7
Parzi
4y

What's your most trusted computer part manufacturer list? Personally, it goes something like this:

CPU: AMD. They're performing at or above Intel's spec, without the weekly IME holes. Sometimes cost a little more, but they last way longer.

GPU: AMD, ASUS, MSI. MSI is usually over-priced but performs a smidge better, ASUS is usually a good middle-ground. Anything with an AMD chipset's usually gonna hold together fairly well, though, and won't require massively-unstable closed-source drivers for decent Linux performance. "but muh cuda" doesn't fly when OpenCL is actually, well, open.

Storage: Seagate, obviously, and SanDisk for cheap SSDs. SanDisk SSDs, especially their cheapest ones, are durable as shit for price. As for the Seagate pick... is that not self-explanatory?

Mobo: ASUS, ASRock if you need garbage in a pinch. ASUS boards are usually fairly tough, and ASRock is cheap trash for that backup tower that's gone bad in the closet.

PSU: EVGA, accept no substitute. EVGA PSUs are durable as fuck and fairly cheap, compared to other "ultra-durable" brands.

Comments
  • 6
    Seagate doesn't really have a great reputation. They have a long history of unusually high failure rates. They've recovered a bit thanks to good results in Backblaze reports over the last few years and they handled the recent SMR controversy pretty well, so I'd actually consider them a trustworthy brand now, but say, 3 years ago? No way.
  • 2
    CPU's from Intel, haven't had an AMD yet, though that might change.

    GPU's from Nvidia. While they are a pain for linux, when it comes to gaming they often do perform better than team red.

    SSD: Crucial

    RAM: dont really care, I think I have Corsair installed right now

    PSU: bequiet
  • 2
    @theKarlisK listen man, if i can overvolt an EVGA PSU on one end and overamp it on the other for like a month of use in a desperate attempt to hold a welder together i think they're gonna be pretty fucking durable

    you may think i'm joking but somewhere in this house is a backup containing photos of a PSU strapped to and wired into a welder with my grandpa trying to get the thing fitting back together nicely i swear to fuck
  • 0
    @gronostaj I have had Seagates fail in strange ways (head randomly decides to melt onto the platter and get torn off mid-use, arm deciding to never work again, controller board frying, etc.) but they were usually 4 or 5 years apart AFTER being hand-me-downs from my dad (meaning they fail a long generic before I got them.) This trend has continued since, apparently, right after I was born in 2000. The only ones i've killed fast were actually-defective new ones in like 2013 or so, and I can remember 3 in a row (2 were chain-RMAs) and never again.
  • 1
    @LotsOfCaffeine Team red has the more stable drivers even on Windows now, and they're usually equal or sliiiightly higher under equivalent situations nowadays (especially when paired with AMD CPUs, full-red is most efficient for them, not surprising.)
  • 1
    Cpu/gpu - intel
    mb - idc
    psu - idc
    storage - wd, sandisk, kingston
    wifi - intel, rtl
    dimm - idc, whatever has the highest freq, lowest cl and most gb and lowest €
    fans - noctua
  • 2
    @Parzi >more stable drivers on windows

    lmao, I've seen different

    and frankly, amd GPUs aren't that worth it right now, maybe the next gen but right now.. nah
  • 3
    In terms of GPUs, AMD has completely lost the race. They have nothing to rival Nvidia in terms of performance, and CUDA isn't even about so much about graphics, but stuff like NN applications. Matching the sad state of AMD's hardware, they also have lost out on the software side.

    What AMD has are basically cheap solutions that are OK for watching videos, and even Intel's crap is good enough for that.
  • 3
    I don't buy brands, I buy product. I've seen good stuff from [brand], I've seen shit stuff by [brand].
  • 3
    @Fast-Nop I've been using my GPU, an AMD GPU, for gaming for a few years now (on a 144 Hz display, so it needs to do better than just playing videos). Sure, it's not the fastest, but I like the availability of open-source drivers that aren't locked to Xorg versions on Linux.

    RX 480 btw.
  • 3
    @Fast-Nop have to disagree with you on that one, the current Navi GPUs are excellent for gaming and very competitively priced versus Nvidia. Also they're making the GPUs for the PS5 and Xbox Series X, that's hardly a lost cause.

    Also I use a RX 580 daily and it's great for FullHD, performs much better than equivalent Nvidia, so yeah.

    Top of the line though, yeah, nothing really challenges the 2080Ti and so on, at least not till AMD's next series comes out. But then it makes sense for them as the small company to not go for the most powerful but try to aim for the middle-ish ground, stuff like the 5700XT.

    Also AMD hardware is great at raw compute ops, it just lacks a killer software platform like CUDA (they're way behind in software for sure). ROCm and OpenCL on amdgpus are fairly decent now actually but doesn't have the installed base of CUDA.
  • 3
    @RememberMe AMD is so far behind that you can't even get current passively cooled graphics cards from AMD. Which is why I was keen on the 4700G - and AMD has cancelled that. There will only be the 4750G PRO, and that only for OEMs, not for retail. Because, fuck customers who want to buy stuff.
  • 4
    Fuck brands, just get the best bang per bucks.
    I'm currently rocking an intel engineering sample CPU, a beta version motherboard, Chinese SSDs & ram and a 1080ti with fans zip-tied on it.
  • 3
    @Fast-Nop probably not much market demand for it, for that powerful a combination you might as well go dGPU.

