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Brands You Love & Hate
Computer Technicians tend have a special insight into the reliability of computer hardware. Big brands can spend millions boosting their brand but in the end it comes down to the Computer Technicians who really see what hardware lasts and what doesn’t.
In this article I would like to ask you, the reader, what brands of hardware do you love and what brands of hardware you hate and why you feel that way towards them. This can include peripherals like Printers, Keyboards and Mice.
I would love to see what the community has to say and we may even find brands that are highly popular or unpopular with Computer Technicians. Please leave us a comment below, as usual you do not need to sign up in order to leave a comment and you can even post anonymously.
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I like Epson printers, easy to use for the average user.
Dislike HP computer due to terrible tech support.
And Crucial memory has lately crashed 3 hp pcs.
I dislike Gigabyte M/B had too many give up, anything low end from HP, Acer especially HP printers.
Most DELL stuff I like, especially the high end stuff. Wouldn’t touch nVidia with a barge pole. Had bad experiences with WD drives and all my drives are Seagate. Lite-on for optical. Microsoft mice & keyboards always. Canon for printers & cameras.
Samsung hdd have great reliability in my personal experience. Don’t see many professionally. Speed good too.
Gigabyte and asus mb seen to be great. Popular and don’t fault too often when looked after.
Get quite a few hp retail systems with dead mb. Although they are popular, about 2-4 yo and full of dust and not maintained.
Ill have to start to keep a record of make and faults.
Among the things I like:
The top of my list goes to WD HDD, Asus and Gigabyte MB’s, AMD processors and Epson printers. All are very dependable and have good customer support.
Among the things I hate:
Dell, Seagate HDD’s, HP printers and all all-in-ones. All have too many problems and poor customer support.
Generally dislike HP for most things, including printers, desktops, and laptops. Not enough data on servers.
Also, dislike eMachines/Gateway/Acer; they fail in the craziest ways, especially dislike the fact that when at least half of the power supplies in eMachines and Gateways that I have seen fail, they blow the motherboard at the same time.
We all know that if you get a truly efficient and helpful CS rep, you’ve had the exception rather than the rule. I’m used to bad CS. The bar is extremely low for all customer support and tech support for most all the brands out there. There are a couple of brands that have gone that extra mile to make sure that I was sorely disappointed. The worst CS experience ever was with Lenovo on a trio of x61 tablets, and because of that I will never sell a Lenovo again. They shipped after 2 months (backlog), and they had motherboard issues which was not resolved after 4 or 5 on-site visits by their technician, who was a total idiot. Their support was unbelieveable. I was used to getting passed around and not getting satisfaction, but this was unthinkable. When I wanted them replaced, they said, too bad, you used the warranty, you’re out of time… Complete indifference. Add Equus to that same batch on customer service. We’re talking 6+ hours of conversation/argument with at least a half different people going up the flagpole for one laptop, with no acceptable results. Ended up charging me a restock fee because they couldn’t reproduce the error (give me a break), and charged me for a scratch in the case. This laptop was faultless. I told them to send me a picture of the scratch which they refused. What a bunch of liars. I ended up losing money on that laptop bigtime, in addition to the time suck it was. I think that’s a big problem with employee owned companies. They don’t want to accept returns because they think it’s their money. Horrible, atrocious customer service in both respects.
I generally like Dell’s equipment that is mid-grade business or better, this includes laptops, desktops, and servers. The lower stuff, and most consumer grade stuff, the quality/reliability is poor.
Printers I like: Brother and Samsung generally.
Custom-builds parts I like: Gigabyte boards, Crucial/Corsair RAM, WD Black drives, Antec cases, thermaltake power supplies, only intel procs.
Custom-build parts I disklike: Samsung HDD, Seagate HDD (unless its for a laptop, in which case, I think their momentus series is the best), generic RAM, cheap power supplies, and AMD processors, especially in servers.
I absolutely despise Norton/Symantec. So many times we get called for a service call when the only problem is Internet Security screwing up their internet access.
There are so many better AV/security companies out there.
The Good:
WD Hard Drives – Especially the Caviar Black
Kingston and Samsung RAM
Lite On Opticals
Logitech Keyboards and Mice
Epson printers (except for the ink cost) – I have three, and they all perform wonderfully.
Xerox laser printers
Linksys/Cisco routers
I also use a lot of peripheral and network products from Manhattan/Intellinet. They are moderate cost, and I’ve had great reliablity from them.
The Bad:
HP Inkjet printers
Lexmark printers
Maxtor hard drives
HP/Compaq Laptops
The Gateway/Acer/eMachines laptop trinity
The Ugly:
DV9000 (ARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!)
Netgear Routers
Also, I prefer Intel over AMD for processors. Been a bias of mine for at least 15 years. AMD is not bad, per se, I just prefer Intel.
So what I’m noticing is that there is no consensus here, which is to be expected, but unfortunate. I was hoping we’d be able to weed out what’s really good and bad.
Systems:
Not a fan of HP anything. As many have mentioned (especially related to printers), bloated drivers, and who wants to be tracked under the guise of “Customer Experience Enhancements”?
Sony makes good quality products, but all the SONY VAIO software fluff is annoying, and the price isn’t justified.
We like and sell, though some of their low-end stuff can be problematic, but their support and on-site service makes up for most flaws.
Funny thing though, we have a basic little file server running 24/7 on a 7 year old eMachine….
Peripherals:
Logitech and Microsoft. I won’t buy/sell a 3rd party mouse, keyboard, camera that isn’t from one them. MX REVOLUTION FTW!!
Networking:
This is a tough one because it seems to be hit or miss. We used Belkin for a long time, but have had too many problems recently. For SoHo we’re using Netgear now with great success. Routers seem reliable, and switches are nice and beefy with a god build quality.
Side-Note – does anyone have any experience with Intellinet brand networking?
I dislike HP printers- huge, bloated drivers, and bug ridden, too. I get clients complaining about running costs, too. Much prefer Canon, except for lack of Linux support.
Dell gear, (unless you pay a lot for it), they use weird hardware and quality is poor. Likewise HP and sister company, Compaq.
Ill start,
Hardware brands I love:
Logitech – Good solid hardware. Most of my peripherals have been Logitech and they always last. Also, Logitech often replace their hardware that is well out of warranty for free.
ASUS & Gigabyte – I use Asus motherboards for myself and Gigabyte motherboards for my clients. The Asus motherboards tend to have more high performance features while the Gigabytes seemed to focus more on reliability.
Epson Printers – More specifically, the office grade printers rather than the super cheap consumer level ones. I run a Epson Stylus Office TX600FW which I purchased for around $230 USD and it is quite possibly the best printer I have ever used. Prints as fast as a laser, drivers are nice and neat, not too bloated like HP ones. It just works
Brands I Hate
HP – I think they have the worst support I have ever dealt with. Most of my bad experiences with them come from their printers. I have had clients purchased high end office HP printers (around $900) range, the website specifically says they support Windows 7 (its a very modern printer) yet half the features dont work under Windows 7. Heaps of people have these problems and are really annoyed at HP for saying they support Windows 7 when they dont. HP are aware of the problems but they say they have no timeline of fixing it.
Creative – I had never had much luck with Creative but I personally boycotted Creative after the whole Vista driver modder incident with their X-Fi cards. Basically, some of their X-Fi drivers didnt work properly under Vista even after the OS had been around for more than a year. That is not too bad since many manufacturers are like this but a user found out that they disabled these features, rather than them just not working. This user released unofficial drivers that actually worked as they should and Creative sent a cease and desist to him. Bit more info about it here: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/04/daniel_k-who-fi/
I like Samsung for printers, good Mac/Linux support, and very light drivers. They’re personal laser printer prices are a good cost as well. I’ve had very good luck out of HP hardware in the desktop and laptop arena, just not their printers. Keyboards and mice, Microsoft does a very decent job of that small hardware. Usually the build quality is good, and the price is reasonable. As far as places to go for parts, Newegg for all parts except cables, and for cables I go to Monoprice.
Anything with the word “Packard” in the title makes me cringe.
I’d say it depends on what you’re looking at. I avoid Lexmark like the plague that it is — bad drivers, worse support, and poorly-made printers almost without exception. HP is a mixed bag with bloated drivers. I’ve had good experiences with Brother’s laser printers, too. Lenovo makes great, sturdy laptops. Despite my mixed opinion on Windows and Office, Microsoft makes some great hardware, especially their keyboards.
Dislike: Netgear. Seems like the most unreliable routers.
These are based on what we see coming in to our shop which are either faulty or dead
Brands I hate
Desktop PCs- HP/Compaq & Dell
Notebooks – HP/Compaq & Sony
Printers – HP & Lexmark
HDD’s – Seagate ( about 50-60% of all dead HDD’s I have seen are Seagate)
Surprisingly though HP have excellent server & enterprise products, its just their low end products that are really bad.
Love Steelseries mousepads.
Laptops
I personally use an Asus laptop at the moment (I’m in final year of sixth form) – you can imagine the tumbles and knocks it must have had after about 18 months of travelling to school and back – still solid as a rock!
So, top of my list are Asus machines. My boss at work (IT shop) uses a Thinkpad (also Lenovo) – again, very solid machines, extremely reliable.
Hard Drives
Bottom of my list – Seagate. I had a 1TB drive from them, it used to be in an external case, but after that got damaged, I decided to swap it into my machine directly. Now, a few months later, the disk failed, reading 0 capacity in the BIOS, and the computer would not work correctly if it was plugged in.
After I researched the issue, it turns out that Seagate had an issue with a particular version of firmware, SD15 – which I had on my hard drive. From what I figured out, they had known about this problem for at least a year before I bought my drive – more than ample time to sort the issue out in my opinion. After I contacted them to explain what had happened, they point blank refused to acknowledge there was an issue with the drive, and also refused to replace the drive entirely, unless I paid an extortionate amount of money to them (bear in mind that I wouldn’t get any data back).
Absolutely useless and rude customer services, and a bad company in my books.
Services
Another company that I actually hate, is a web hosting service called One.com – please, if you read this and are with them, cancel and move your hosting elsewhere. If you tell them you want to cancel your web hosting, they ignore your emails until the time period expires, then lump you with more fees to pay, to cancel. If you refuse to pay, debt collection agencies are brought in and hassle you over the phone. Whilst this happened to me, I tried to talk to one of their reps on a live web chat thing. He was so rude to me that when I emailed the conversation history to the management address I had found, they apologised profusely, and also erased the ‘debt’ that had been, in their own words, wrongly accrued.
Graphics Cards
I’ve always had nVidia cards so I’m afraid I don’t know have experience with ATI other than through my work. My last card was through an American company (I’m in the UK) called EVGA – I’ve had problems with the card but never bothered going through customer services about it, but from when I purchased it, they seemed to be quite good.
Other
I hate Compaq, e-machines (and the other entry-entry level machines), AData, GData, VData (basically *Data).
I do like Canon products, they seem to be very reliable in my experience. HP seem to be here and there, the business products are quite good in my opinion, I’ve had an old workstation working as a home server (just a print and file server, and was also a caching proxy at one point), it’s latest best uptime was a couple months at least, pretty good for a few years old ex-workstation machine.
I suppose that’s it :-) Quite a while since I’ve been on here/posted on here. Still keep up with the articles though – I do like TechNibble.
Asus – AMD/ATI Video – Razer – