Question Are you a brand loyalist?

[SHaines]

With tech evolving every day, we're seeing big leaps forward in the tech we take for granted. For the most part, we tend to pick the best available item, regardless of brand. However, some of us may still have some preferences for specific items.

Do you consider yourself a brand loyalist for any of your tech? If so, why that brand?

For me, I've broken the habit of buying Sony headphones every single time I upgrade. When I was younger, Sony was the only name brand I could afford, so I just got used to using their equipment for pretty much anything related to music. I did use them pretty much exclusively for about 30 years though.

How about you?

 

[Unolocogringo]

I did not list fans either.
My go to for high air flow with low noise is the Aerocool Shark line.
high volume,high static pressure for radiators with high density fins and low noise and no RGB which most want now days.
Started using these back in the SLI GTX460s@850 days. Put out a lot of heat while folding.
https://www.amazon.com/AeroCool-Shark-120mm-Cooling-EN55413/dp/B00432QQ72

 

[Karadjgne]

With 4 kids, wife, mother-in-law, pets and a crappy paycheck, the only brand I'm loyal to is Quality. I'll pay a little more for something that's going to last. And last. And last.....
Back when, that meant a i7-3770k, when even Tom's said the i5-3570k was king of the cpus for gaming. Msi z77 mpower. Asus GTX970. Nzxt x61. Patriot ram. Samsung Pro. WD Black. Logitech G-110 keyboard. Dell standard Microsoft mouse. Asus monitors. Evga G2 550w.

My money is too hard to come by, too expensive to justify wasting on the latest craze or must have. My brand is Quality, not Popularity.

 

[firelighter487]

Sony for headphones. other audio stuff I'm not picky, my hifi/av setup is mostly 70's to 90's gear from all manners of different brands.

for computers and phones I stick to Apple. I tried Windows and Android recently and I still hate both for various reasons, so it's Apple for those things.

 

[MasterMadBones]

Finally, with SSDs, I value reliability over performance. So, my preferred brands are Intel, followed by Micron. It's a combination of reputation and features like end-to-end data protection. Samsung could win me over, if they'd do more to market their read-oriented enterprise SSDs to consumers, but they seem to guard information about them with almost cult-like secrecy. It doesn't help that Samsung products typically command a large price premium.

Don't forget about power consumption. I've been advising people against upgrading their laptops with Samsung SSDs because the controller, while fast, has terrible efficiency. In fact, there are cheaper, faster and more efficient alternatives out there so I don't recommend Samsung very often at all. When it comes to reliability, I believe that almost any modern SSD will last throughout its useful life.

I'm not a data center or enterprise guy, so I wouldn't know what to look for in an SSD in those contexts, but I suppose that certain features are more common with some manufacturers than others.

 

[bit_user]

Sony for headphones.

These days, I care a lot about noise cancelling. I just got a pair of Sony WH-1000XM3 and they beat my old Bose QC35 in all the ways I care about. However, if I really want fidelity, Sennheiser is still my go-to.

other audio stuff I'm not picky, my hifi/av setup is mostly 70's to 90's gear from all manners of different brands.

I do well with professional studio gear. Good quality at bargain prices (compared to audiophile stuff), that just lasts and lasts.

For A/V, I have a Yamaha Aventage receiver (2013 model year). The core functionality is excellent, but even after taking it in for warranty service, I'm still having reliability issues. And it has some transformer hum, which is all the worse after reading their marketing material that talks at length about about how they designed the chassis not to do such things. Won't buy again.

for computers and phones I stick to Apple.

Wow. We don't get a lot of Mac heads around here.

I mostly use Linux, which I think is a little more common, these days. I'm still about 30% Windows, mostly for my job.

Android for phones, mostly because my limit is like 1/3rd the price of whatever the latest iPhone is selling for. It's too bad there's no good 3rd option. I wanted a Firefox phone, but that project died out before it really attained critical mass.

 

[bit_user]

When it comes to reliability, I believe that almost any modern SSD will last throughout its useful life.

Agreed. However, I'm talking about data integrity, rather than the drive suddenly bricking or running out of relocatable blocks. It's basically the same reason I prefer to use ECC RAM.

Here are the Intel models featuring end-to-end data protection. Often, they don't cost much more than the corresponding consumer model.

