do you care for vendor brands?

TheBuzzer

TheBuzzer

HACK THE WORLD!
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Aug 15, 2005
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like asus, evga, pny, etc...

Do you care what vendor brand your video card is even though their all the same model?

oh btw: what ati video card brand to get?
 
With Mobos , I go Gigabyte, though my next one will likely be EVGA.
Vid Cards I also go with EVGA because of the lifetime warranty and great support after the sale.

For Ati I'd likely go with XFX for the lifetime warranty.
 
go with any of the brands that offer Lifetime guarantees. They typically have the best customer services as well it seem.
 
yes

warrenty support and customer service are paramount (especially if I'm dropping 400-600 on a GPU)
 
These days everything is a variant of the original reference design. The only functional differentiation is in custom cooling and factory overclocks, which I've always thought of as anticonsumer product segregation and thus try to avoid. Like most other posters in this thread I choose based upon warranty and customer service.
 
Graphic Card: BFG, EVGA, or XFX for warranty.

Motherboard: Gigabyte/ASUS these days for self or recommending to enthusiast buddies.
 
Nvdia? --> XFX or BFG (not happy with evga)
ATI? --> XFX, No second choice unless the offer similar warranty
Motherboard? --> Asus next time (no more evga) Gigabyte would be 2nd choice
 
For video cards? No I don't care who I get them from. My 8800gts is evga and my new 5870 crossfire cards that I just ordered are from powercolor.

For motherboard? It all depends on who has the best set of features that I'm looking for.
 
Yes, I damn well do care with how hot and expensive video cards are. I want to make sure if they do break I can actually use the warranty it came with. For < $100 purchases I'll go with whoever, for anything over that its XFX, BFG, or EVGA.
 
For motherboards, the brand is very important to me. I have my favorites, and though I've seen some excellent boards from other brands, for my own money, I typically go with ASUS, Intel or EVGA depending on my needs. Supermicro is a top consideration for workstation class machines, as are Intel boards. For gaming right now I typically go EVGA or ASUS. I've had a long history of using ASUS motherboards, but EVGA has won me over with their superior layouts and overclocking. With video cards some brands I'll avoid for the simple fact that they give lousy warranty support. I'll never buy PNY because their lifetime warranty is anything but. Aside from that I don't care too much.
 
I go for the cheapest i can , unless i heard of a brand / model that overclocks better.

My gpus run in my system for 1-2 years about. So there isn't much reason to go with life time warrenties. I've only had 1 video card fail before i was ready to replace it.
 
pasta4u said:
I go for the cheapest i can , unless i heard of a brand / model that overclocks better.

My gpus run in my system for 1-2 years about. So there isn't much reason to go with life time warrenties. I've only had 1 video card fail before i was ready to replace it.
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Yeah I don't worry about lifetime warranties either. A year is typically plenty for me. My comments about PNY are due to the fact that they'll pretty much stop at nothing to avoid replacing something under warranty.
 
As for the actual hardware on stock GPUs of the same model, all brands are the same. It's their post-purchase support that counts. I've had good experience with EVGA (can't been step-up) and Powercolor (I had excellent personalized RMA service and follow-up). Not so good an experience with MSI.

For mobos, it's different as reference designs are different. I like Asus and Abit (sad... :(). I had an i780 and i680 from EVGA and those boards caused nothing but problems.
 
Mobo - Asus/MSI/Gigabyte
GFX - EVGA/BFG/XFX (although I just picked up a Saaphire 5870)
 
harmattan said:
As for the actual hardware on stock GPUs of the same model, all brands are the same. It's their post-purchase support that counts. I've had good experience with EVGA (can't been step-up) and Powercolor (I had excellent personalized RMA service and follow-up). Not so good an experience with MSI.

For mobos, it's different as reference designs are different. I like Asus and Abit (sad... :(). I had an i780 and i680 from EVGA and those boards caused nothing but problems.
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I don't like evga for various reasons (8800gts 640 warranty fubar), but I'd be more apt to blame the garbage Chipsets nVidia released (680i especially), then I would be the manufacturing vendor in those cases.
 
harmattan said:
As for the actual hardware on stock GPUs of the same model, all brands are the same. It's their post-purchase support that counts. I've had good experience with EVGA (can't been step-up) and Powercolor (I had excellent personalized RMA service and follow-up). Not so good an experience with MSI.

For mobos, it's different as reference designs are different. I like Asus and Abit (sad... :(). I had an i780 and i680 from EVGA and those boards caused nothing but problems.
Click to expand...

Intel chipset based boards don't really have reference designs exactly. At least, nothing that we typically see. Companies like ASUS typically work closely with Intel. Intel provides the guidelines and technical details well in advance of a chipset or CPUs release.

