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?

 

[captquakers]

I am and I'm not .

I would only buy intel and Nvidia but now I'm using an AMD CPU and will be upgrading to an AMD GPU.

But I always buy MSI version of the products cause I like the way they look.

Other than that I don't really care.

 

[jitteRs]

Yes, I would say so. I would always see if my favorite brands are available first before I get anything else like EVGA, PNY, or MSI.

 

[R_1]

Oh yeah, every pointing device (mouse & tracball) I've bought for the last 25 years has probably been Logitech.

...with the lone exception of an il-fated Gyration "air mouse", I got around 2004. That was pretty awesome for HTPC, while it worked. Here's the modern equivalent:

https://www.gyration.com/products/air-mouse-elite/

If the reliability problems are fixed and I still needed one, I'd give them a second chance.

Thanks for the slap across the face. I can't believe I forgot Logitech. I have used the same model keyboard and mouse for 21 years now and as far as loyalty goes Logitech has it.
I like ASRock and Patriot but I am ever loyal to my trackball.

IMHO the pinnacle of input devices. I buy a new one, take the original beige ball socket with the metal ball rests and transplant into the new unit. I can say that part of my mouse is drinking age.

I am down to my last spare keyboard and am very fearful when it dies. it was sold under many names but the model number was always the same, the SK-6000.
if anyone knows where I can get a working SK-6000- I'm always looking.

 

[iNVERTEDpLAZMA]

I like intel/nvidia a lot. I know they get a lot of flak for "monopolizing" or whatever and it costs more than amd alternatives, but I keep buying them because their products are rock solid and they top the specs chart all the time.

 

[Definedd]

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?

With PC building, I definitely am Loyal to AMD. I always go for AMD GPU and CPU's for their price to performance, for brands, I always go with the cheapest but do research on the card brand first incase its someone who has bad cooling

 

[Wingshots]

I buy everything

 

[hotaru251]

Brands are important to me in specific things where qualitym atters.
I use to be an Intel fan. (never owned an amd cpu only gpu back in early 2000's)
however stagnation and price gouging for no benefit other than brand has made me less of 1.

AMD is likely to be my next brand for cpu's due to actual improvement/changes for a nice value and giving options for not buying a new MB every generation. (aka support is better)

GPU i am entirely Nvidia.
Not anything agaisnt AMD specifically, but intel are better now-a-days. (i still loved my old amd radeon HD 3200x)

and for gpu i favor? EVGA. I liek their design and support/website is very user friendly. Also their upgrade discount is a nice benefit if you get a card and wanna get a betetr one soon after for soem reason.


I refuse to use anything Mac after beign forced to use a 1 button mouse growing up throguh schooling.

mice needed a right click! a long hold is so much more annoying to do.


cooler's i'd prolly go for Noctua becasue I am not a fan of RGB. I like a darker theme so the chromax line is perfect.


No brand for ram. whatever is reliable and performs decent is enoguh for me.

 

[Barty1884]

At first thought, I'd say no. Although when I think about it, I definitely have some preferences...

Motherboards: ASUS. Predominantly for their BIOS, I like the layout & functionality.

GPUs: EVGA for their customer service. I've had to RMA with Gigabyte and EVGA previously, and EVGA were just an all-round good experience. It's possible others are good too, but the way they handled things goes a long way.

Cooling: I'd say Noctua. Great performance, quiet, no flashy RGB. I'm not opposed to others, but given the choice, I'd opt for Noctua.

PSU: No real "brand" preference here, but I (like to think I) know what I'm talking about. So the underlying platform matters more to me. I use a SuperNOVA G2 now, had an old SeaSonic-made Corsair TX in the past.... Provided the underlying platform is solid, I don't mind the brand. If I had to pick on brand name alone, I'd opt for SeaSonic, simply because you know what you're getting, which isn't as true for most other brands in the space.

However saying all this, the brand element only carries so much weight. I wouldn't pay a 25% premium for an ASUS motherboard, if all the same features/build quality etc were available from A.N.Other board manufacturer. Would I pay +10%?.... maybe.

 

[sxk1277]

EA over the years has consistently delivered top-notch games. From Need for Speed, to their sports section, to Battlefield series and now to Apex Legends. Its in the game 😉

I'm also loyal to not just company but people. Bill Gates, whatever he does, I follow him. Same could be said about Obama.

I also make it a rule to not buy from cheap flashy colored brands like Seasonic and G.Skill

 

[NightHawkRMX]

cheap flashy colored brands like Seasonic

Huh?

Seasonic is certainly not cheap nor flashy. Something id consider both cheap and flashy is like a Thermaltake Litepower/SMART RGB

 

[bit_user]

Yes it has to be Heinz ketchup

Funny, but one time I actually compared and was pretty surprised at how much difference there was between different brands of ketchup. I stopped eating french fries like 10 years ago, but I think I settled on Hunts.

These days, if I buy ketchup, I make sure to get low-sugar. There's a lot of sugar lurking in there, normally.

 

[bit_user]

I am ever loyal to my trackball.

For sure. I use a mouse at the office, but a trackball at home. I had carpal tunnel syndrome, once. I made two changes and it never returned. I already listed one. The other was removing the arm rests from one of my chairs.

IMHO the pinnacle of input devices.

I have one of those, but I prefer these:

​

https://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/wireless-trackball-m570​

I was reluctant to go wireless, for so long, out of concern about battery life. But, it turns out it's literally eons. A total non-issue. All it took was not being able to find a direct replacement for the corded version I previously had.

I am down to my last spare keyboard and am very fearful when it dies. it was sold under many names but the model number was always the same, the SK-6000.
if anyone knows where I can get a working SK-6000- I'm always looking.

Hmm... I know it can be stressful, but maybe consider a change?

​

https://kinesis-ergo.com/shop/advantage2/​

BTW, the biggest downside is that you basically have to use it with a keyboard tray, due to its thickness. The above picture is BS - you really don't want it up that high.

P.S. it took me forever to figure out that your profile pic is Deadpool dressed as Bob Ross. Nice.

 

[R_1]

that's nice! the 6 is on the right, proper, correct side of the keyboard. has been my biggest niggle with other split models.
pricey though.

 

[jimmysmitty]

At first thought, I'd say no. Although when I think about it, I definitely have some preferences...

Motherboards: ASUS. Predominantly for their BIOS, I like the layout & functionality.

GPUs: EVGA for their customer service. I've had to RMA with Gigabyte and EVGA previously, and EVGA were just an all-round good experience. It's possible others are good too, but the way they handled things goes a long way.

Cooling: I'd say Noctua. Great performance, quiet, no flashy RGB. I'm not opposed to others, but given the choice, I'd opt for Noctua.

PSU: No real "brand" preference here, but I (like to think I) know what I'm talking about. So the underlying platform matters more to me. I use a SuperNOVA G2 now, had an old SeaSonic-made Corsair TX in the past.... Provided the underlying platform is solid, I don't mind the brand. If I had to pick on brand name alone, I'd opt for SeaSonic, simply because you know what you're getting, which isn't as true for most other brands in the space.

However saying all this, the brand element only carries so much weight. I wouldn't pay a 25% premium for an ASUS motherboard, if all the same features/build quality etc were available from A.N.Other board manufacturer. Would I pay +10%?.... maybe.

I too like Asus motherboard BIOS. Especially when we moved to UEFI. It is typically cleaner and easier to use IMO.

 

[sxk1277]

Huh?

Seasonic is certainly not cheap nor flashy. Something id consider both cheap and flashy is like a Thermaltake Litepower/SMART RGB

I didn't mean they are cheap in price. I meant their choice of logo and design leaves something to be desired.

 

[envy14tpe]

For me ... MSI Nvidia GPUs.
Owned 3 of them and never had issues. Twin Frozr and now Trio ... have knocked it out of the park. Just waiting for Ampere to release and buy MSI again.

 

[ThatGuyVanquish]

Used to be very loyal to Gigabyte after I've had several mobos just failing out of the factory (back in the Phenom X3 days I've had a couple of msi boards and 1 asus board fail outright from when I took the computer from the store. Maybe was just poor qc from them but that was annoying).
Then at 2014 I decided that I want to color match my haswell build and decided that the only mobo that fit and was inside my budget was a refurbished Z97 Krait SLI from MSI. Works great until today on my brothers' pc, 4690K oced to 4.3ghz but didn't play much recently with voltages and memory timings.

Might call myself loyal to Logitech's mice, but I kind of miss my Razer Deathadder (the old one with the blue LED) as it was awesome. Other than with mice I just try to find the best product I can for the amount of money I have. Even AMD gpus have been in my mind but sadly all of my recent builds were Nvidia because it's most of the time better for the price locally.
My brother wants to upgrade his 1060 though, might get a 5700XT

 

[CountMike]

Ford - yes. Intel no, Colt-yes, Beretta -no.

 

[Colif]

A over the years has consistently delivered top-notch games. From Need for Speed, to their sports section, to Battlefield series and now to Apex Legends. Its in the game 😉

So your the one, their one and only happy customer, I was wondering where you were hiding

I have used more Intel than AMD CPU but only by a count of 1. So I guess its AMD's turn next time.
I don't have a fav maker of GPU either, depends who is on top at time... probably more Nvidia over time.

Storage - For about 15 years it was WD, but I don't have any of theirsnow, no real reason I swapped away. SSD don't break as much as hdd

MIce - I probably have a box full of logitech mice but I stopped using them years ago. I used to buy a new one just to have a new one.

 

[King Dranzer]

Many call me brand loyalist, which I may be considered as but there is a strong reason for that. I don't blindly support, like or be loyal to a brand unless it is at top of the line.