    Also agree on the passively cooled GPU thing, AMD GPUs do tend to suck more power, *but*, passive GPUs are again a fairly niche thing. Doesn't change my point about the Navi GPUs.

    @MagicSowap my kind of person!
  • 1
    @MagicSowap Are these Chinese SSDs worth it? Last time I checked the prices were pretty similar to locally available brands. Also, how's the support for that beta MoBo? Can you flash regular BIOSes etc.?
  • 1
    > ASROCK, if you need garbage in a pinch

    *Looks at 66€ MOBO in gaming rig*
    "I Love you regardless"
  • 1
    @gronostaj chinese SSDs are awesome
    But it's hard to find good deals, especially with nvme SSDs (does it have dram? Is the controller ok? Is it TLC, QLC, ...?)
    I just got a really fast 1Tb Asgard nvme for ~95€, they also sell a dram-less one for cheaper (~150€ for 2TB)

    I've had issues with my mobo:
    - no graphical output until the OS has booted on AMD GPUs (r9 290, rx480) (I had to have an Nvidia 6700 as a "bios GPU")
    - no resume from sleep on sata drives (fixed by going nvme 😎)

    Everything else is ok, I discovered it was a beta motherboard by looking at the socket one day (I got it really cheap on eBay so no remorse)
  • 1
    CPU: Intel
    Mobo: Asus, tyan
    GPU: nvidia, EVGA, secondarily Asus
    PSU: PC power and cooling, RIP. They were the best before OCZ killed them. We haven't seen that kind of quality since
    Storage: Samsung, Intel
    Sound: creative, turtle beach
    Cases: lian li, Corsair, antec
    Nvme raid: intel, Asus
    Networking: mellanox, Intel
    Ram: it's all basically the same
    Fans: noctua, corsair
    Displays: Samsung, LG, Asus on the low end
    Thunderbolt cards: Asus

    Not interested in the team red debates. Been burned too many times by AMD to have any trust left.
  • 1
    Usually don't give a fuck.

    There is an exclusion list, otherwise whatever is available at price.

    Exclusion list:
    - NVidia (due to Linux support or better the lack of it)
    - ASRock (had one mobo... Never again.)
    - Seagate / wd harddrives (i've lost faith in both companies, if I buy HDDs they will be thoroughly examined and stress tested...)

    If I had to built a list of trust...

    Puh.

    BeQuiet PSUs. Not the low budget ones... Never failed me.

    LianLi cases. Heavy price, but so far never been disappointed.

    Noctua. Amazing compatibility. And silent. Very long living.

    Sandisk. The SSDs for enterprise are good. Very happy with them.

    I should note that my PC is usually working stations running 24 / 7... At least 64 GB RAM nowdays for eg testing DB migrations, compiling (Gentoo) and so on.

    My HTPC is for playing games... ;) So I'm not a gamer (and joke quite often about the dumb hw configuration some gamers have ;))
  • 1
    @theKarlisK ooohhh, that makes sense I guess.

    @IntrusionCM People seem to be very very fond of LianLi cases, i'll have to see what they've got sometime.

    @SortOfTested How'd you get "burned" by AMD?

    @Awlex like I said, they're good if you need a backup but they should not be first choice.

    @Fast-Nop not many people want or need passive cooling, so it makes sense that the only few that are passive are OEM. Most everything needs a fan now, we're no longer in the days of the 486.

    @LotsOfCaffeine i've seen nvidia drivers be endlessly unstable or totally fine, never in between. AMD drivers have issues, but less frequently, according to data accrued from helping people recently.

    @netikras I would *mostly* agree on your RAM portion, but there are a couple brands I'd suggest avoiding, i can't remember the name atm but one of the cheap RAM brands on PCPP has an unusually-high chance of bursting into flames under load. "Team" something...
  • 1
    @Parzi
    AMD FX and bulldozer. They used their heyday with athlon/sempron/during to ship some real bullshit, and it cost a lot of money for something that was barely usable. That's also when their marketing went full dodge RAM. I don't trust hypebeasts.
  • 1
    @SortOfTested Ryzen is anything but hype though
    They have the numbers to prove it
  • 2
    @SortOfTested both companies had their "moments"... (not talking about recent events).

    Willamette eg....