As far as NVIDIA goes, yes they have created reference designs in the past and companies like EVGA simply used those reference designs. The bulk of the 680i SLI and 780i SLI boards out there were re-badged reference boards. They were simply terrible boards. This isn't EVGA's fault as EVGA only resold the boards that NVIDIA sold them. NVIDIA designed them, sent the design to Foxconn to be built, then NVIDIA sold the boards to BFG, EVGA, ECS, etc for rebranding to be resold. You can't even blame Foxconn for this because NVIDIA gave them specifications and said, "Build it." Foxconn just did what they were contracted to do. I was a bit scared to use any motherboard with EVGA's name on it given that I had 12 of their 680i SLI boards either arrive DOA or die on me within a few months or less of opening their boxes. Still I realized that this wasn't EVGA's fault and since then EVGA hired engineers to design their own boards in house. Though I do not know who actually builds them. As far as I know EVGA doesn't manufacture anything on their own internally.

Essentially a P55 or X58 chipset based board from EVGA is NOTHING like having some NVIDIA design POS with an EVGA sticker on it. :cool:
 
yes, brands are everything...

motherboard = Gigabyte, Asus or EVGA / Gigabyte for my budget builds and Asus or EVGA for the highend gaming builds.

videocard = HIS or Asus for high performance. Sapphire is great for oem specs

memory = Mushkin "Black"

ocz for my ssd's / Corsair psu's

You really do get what you pay for.

Some others great brands, MSI,ABIT,BFG,ECS,Patriot,
 
I've had MSI, Powecolor, Sapphire, XFX, BFG, ATI (when they still sold retail cards). The most I've had is Sapphire, three cards I think. I've never had a problem with any of them. I don't have any brand preference really, but I do avoid brand names that are just out there. The longest I've had a card is 2 years so I've never really had a need for lifetime warranty.
 
Dan_D said:
Yeah I don't worry about lifetime warranties either. A year is typically plenty for me. My comments about PNY are due to the fact that they'll pretty much stop at nothing to avoid replacing something under warranty.
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yea i haen't bought nvidia in a long time so i dunno. I would stay away from vison tek. had a bad experiance with them when i had a 3870x2.
 
Dan_D said:
Intel chipset based boards don't really have reference designs exactly. At least, nothing that we typically see. Companies like ASUS typically work closely with Intel. Intel provides the guidelines and technical details well in advance of a chipset or CPUs release.

As far as NVIDIA goes, yes they have created reference designs in the past and companies like EVGA simply used those reference designs. The bulk of the 680i SLI and 780i SLI boards out there were re-badged reference boards. They were simply terrible boards. This isn't EVGA's fault as EVGA only resold the boards that NVIDIA sold them. NVIDIA designed them, sent the design to Foxconn to be built, then NVIDIA sold the boards to BFG, EVGA, ECS, etc for rebranding to be resold. You can't even blame Foxconn for this because NVIDIA gave them specifications and said, "Build it." Foxconn just did what they were contracted to do. I was a bit scared to use any motherboard with EVGA's name on it given that I had 12 of their 680i SLI boards either arrive DOA or die on me within a few months or less of opening their boxes. Still I realized that this wasn't EVGA's fault and since then EVGA hired engineers to design their own boards in house. Though I do not know who actually builds them. As far as I know EVGA doesn't manufacture anything on their own internally.

Essentially a P55 or X58 chipset based board from EVGA is NOTHING like having some NVIDIA design POS with an EVGA sticker on it. :cool:
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I'm a bit shocked to read this as I've been running an EVGA 680i motherboard for the past 3+ years and it's been the most rock-solid motherboard I've ever owned in 16 years of system building. It's been more than enough to convince me to go EVGA for my upcoming build to finally replace it.

Now, I didn't go overboard OCing the C2D I'm using with it, but it's OCed a bit. I also remember being extremely impressed with the build quality when I took it out of the box.

Asus, on the other hand... I've owned two of their boards, both of which died on me. The second one that died was actually a lower end model that I replaced the first dead one with. And it suffered a similar fate after less than 12 months.
 
I felt like I was cheating on my wife when I bought a non-EVGA video card for my latest build.

Damn it, EVGA! Why can't you follow ASUS and sell both Nvidia and ATI cards!!!!
 
I actually choose board partners over the choice of ATI vs Nvidia. I am not a fan of either and buy the best I can get from the vendors I like.
 
For motherboards it's been nothing but Gigabyte for me lately. Before that I pretty much worshipped Abit. I also avoid Asus boards, they're too picky with ram and other little things. My X58 board did die on my after a few months, but the RMA was handled well by Gigabyte and no problems with the replacement board since.

For video cards I generally have no brand preference but warranty does matter somewhat.

Headcase_Fargone said:
I'm a bit shocked to read this as I've been running an EVGA 680i motherboard for the past 3+ years and it's been the most rock-solid motherboard I've ever owned in 16 years of system building. It's been more than enough to convince me to go EVGA for my upcoming build to finally replace it.

Now, I didn't go overboard OCing the C2D I'm using with it, but it's OCed a bit. I also remember being extremely impressed with the build quality when I took it out of the box.

Asus, on the other hand... I've owned two of their boards, both of which died on me. The second one that died was actually a lower end model that I replaced the first dead one with. And it suffered a similar fate after less than 12 months.
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Luck of the draw I guess. Before the i7, I was using a q6600 with the EVGA 680i LT board and it's been rock solid (cpu oc'd to 3.3ghz) at that setting for the 1.5 yrs I've had it. I sold it to my buddy a year ago and it's still running perfectly and at that same frequency.

