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?

 

[hopsteriam]

No. All brands make good and bad gear. I read and watch reviews and take each product as it comes. No name brands are held to more scrutiny, but for example Ali Express twin tower 4 and 6 heat pipe cpu coolers are great value.
No good attaching emotions to hardware, you are setting yourself up to be upset.

 

[AaronAngle]

Preferences? Yes
Loyalty? No

I don't build enough PC's to have loyalty. I'll buy the hottest item at the best budget. All of 5 of the PC's I've built since 2009/2010 have been AMD though.

 

[lockdown744]

For someone who have used a limited number of computer hardware for now, I can still say that I am not loyal to any brand, I have experienced an rx580 sapphire nitro+ oc fail at me right after the warranty period. Now my asrock b450m pro 4 motherboard has an issue with its onboard audio and more. The new gtx 1660ti I have purchased from galax has a very useless stock thermal paste that makes my card hit 78c under load and then after repasting it only reached 72c . Lastly, I recently purchased an asus tuf fx505 laptop that has a damaged motherboard and was repaired after almost 4 months, so I was only able to use the device almost 4 months after I purchased it. So I dont know if I am just "lucky" with my hardware.

 

[bit_user]

Aorus line from Asus. The Asus Aorus motherboards, graphics cards, and cooling solutions seem to be where I lean toward. I even like their latest NVMe.

Dude, I hate to break it to you, but Aorus is from Gigabyte.

I also tend toward Seasonic, Sabrent and Teamgroup T-force products.

Wow, that's rather alphabetized and alliterative of you. Sweet!

 

[bit_user]

I was loyal to IBM PCs, PS-1s, PS-2s, MicroChannel, Thinkpads,

Yeah, IBM really contributed so much to PCs, in the 80's. Initially, establishing the PC's modular architecture and then ending the decade with the PS/2 ushering in VGA, faster bus speeds, and standardizing the mouse.

And then I feel Thinkpads were their main contribution of the 90's.

I also loved OS/2

OS/2 was the true geek's OS, and I mean that as a compliment. The smartest people I knew were either into OS/2 or Linux (or both). Imagine where we'd be, if it hadn't been killed off by Microsoft's lawyers. Just imagine having real competition among OS vendors, where you could natively run the same programs on one or the other!

 

[Akaigetsu]

Just like the OP I used to buy Sony headphones because if they'd break, I would only lose $20-30.
My phone however, I bought a Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro (a brand which I didnt knew back then) and ever since I been a brand loyalist. I recently upgraded my old phone to a Mi 10 Pro, got their electric scooter. At this point I even have their home lighting. I really like their aesthetic (clean modern) and they're pretty cheap.

When it comes to PC parts;
CPU: I usually pick whichever is best price value currently I go with a ryzen 7 3700x
MOBO: Gigabyte and more specifically Aorus
GPU: A few years back I would've said MSI cause they have that gamer red look. Now I don't really care cause I don't have the money for that extra nice look on a card. For example the 2080 Aorus Waterforce or Windforce look amazing but they're expensive just for being a 2080 alone.
RAM: G.Skill seems to be pretty good at what they do but I wouldn't mind picking up some Corsair or Kingston.
PSU: I'm a bit biased by Corsair cause I used to look for all the corsair parts (fans, aio, psu) but I might start switching to Silverstone or some other brand as long as its gold rated.
AIO: Corsair without a doubt, Icue isn't the best software but what I read from NZXT's software it does seem worse.
CASE: NZXT, I love the H400 its clean, good cable managment and pretty cheap

So concluding my pc parts; If I had a ton of money I'd probably be brand loyal to Gigabyte's Aorus lineup and get their whole watercooling set (Waterforce mobo, GPU) with their PCIe NVMe SSD and RAM. But i don't so I stick to what I can buy.

My peripherals are from steelseries which I stick with.

 

[h4lf_gr33k]

If I had my way, I would have stuffed my PC with Asus products. But since I live in a developing country, I have to make do with a Gigabyte mobo, an Inno3D GPU and differing RAM sticks

 

[LucaFire]

For me there are some parts that have always worked, and whose style I (mostly) always like:
Mobo andn GPU - MSI
SSD (whether NVME or otherwise) - Samsung
PSU - EVGA

 

[starlight.evenings]

GPU: Whatever is bang for buck, Nvidia is eye-roll way too greedy and I seldom buy their cards unless the price is right for the build. When you can get 8GB of Vram (fatboy 590 ebay) and 60+fps at max settings on 200 dollar card there is no need to buy Nvidia unless you're running virtual reality on four screens.

Power supply: Evga. Seriously.

CPU: AMD because bang for buck is glorious and CPU's reached a point that buying more expensive doesn't mean much of a difference since it's now handicapped by other components.

 

[n00bguy84]

No I am not. I want the best I can get and afford. The brand doesn't matter to me. Though I know what I have used in the past and it's held up and I liked the product. So I might lean towards another piece of hardware of the same brand. But I can easily go for a different brand if it they have a better piece of hardware.

Basically I won't buy some companies mediocre garbage hardware just because they have their name on it.

 

[GUN3Y]

Steelseries, Corsair, Asus, Sony, iPhone

Regardless competition is good and fan boying is stupid most often so everyone should be happy that their is healthy competition in most areas. We don't want to see Intel dominating again or Playstation or Nvidia because a monopoly in the market means higher prices for lower quality products

 

[rebna00]

Ive never had any luck with any radeon cards, ive stuck with nvidia for the last 10 years

 

[gamerbrehdy]

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?

Definetly Inno3D, Coolermaster and ASUS.

Inno3D is on the cheaper end of the spectrum, but it's still very good. My Inno3D GeForce GTX 1060 3GB Twin X2 is still holding up amazing. And I'm planning on upgrading to the Inno3D GeForce RTX 2060 Twin X2. Very satisfied about Inno3D's Twin X2 series.

CoolerMaster is number two because I really like their designs. I only own their MasterFan MF120R ARGB (4x) with their premium ARGB controller, but I'd always reccommend coolermasters ARGB fans to others. There are some complaints about loud fan noises (I don't think so in my opinion), but if you just use overhead headphones (like me) theres nothing to be worried about.

ASUS is number 3 because it's been my main motherboard brand for the past 2 years. I've been using their PRIME Z270-P. It's a bit of a bland and boring motherboard, but it does it's job very well. Sadly my Z270-P recently died pratially, and there are some RAM-problems, so I'm going for a new Z270 motherboard by ASUS.

 

[AgentBJ09]

These days, yes.

G-Skill for RAM, ASUS for optical drives, MSI for video cards and motherboards, and ACER for vanilla laptops. (My first one lasted nine years before kicking the bucket thanks to the charging port dying.)

 

[bruvvamoff]

I used to be but my latest build is made up of 11 brands!

 

[fuzzykiss]

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?

for me it has always been amd cpu's (cost) and nvidia gpu's(best graphics), in the early days it was an issue to get them to play well together. not so much anymore.

 

[ubronan]

Never actually had a real favorite besides server stuff when i worked in the IT industry.
Now i just take what suites me the best and is the most stable.
However i am more demanding on the speed topic, especially usage of storage devices can't go fast enough.
I know that even though the benchmarks say something is fast, it often is not actually speeding up as much as i like.
Nothing is more addictive then speed, that we know for a fact.
But while having 2 samsung nvme in raid 0 its still a long wait till the games finally load.
The sad thing is i know it can be very fast if you can afford a real TB3 raid box with many high speed nvme in it.
Once you have been on such a system everything looks obsolete, slow and old
I know those cost a fortune and are well beyond the pricepoint for normal people to get their hands on.
Currently i actually did not update anything yet besides switching to a 3 year old 8700k.
Simply because nothing what has been released actually does make a difference for my games at all.
Maybe also because their has not been any real RTS game released for years as well.
And the renewed ones actually are no fun either, every remake is kinda directed to fast pace gaming and i do not give a rats ass about hurry games at all.
So i might stick with this old cpu for alot longer before something popsup which is actually worth replacing.
I want to add that there are absolutely no real usb 3.1 gen 2 devices on the market which actually make use of that speed almost everything is really only usb 1.0, 2.x or 3.0 at best.
The same goes for the nvme ssd they are fast but not any faster than a normal ssd for gaming.
Sure i bought them because of other tasks it did do it a little faster, but it really is not worth the extra money spend on them. So why did i replace my enterprise ssds well one of them failed and the other was too small to keep all my data. While i was seeking the internet to find more second hand enterprise ssd, i was absolutely not expecting that i could not find any second hand ones at all.
The ones i found where bought up by second hand server shops who sells them for almost new prices as refurbished drives ....... so end of story there as well.
So for me thats the end of an era as well, so it might be that i might never buy anything ever new as well.
Thats also what most of my friends are having said to me as well, the woman in the home does no longer want to have a big game pc in the home so they are forced to use a tablet or laptop to game on......
But point is they do not upgrade anymore because the new games are not what they want either, and almost everything is online.
Which are all with endless dlc selling and me and my friends, simply refuse to buy anything of that crap either.
The last dlc i bought is almost 5 years ago, and that was something i got for 3 dollar and instant regret i had bought it.
So the world of pc is changing but many people like me are no longer taking part in that buying something new which actually does nothing for you.
Almost all games only use at most 2 to 4 threads and the rest of the cores sits in your cpu for nothing eating only power without any function.
I actually made fun of several guys who where bragging about their super new pc and when we tested my old 6700k beat them all in performance in the games we played.
Its so funny that they have a monster machine which actually is not faster in the games we play, and turns out to be a very expenssive piece of nothing.
So end of story i kinda still look at the new stuff but do not see any need for these super core monsters at all.
Because my favorite games can't use any of it.

 

[musrocs14]

Yes and no, I usually do extensive research for my PC builds, all the way back to my first one around 2003 when I was a teenager. I had an MSI motherboard and an AMD CPU than and Kingston or Crucial memory with a Sapphire 9800 pro. I have used Asrock and Gigabyte motherboards. All worked well but my MSI mobo died years later when a power outage killed it. My siblings used that computer though as I had already upgraded by that time. I had 3 Asrock Mobo's and one died on me but it was a very low end computer as I just wanted something to use and have linux on without dual booting or virtualization at the time. It worked okay but low end mobos seem to have lower quality parts. My other ones are working great.
I use corsair memory now for the most part and their power supplies. I had a Corsair 650D i really liked but helped a buddy build a 450D and was not as pleased with their build quality. I really like the Fractal Design cases and they appear to have a solid quality build in the Define series and will probably move to that one in the near future. I do tend to like AMD but built an intel i7 2700k (was on sale and cheaper than the 2600k) build that works fine but that was because AMD was way behind at that time and I needed a new PC. On Ryzen now though and will be upgrading to 4th gen Ryzen I think when it comes out. Only issue i've seen was with first gen ryzen and memory issues but bugs are usually very common with first gen architectures since I can remember and I have read about computers since the late 90s as a kid.
So, Yes and No, I usually do my due diligence on a build and see what the best parts are for the money and will make decisions based on that. When I find things I think are solid, I will tend to stick with them. I do want to try an Asus mobo but they are usually priced 30 to 50 dollars more for the same features as all the other boards in the same price range when you read reviews and they compare the boards for particular price groups. I think it is best to save up some more money than you originally plan and spend it on better parts as they usually last a little longer.

 

[Hardly_Qualified723]

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 have to agree here, although they just made some changes (before the pandemic) to no longer be 24/7 unfortunately...and when I found my Graphic Card I had THEM upgrade to iCX was defective (the fans to boot) later down the road (I did a commando swap and the new one did not have that issue) they still gave me gripe about mine being dirty until I went to the higher up that is in all emails they send.

He promptly handled the situation as a company loyal to their customers and earned one for life right there...then sent about 20 more emails back and forth making sure I was satisfied and shooting the bull in general about EVGA, the software, etc. I actually took a liking to him on a personal note--that's service.

 

[Hardly_Qualified723]

Myself personally (and I kick myself constantly for it) since the company has fallen out of my good light with terrible customer service...Logitech for my mouse, I gotta have the Trackball style like the M570 I have now, I've been using that shape and style since I can recall owning a PC, and I won't budge.

The way I work, if your customer service treats me like anyone would want to be treated when s*it hits the fan hard--you've earned my respect...and until you ruin that fact I will buy your products--according to my needs at the time.

I haven't found many brands I live by and I generally like to trial and error hardware AND companies (ya, i'm that jerk lol) to see whats reliable, so not really I guess except my dang mouse lol.

Although, I do have a high regard for EVGA due to its donations, customer service, general help the people concepts--and even pay consumers to do it but I still won't just buy an entire EVGA rig, just because its EVGA. Matter of fact, my power supply I did just for that reason is kind of crappy lol...although I know they don't make the parts for those themselves, it makes a point.

On a good note it has a 10 year warranty, I can't complain unless it fries something else heh.

 

[WildCard999]

I have to agree here, although they just made some changes (before the pandemic) to no longer be 24/7 unfortunately...and when I found my Graphic Card I had THEM upgrade to iCX was defective (the fans to boot) later down the road (I did a commando swap and the new one did not have that issue) they still gave me gripe about mine being dirty until I went to the higher up that is in all emails they send.

He promptly handled the situation as a company loyal to their customers and earned one for life right there...then sent about 20 more emails back and forth making sure I was satisfied and shooting the bull in general about EVGA, the software, etc. I actually took a liking to him on a personal note--that's service.

It's been awhile since I've contacted them but it's nice to know that there still taking care of customers even if there not 24/7.

 

[Hardly_Qualified723]

Yeah, IBM really contributed so much to PCs, in the 80's. Initially, establishing the PC's modular architecture and then ending the decade with the PS/2 ushering in VGA, faster bus speeds, and standardizing the mouse.

And then I feel Thinkpads were their main contribution of the 90's.


OS/2 was the true geek's OS, and I mean that as a compliment. The smartest people I knew were either into OS/2 or Linux (or both). Imagine where we'd be, if it hadn't been killed off by Microsoft's lawyers. Just imagine having real competition among OS vendors, where you could natively run the same programs on one or the other!

I actually just came back to edit my own post (and can't find it haha) saying IBM was the one company back when...they were truly loyal to the customer at all times. Never did i see them shirk anyone...but as you said they got ripped off themself and well...here we are. I went so far as trying to hunt down modern IBM parts for my very first rig when I built it lol.

You are missed, IBM. Glad they're still up and running, even if its not for the general consumer.

I also have a passionate hatred for Dell after I watched them BIOS bomb my Venue into a processor/battery death and them refusing to help due to it being 3 months past warranty (it got maybe 12 short uses since I hate touchscreen), as an OS/2 & DOS man + programmer, I figured out exactly what happened (as if you booting up fine after ironically three months and a BIOS update just killed your machine isn't obvious enough)..an I have hated them ever since.
I paid $50 for the Venue, but it's the principal of the matter.

They are like IBM's Evil Twin and one reason I built a rig in the first place. if you gotta buy shelf, HP (not Compaq) is the way to go, but regardless...dHell is just a green eyed monster. Just MHO.

 

[Iniaskle]

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 have never used NVIDIA in the past and that probably says enough. For GPU's I always pick Sapphire, I just love it.

 

[scodd]

I want to be, but sometimes even the things you love the most can put out some real <Mod Edit>. Glad AMD got the CPUs going, again, finally. Heck I had AMD 386-40s and even 486-DX2 120s way back. I wish I would have waited 9 months and picked up a 3900x or even 3950x instead of a 9700k, but the almost 8 year old 3930k I was running was a bit behind and I needed something faster. I think the 5700 XT is pretty nice for the price and hope the next round of AMD GPUs really impresses me. Almost there, so I will wait before I get another GPU and maybe by that time can put an entire AMD system together. Hook, line and sinker. Lead me. No wait. Follow me.

Offended something so sending with mod edit. Man, getting thin.

 

[scodd]

I worked for IBM for 33 years, so I was loyal to IBM PCs, PS-1s, PS-2s, MicroChannel, Thinkpads, and then Lenova for a while, I also loved OS/2, obviously I have had to reevaluate my preferences! (LOL) Now I use Win-10 and Ubuntu and I like to build my own PCs with the best components that fit my budget (which is never enough). As for components, I'm still partial to Intel CPUs but I have used AMD processors to save a few bucks. I usually check this site when deciding on any components before I buy, to check specs and price (value for the $$ )

It was MIcroChannel and Token-Ring that convinced me IBM was the wrong choice. And the vast majority of everyone else as well. I did like OS/2 though. Jeez, NCR was on the Microchannel/Token-Ring flame-out too. Shame. I really liked NCR.