I support SONY for TV and smartphone lineup as well as selective Headphones. Instead of blindly supporting it I can give a strong reason for doing so. I at the same time curse SONY for its bad tactics and even worse non existent Marketing Department.

Lets get down to TV. Is SONY the best when it comes to providing visual experience answer is Yes. Do I support it for that? Yes. Am I happy with SONY? Answer is big NO. What SONY has out in the Market today is definitely better than its competition but is it the best definitely not. In 2016 SONY launched a TV Z9D which was probably their biggest mistake. It was so good that even today in 2020 there is no LED TV launched till date which can provide better experience than that. What SONY did was bad as the Next year in 2017 they gave us the cut down version of Z9D for mainstream consumers which was X930E/X940E which is still great and lot better than what we have today. The next year it went down and ruined it even further. After ruining it or cutting it down twice it started giving us same thing with little improvement year after year. Sad thing is that even after cutting down that much the competition from Big Three SAMSUNG and LG is not catching up to give a wake-up call for SONY. SONY now has no reason to improve and can easily get away with the bad quality stuff it is offering as its competitors are even worse. Seriously SAMSUNG and LG are concentrating too much on improving their TVs Gaming capabilities that they stopped their R&D in improving visual experience. Yes SAMSUNG and LG are way superior for gaming in comparison to SONY but if they are unable to deliver on what matters most for TV then what is the point.

Now coming to Smartphones. The Legendary most epic XPERIA series. Which has great marketing department with legendary panel of invisible members who from time to time release advertisements which are so Godly that us commoners cant even comprehend its existence with our unworthy eyes. Jokes aside I really hope SONY comes to senses and realize that they cannot sell products without doing any kind of marketing at all. SONY stopped its sales in my country India the reason being it was not seeing enough sales as expected. How can SONY expect enough sales if people don't even get to know a product even exists in the market. Majority of people dint even knew that XPERIA was even available in the market. SONY last advertised XPERIA in 2013 which was Z1 and guess Z1 out-sold and was most demanded in 2013-15. In 2014 and 15 after phone was officially discontinues it was sold through Amazon.in and many other sites for way above its MSRP at end of its production and even lot many pieces were imported and sold for much higher price and it was selling like hot cakes even over newer offerings from other brands and from SONY itself. People are not mad that they are spending that high and still buying a phone which was already discontinues. People purchased it for even way above its MSRP is because how good it was it was practically legendary when it comes to reliability and feature package for its time. SONY XPERIA makes best products from time to time like Z1, Z5, XZ Premium and now XPERIA 1 II and still fails to sell because of a simple fact that a product cannot be sold without a proper marketing. Yes SONY had made few bad decisions in past like design of XZ2 and XZ3 and guess I was up there firing it over different tech forums for its bad decisions. As much as I like XPERIA I simply cannot support it if it screws up badly. I recommended offerings from OnePlus over the XZ2 and XZ3 for people who were considering to purchase it.

Headphones, is it the best depending on the segment we look at it may be considered the best but not perfect as it used to be in golden era of 1975-1995. It definitely is the best when it comes to Noise-canceling over ear or ear buds there is nothing better than SONY WH-1000XM3 and WF-1000XM3 respectively. But if one has to get best audio experience with no budget limitation I recommend getting SHURE KSE1500. SONY flagship headphones were considered to be Holy-grail decades ago but sadly not anymore. Dad has old wooden closed back cups from 80s and guess even HD820 pale in comparison when it comes to warm and natural experience we get from it.

 

[King_V]

I didn't mean they are cheap in price. I meant their choice of logo and design leaves something to be desired.

Don't start that crap again. That nonsense is what got your thread closed where you asked for PSU recommendations.

 

[maikutech]

Asus
Corsair
AMD
Samsung
AOC monitors, I have my second one now and are great value for what you get here in Europe.
Solid parts for any build imo.

Asus means full nightmare booster, beware of them or you will regret it sooner or later.

 

[Barty1884]

Asus means full nightmare booster, beware of them or you will regret it sooner or later.

In what context? You're going to need more than that as a PSA.

Only ever had a small issue with any ASUS product, and their customer service were fine, if not exceptional.

 

[jimmysmitty]

In what context? You're going to need more than that as a PSA.

Only ever had a small issue with any ASUS product, and their customer service were fine, if not exceptional.

Have been using Asus boards for close to 20 years with none failing except one that was 8 years old, caps finally started to go out but system still booted.

My 980Ti had a single faulty fan (ROG Strix, and was just making a noise) and they replaced it with a GTX 1080 ROG Strix.

 

[maikutech]

In what context? You're going to need more than that as a PSA.

Only ever had a small issue with any ASUS product, and their customer service were fine, if not exceptional.

I hear more issues with asus than I care to fully explain, that includes their customer service department which is still a real problem.
Yes I have had issues with asus, from netbook, to laptop, to 3 motherboards and yes I do work on them through other customers I get.