Then again I have another buddy that bought a EVGA 680i SLI board, e8400, 8800GTS 512 SLI and it's been nothing but problems from the start and multiple RMA's didn't help at all.
 
Headcase_Fargone said:
I'm a bit shocked to read this as I've been running an EVGA 680i motherboard for the past 3+ years and it's been the most rock-solid motherboard I've ever owned in 16 years of system building. It's been more than enough to convince me to go EVGA for my upcoming build to finally replace it.

Now, I didn't go overboard OCing the C2D I'm using with it, but it's OCed a bit. I also remember being extremely impressed with the build quality when I took it out of the box.

Asus, on the other hand... I've owned two of their boards, both of which died on me. The second one that died was actually a lower end model that I replaced the first dead one with. And it suffered a similar fate after less than 12 months.
Click to expand...

If you do a search on the subject you'll find tons of 680i SLI horror stories on this site. My own extensive posts on the subject are easy to find. Remember, I didn't just have one or two of these things die on me, I went through 12 of them. :eek: Almost half were DOA and the rest of them died within 3 days of use, to 12 months on the outside. Additionally the ASUS 680i SLI and ASUS 780i SLI chipset based boards I had didn't last either. The 680i SLI board made it 14 months and the 780i SLI board made it about 6 months. So after 14 NVIDIA chipset based boards and a few more than that reviewed, no thanks. I think I've had enough of a sampling of these things to call them crap.

Essentially anyone who only mildly overclocked these boards with Core 2 Duos typically didn't have the massive problems those of us using Core 2 Quads with higher overclocks did. These boards have serious design flaws and the commonality of people with experiences that match yours actually prove my point. There are too many people that had the same exact issues to call them coincidental. Fried memory modules, higher than normal temperatures, SATA data corruption issues, and audio problems were just a few of the issues that many people had with them. Not everyone had issues like these, but most of the people that didn't have similar system configurations more closely matching yours than mine at the time.

In contrast I've run Intel chipset based boards with relatively high overclocks for YEARS without issue. I've never had an ASUS board based on an Intel chipset die on me ever. And I've owned more than 20 of them.

Anyway, this is the video card sub-forum, not the motherboard. So I'll leave it at that.
 
Wasn't doubting your experience(s), I was just surprised is all since mine had been so stable.

As for video cards, if it has a lifetime warranty I couldn't care less what sticker is on the card. And even that is negotiable. Hell, I just bought a 5850 from the deal thread that apparently only has a 3 month warranty. But hey, the price was right.
 
if they are all the same price I would go for an asus model. but when i get a card for cheap I don't care if its some off brand.
 
I'm going to echo the sentiments of a lot of other people here.

Warranty, support, RMA etc... are the most important factors. Hardware quality has been really equal for a while, especially on reference designs.

XFX by far gave me the best RMA/warranty experiences. Had some problems with EVGA, but not that bad. Just go look at XFX product review pages on newegg, their reps will stop at nothing to make sure you are satisfied, literally.

Had a non-variable speed fan on my 8800GT. They mailed me another without asking for the bad one back literally minutes after I talked to a rep on the phone.
 
For video cards I always go evga. It doesn't matter if it's the same identical card that another vendor is selling.
 
I really like ASUS for motherboards. EVGA, XFX, ASUS for GPUs but not a big deal.

I don't care that much about ram. PSUs I care greatly.
 
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Video Card: No. Whatever is cheapest at the time of purchase
Motherboard: Pretty much anything but ECS.
Everything else: No real brand loyalty.
 
I absolutely care.

Anything that doesn't provide a lifetime warranty is lower class and not worth my money.

PS: I love RMA'ing an old broken card and getting an upgrade :D.
 
Mobo - MSI and Gigabyte

ATI - XFX

Nvidia - XFX

Memory - Kingston

PSU - Corsair, XFX, Seasonic, Antec

Case - No favorable preference
 
iv been though hell with many brands of cards but ifter i found the xfx series i found a stable card that has given me very few problems come to find out nvidia it awesome and so is ati but apparently vista and seven don't like some of ati's card for some whatever reason for instance i had a particular ati radeon x700m (desktop card little rare tho) and i just about couldnt get it to work with vista or seven i only got it to work with vista business and even then with problems but with xp or even linux never even blinked
 
Also i highly agree with Everett1 msi makes good stable boards never had a bad one or trouble with one not the greatest for oc'ing but great for just doing whatever. gigabyte depending on with model is amazing some are oc'ers and some are workers' depending on what you want i have found them perfect. ASUS is another good one but a bit on the finiky side sometimes i have know asus to do one of 2 things either they really work or they realy dont.
 
Menelmarar said:
Graphic Card: BFG, EVGA, or XFX for warranty..
Click to expand...

Exactly, plus those brands seem to have better customer service when you have a problem. For motherboards I've had good luck on my last two builds with EVGA boards, same with two DFI boards before them, but the build I'm doing tomorrow (yay new stuff!) will be with a Gigabyte motherboard. Crossing my fingers that all goes well, but Gigabyte has a good reputation so I'm confident that it will.
 
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