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...oductType=35125&0_EndToEndDataProtection=True​

 

[jonnyguru]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Enlight cases and Number Nine graphics cards. Also, Cyrix CPUs always seemed to be a great value.

 

[jonnyguru]

Oh... and don't forget Abit.

 

[RainingTacco]

Im never a brand loyalist[since that's pretty retarded imho], although when i have bad experience with a company in 90% of cases i will never buy their product next time, even if its highly praised. Stemming from trust issues, to wanting to give the manufacturer a lesson.

 

[Uberchef73]

I always used to be very loyal with the big ones (Intel/AMD/Nvidia etc). But I'm much more 'bang for your buck' these days. I am still partial to Corsair and MSI

 

[DSzymborski]

With tech evolving every day, we're seeing big leaps forward in the tech we take for granted. For the most part, we tend to pick the best available item, regardless of brand. However, some of us may still have some preferences for specific items.

Do you consider yourself a brand loyalist for any of your tech? If so, why that brand?

For me, I've broken the habit of buying Sony headphones every single time I upgrade. When I was younger, Sony was the only name brand I could afford, so I just got used to using their equipment for pretty much anything related to music. I did use them pretty much exclusively for about 30 years though.

How about you?

I guess the only brand I could be really considered loyal to is EVGA for GPUs, but in truth, I'm not really loyal to the brand, just their consumer-friendly policies. I've found dealing with them easy, they're willing to cross-ship RMAed GPUs, and I have gotten free upgrades on dead GPUs on multiple occasions. It's not something I use, but EVGA (along with MSI) gives you the least bit of hassle when exercising a warranty on second-hand GPUs.

As soon as they ditch these policies, any loyalty instantly goes out the window. So I'm not really loyal to the brand itself, per see.

I'm also technically loyal to Corsair, but for more practical reasons: my PC and peripherals have a lot of unicorn vomit and having a single RGB ecosystem creates less headaches for me. Well, almost, since I have a Gigabyte motherboard.

 

[refillable]

No.

 

[Aeacus]

I have my own, personal, brand preferences as well;

CPU - Intel
MoBo - MSI
RAM - Kingston
GPU - MSI
M.2 NVMe SSD - Samsung
2.5" SATA SSD - Samsung and Crucial
3.5" SATA HDD - Western Digital and HGST (Hitachi)
PSU - Seasonic
Monitor - MSI
UPS - CyberPower
KB, mouse, headset - Corsair
Webcam - Logitech
USB flash drive - Kingston
Aftermarket filters - Demciflex
PC modding - CableMod

As of why?
Well; reviews, performance, build quality, reliability and personal experience are the reasons why i have picked these brands for these items.

 

[bohemond1099]

With tech evolving every day, we're seeing big leaps forward in the tech we take for granted. For the most part, we tend to pick the best available item, regardless of brand. However, some of us may still have some preferences for specific items.

Do you consider yourself a brand loyalist for any of your tech? If so, why that brand?

For me, I've broken the habit of buying Sony headphones every single time I upgrade. When I was younger, Sony was the only name brand I could afford, so I just got used to using their equipment for pretty much anything related to music. I did use them pretty much exclusively for about 30 years though.

How about you?

It's not so much about loyalty than reliability; I don't buy Seagate hardrives, BenQ monitors, or Razer mice because of successive hardware failures with them. Asus, Dell, WD, EVGA, XFX, Sapphire, G. Skill, Corsair, Mushkin, Toshiba and many more have proven their reliability to me and so I will go to them for hardware. As far as AMD/Nvidia the issue comes down to drivers and best performance. AMD has some great highish down to low end GPUs....but they have some pretty terrible drivers and software; don't know how many times I've had a plethora of issues like Xfire not working or getting unsigned driver errors etc. with AMD. Nvidia drivers have never given me those kinds of issues. At the high end there is no doubt that Nvidia is the way to go due to best performance. On CPUs I have only done 2 ryzen builds, but generally not that impressed with gaming performance even vs intel CPUs. On higher end CPUs even older intel CPUs like the Bloomfield class are still fantastic when it comes to gaming up to 980Ti/1070 level GPUs (so far in testing going higher yields less benefit). I really have not been impressed with Intel since Bloomfield in terms of tangible performance increases, and most likely am done buying any CPU until something like the C2Q or Bloomfield equivalent improvement occurs.

 

[howtobeironic]

Only thing to stay loyal to is doing market research. I might trust a few brands (let it be Steelseries, Arctic, WD etc.) and that might be a bias up on this research but the final verdict does not rely on what I trust.

 

[alceryes]

Depends on the component or device but I do tend to go for big-name brands. Not because their devices always perform better or last longer but big-name brands do, on average, test their components better, IMHO. Maybe only because the cogs of big-name corporate turn extra slowly, allowing for a longer QA.


TVs - Samsung. I am currently still rocking an ancient (by electronics age standards) 1080p 50" Samsung plasma TV. It has been perfect for the past 11 years and I don't really see a need to upgrade. I've got a Fire TV hooked up to it for all my Sling TV, Disney+, Netflix, and Hulu watching needs (cut the cord several years ago). When the lion's share of my favorite content is getting produced in 4k+ (not just upscaled) I'll probably upgrade but not before then.

Monitors - Big-name. Late last year I upgraded to a Samsung 1440p 144Hz curved gaming monitor but I've used several name brands prior with no major issues.

Laptops - Big-name. Lenovo, Dell, HP, Microsoft, and Apple are my go-to depending on needs. Some of the Asus, MSI, Toshiba, and Samsung laptops I've worked with in the past were fine too.

Cell phones - iPhone. For the past 10+ years I've been bouncing back and forth between the Android and Apple platforms. Last year I picked up the Samsung S10e (256GB) and immediately found myself wanting my iPhone back. I went back to the iPhone 11 Pro 2 months ago.

Headphones - No preference. I was using Audio Technica ATH-AD900 cans up until a couple years ago. More recently I've given some of the lesser known companies a go. Currently using V-Moda Crossfade II wireless codec edition (pretty damn good).

Speakers - No preference. There are so many good brands. Currently using the Creative T4 wireless because it works with everything I have, including standard RCA from my preamp (vintage turntable).

Corp networking equip - Cisco Meraki. I love the simplistic configuration. I really dislike the old Cisco iOS CLIs.

Home networking equip - Netgear. I just named the one I'm currently using. I've had issues with it and just about every other home router/wireless I've used though. Usually because I'm try to get it to do too much.

Security camera - Arlo. I picked up the Arlo Q a few years back on a black Friday sale. I really like the free (limited) cloud storage for the life of the device.

CPU - No preference. I've gone back and forth between Intel and AMD for the past 20+ years and don't think I'll be stopping anytime soon.

Memory - Big-name. Corsair, Micron (Crucial), Hynix, Kingston, G.Skill. I usually don't buy anything outside these (if buying for myself, friends, or family).

Drives - Big-name. Western Digital, Samsung, Toshiba, Seagate.

Video cards - Big-name. I've had very good experience with many different manufacturers.

Motherboard - Big-name. Gigabyte, MSI, ASUS.

Power supply - Big-name. Currently on a Corsair RM750x.

 

[okTC68]

For Nvidia GPU's my go to is EVGA. I've used other companies over the years but there customer service is second to none and they've helped me out with issues when I was less experienced.

I think that some manufacturers have better quality/price in some areas than others. I try to pick components that are of high enough quality to meet my performance requirements. I try very hard not to get any kind of "emotional attachment" to any manufacturers as it clouds judgement in my opinion. I also think it's part of human nature to develop loyalties to this or that group. The way people get heated over which manufacturer makes better CPU's recently is crazy. Decide exactly what it is that you require of a component, and then buy whichever available component meets your criteria.

 

[Pc.noob]

Yes

 

[timmllnsw]

With tech evolving every day, we're seeing big leaps forward in the tech we take for granted. For the most part, we tend to pick the best available item, regardless of brand. However, some of us may still have some preferences for specific items.

Do you consider yourself a brand loyalist for any of your tech? If so, why that brand?

For me, I've broken the habit of buying Sony headphones every single time I upgrade. When I was younger, Sony was the only name brand I could afford, so I just got used to using their equipment for pretty much anything related to music. I did use them pretty much exclusively for about 30 years though.

How about you?

That's good, break away from that Sony habit. The only thing I use headphones for is my MP3 player though, and I am totally loyal to COWON there. Everything else is garbage. Trouble is, COWON players tend to blow out every set of headphones within a week, irregardless of brand. Oh well.

In computer components though ............. kinda hard to be brand loyal with so many manufacturers going out of business all the time. But there are some areas. Like hard drives. If it's IDE/SATA I've always gone for Western Digital for years. If it's SCSI, I've always gone with Seagate (gotta love that 12 GBPS transfer rate). But there did use to be another brand, Micropolis, which were definitely in the same league. For RAM, I've always found Mushkin to be far more diligent in testing & grading the chips before they put them on a blank. But people like Corsair do a really good job too. But beyond there, it gets a tad sketchy. The two motherboard manufacturers left that I trust the most, Supermicro and Tyan, don't build workstation type boards anymore. For our HTPC setup at home, their server boards are great because they last. But for anything else, they're cumbersome. For tinkering I'll go with Gigabyte, or maybe MSI, but now that they've ditched 75% of the BIOS, and basically handed hardware control over to MS via this UEFI fiasco, the handwriting on the wall is pretty clear. I've used Linux for years myself, but I've seen the strange problems people are having these days. Yikes! Aureal came up with a real breakthrough in sound cards a while back, so Creative went deep pockets and sued them into oblivion. And then they couldn't even implement the technology they stole. With stuff like this going on, it's kinda hard to be brand loyal anymore.

 

[Deicidium369]

With tech evolving every day, we're seeing big leaps forward in the tech we take for granted. For the most part, we tend to pick the best available item, regardless of brand. However, some of us may still have some preferences for specific items.

Do you consider yourself a brand loyalist for any of your tech? If so, why that brand?

For me, I've broken the habit of buying Sony headphones every single time I upgrade. When I was younger, Sony was the only name brand I could afford, so I just got used to using their equipment for pretty much anything related to music. I did use them pretty much exclusively for about 30 years though.

How about you?

I stay away from MSI Asus and EVGA. For motherboards and video cards I am all Gigabyte all the time - I prefer Gskill memory, but also have had no issues with Mushkin, for ECC Server it's Samsung. For SSDs - both NVMe and SATA - It's only Samsung. CPU Coolers are always Noctua, Power supplies are only Seasonic. Little less particular about monitors - have a couple LG 32" 4K and main gaming monitor is Acer 4K 120/144Hz. Haven't had an OD in some time - last one was an LG. Prefer Seagate for spinning rust. Mouse and headset are Steel Series and keyboard is generally a mechanical with Cherry Brown switches. Antec Three Hundred Two case and Cougar 120mm PWM fans

Prefer Intel over AMD - although I do have several current AMD machines for testing. Prefer Nvidia over AMD for video cards.

Out of all of those - Brand Loyalty for Gigabyte, Seasonic, Samsung and overall Intel.

 

[maikutech]

Honestly, Noctua is too pricy.

Arctic does the job for me and doesn't make you pay more to get fans that don't look like dirt.

Hmm I wonder why noctua still remains so damn pricey for years now but it works flawlessly. >_>

As for myself not really a brand loyalist, long as the product and service techs are as good as they say they are.
I'm pretty much game for it, however too many rma complaints, many failure tech from a certain company.
I tend to stay away from it, especially when money is not always there. :/

 

[Unolocogringo]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Enlight cases and Number Nine graphics cards. Also, Cyrix CPUs always seemed to be a great value.

Don't make me break out my Diamond Speedstar 64 4mb ISA card on you!!!!
And yes it has 2mb soldered to the board and 2mb socketed.

 

[falcon291]

I love Asus and Logitech, but not to the level of being a loyalist. My monitor is Gigabyte Aorus, Because it was the cheapest model with IPS and Freesync and QHD, and when my headphone dies I will probably not buy Logitech, because all G series in time broken at the same place, and I don't want to throw away otherwise a working headphone again.

 

[jonnyguru]

Don't make me break out my Diamond Speedstar 64 4mb ISA card on you!!!!
And yes it has 2mb soldered to the board and 2mb socketed.

LOL!

Oh hey... Someone that's been on here almost as long as me.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Enlight cases and Number Nine graphics cards. Also, Cyrix CPUs always seemed to be a great value.

I'm sure you "LOVE LOVE LOVE" enlight power supplies too!