WW2O, PS, SB, CoH, AC2, Hor, LoTRO, DDO, AoC, Aion, CO, STO
Playing: WoW (for gf), WAR
Waiting For: SWTOR, FFXVI
Hoping For: DCUO, Secret World, Earthrise
-S- (UO Sonoma)
lols, out of all of those which one would be on top?
i like gigabyte but im not to much of a fan of intel (even though i have one lols)
not sure what your asking. They all make parts for a computer, not the computer itself.
If your looking for the top of the line pre-built computer then don't forget you are paying for the building of the computer, the parts AND the brand name and this can all get quite expensive, quite quickly.
As an Australian the only pre-built brand i know of (that is decent) is Alienware but they are horrendously overpriced.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
You can add Enhance to psu list.
Most PSU companies actually rebrand from just a few actual manufacturers. Antec uses 4 or 5 different manufacturers, one of which is Seasonic which are awesome, but they also use some crappy manufacturers. So can't give them a blanket recommendation, all depends on which line and wattage but since other companies have simpler product lineups I just avoid Antec.
Well, I did go with the better manufacturers when I do buy Antec. Never really had problems with them and it provided the power it claims. Antec also have a very good price range from time to time, but I guess people not so familiar with it might need to do alot of research before buying it.
I guess some brands are simpler as you said since sometimes better to be safe than sorry when it comes to a psu.
Antec power supplies are fine. But Corsair dominates that field in my opinion.