    Not defending AMD, but when it comes to marketing and fucking up, both companies delivered at some point in history an award winning pile of shit
  • 1
    @RememberMe
    I mean, maybe? They still seem to be in the business of selling things like epyc rome where there isn't a motherboard or combo of breakout boards and cards that can actually utilize all the available lanes. Rushing pci-e 4.0 before we'd remotely saturated 3.0. It feels a *lot* like the bad old days, just with an ounce of delivery.
  • 1
    @IntrusionCM
    The two are not equal on that field. Intel also never sold a 3 core cpu and called it a 6 core.
  • 1
    @SortOfTested doesn't mean that epyc doesn't *have* those lanes or future compatibility with pcie4 devices, I see no problem here. If they can add something, why not? Afaik the pcie4 devices meet standards, and there are boards that do utilize them.

    Also, which "6" core is this?
  • 1
    @RememberMe
    Because it's unethical to charge customers for things they can't use.

    Re: bulldozer.
  • 1
    @SortOfTested depends.

    Some extensions like TSX needed to be deactivated due to the security desaster. Broadwell if i remember correctly...

    Which is a pretty big hit.

    OpenBSD took it further. Disabling HT / hyperthreading.

    That's exactly what you described.

    Yes it's not strictly necessary if you don't give a shit.

    But technically Intel sold insecure CPUs which cannot be run in a secure manner unless you disable some extensions like TSA and reduce the attack surface by disabling HT and thus reducing the thread count by half....
  • 1
    @IntrusionCM
    Again, false equivalency.

    Threads != Cores
  • 1
    @SortOfTested hmpf

    Stubborn old lady ;)

    It's nitpicking in my point of view.

    In both cases, the performance Takes a considerable blow....

    And both lied till they were caught with their pants on fire.

    Let's leave it like that - your opinion and mine and that's fine.

    Have a virtual cookie ;)
  • 2
    @SortOfTested ? Companies are making boards for that PCIe lane count, like this one https://tomshardware.com/news/...

    There's an Aorus SSD that runs PCIe Gen 4, afaik, and given that you'd have a fairly longish replacement cycle, it seems natural to me to give the processor ahead-of-market features. You need a processor with that nutty a lane count before you can persuade board makers to make boards that can take advantage of it.

    Oh you mean the CMT vs dual-core thing? That was shady, yes, but that's hardly a reason to write off an entire company that's making products that genuinely kick ass.
  • 1
    @RememberMe
    That's the most ASRock thing you'll see this week. Also the only board.

    If you look at what the server market actually uses, the vast majority of epyc blades ship with 1000w redundant psus and only realistically use 64 lanes max due to power constraints. The 270watt envelope + massive amounts of ram limits the number of devices you can feasible stuff into the enclosure.

    I don't think it's unreasonable to be wary of the same marketing strategy that bit you once. Their power envelopes have gotten better, to the point I believe it's not high stack trickery to 7nm. I still don't trust their chartsmanship. I'm glad they're pushing competition, but I'm waiting several generations before buying into it.
  • 1
    @IntrusionCM
    Maybe it's the engineer of complex things in me, but I don't find a security flaw to necessarily be indicative of malicious intent. I doubt they even knew about it.

    To me, there's a big difference between saying you're selling 6 cores with hyperthread support, vs 3 cores and claiming hyperthreading makes it six is pretty huge. They knew that wasn't the case.

    But yeah, this debate has raged for a decade, we definitely won't settle it here.
  • 1
    @SortOfTested yeah.

    I guess that's the part where it get's personal (not in the sense u against me).

    I doubt that Intel was unaware of their flaws (not reasoning here, since I don't have a full understanding / knowledge of stuff) - since there was not only one thing they broke in one time frame, but rather... A lot in way too many timeframes.

    And the way they handled it leaves me with even more doubt - Greg Kroah Hartmann gave an interview that I found very insightful.

    The thing where it get's personal is Intel still discloses information.... That the manufacturers errata are sometimes cryptic - ok.

    But the microcode updates intel shits out are not cryptic.

    They have no info at all.

    https://github.com/intel/...

    And yes... In some companies due to some law restrictions these updates are seen as mandatory.

    It's great when you'll update machines and you literally have no clue what will happen.

    And some microcode updates are just broken.... (See issues).

    It's a big fucking stick shoven right up your arse.
  • 1
    @IntrusionCM
    At least they have a place for public discourse on it. AMD and IBM are both invisible in that regard. And it's not like anything ships with perfect microcode (anymore or ever). Shit, ryzen CPUs shipped with core ALU flaws and done nothing about it for months.

    Our ability to handle complexity doesn't trend asymptotic, unfortunately.

    We should probably consider moving the convo if needed, we're hardcore derailing like assholes 😝
  • 0
    @SortOfTested i fucking forgot about bulldozer. Ryzen's way better, trust me. Not perfect, neither are, but it's not a makeshift sieve like Intel makes.
    @pxeger it's not brand loyalty per se, merely preference. I'll use an Intel/Nvidia PC with all offbrand parts if I need to, but preferentially... I also have a shit list of parts that I'll reduse to buy, and if I'm forced to use them, I'm as physically far away as possible from, but this is due to trends of fire/explosions/other harm.
    @shakur AREN'T FRACTAL DESIGN PSUS JUST REBRANDED ONES?
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