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Prefered Vendors / Tech
(In alphabetical order - logos have links)

While Amazon is known for selling pretty much everything, they also sell the computer hardware and software parts you'd find at other retailers. If you have the time, you might want to see what the prices at Amazon are. I've found Amazon can have lower prices compared to regular computer part retailers.
Asus is a solid world-wide developer. They manufacture lots of things including graphic cards, motherboards, and monitors.
(Ram and power supply vendor) Corsair seems pretty solid and typically targets enthusiasts. I have contacted Corsair for support on ram a few times. They are pretty good about helping you resolve issues by suggesting things to try out, however, they seem very reluctant to take ram back to swap it out for new ones or to verify that the ram is broken. I suppose I don't blame them, it is an expensive and tricky part, but still, that's what the coverage policy is for, they shouldn't be so reluctant to fulfill their promise.

Recently they have gotten into power supplies and they make some of the best in the business which have the newest features available.

(Graphic card and motherboard vendor) Evga has always had great customer support. They have 3-year world wide coverage which covers the item (allowing for multiple owners) as well as a "step up" program that allows you to trade in your graphics card for a more expensive one within a certain period of time after your purchase. (90 days)

I have seen lots of reports of Evga cross-shipping cards when they were being replaced, as well as creating special revisions of graphic cards in order to fix issues before swapping them out to customers. Evga goes above and beyond not only in terms of general support, but in making that extra step to be sure what they send you as replacement will solve the issues.

Logitech makes a few things. I've purchased various mice from them over the years and they have always been top notch. I also have a controller that I use every great now and then that I really love, and a few times over the years I have purchased PC speaker sets from them.
I've always been happy with nVidia's graphic chips and I've never had any issues with their motherboard chipsets.
(Graphic card and motherboard vendor) I have had really great experience with XFX. In the past year or so I have been using them as my GPU vendor, as I typically have been ebaying my cards. XFX has a "double lifetime" coverage policy, so both the original owner and the second owner have full coverage. Really great stuff if you sell your stuff on ebay. Also, their tech support is top notch. I tend to get GPUs when they are bleeding edge and with my two most recent upgrades XFX has really jumped on the support in terms of getting me drivers and help I need to get things running.

I experienced a rare bug with my 7900 GTX. Unlike Evga, it seems XFX is hesitant to take GPUs back for repairs with issues that can't be easily reproduced and, despite my request, are unwilling to cross-ship (meaning you would be left to get a replacement GPU on your own while yours is in the mail, not something a lot of people have just laying around.) The problem with the card did not appear to be XFX's fault, as it seems a number of the 79xx line are seeing the same issue under very rare conditions. However, their lack of willingness to take my card back to investigate the issue, not offering to cross-ship, and not producing a revised edition of the card like Evga is doing, causes me to give them a slight negative strike in terms of support. While this is a very rare case and not likely to ever happen to someone, it does give me concern that now that something bad has happened they seem hesitant to investigate/resolve the issue.


R U a noob?

There are a few sites worth visiting these days, but pretty much most hardware news has moved to youtube channels. I look at several channels, but these two are the most reliable and most easily understood by mainstream users: Linus Tech Tips - HardwareCanucks

Comments and stuff Copyright E. Stryker 2006-2019
Product images are copyright of wherever I borrowed them from if borrowed, or by me if taken by me. :)

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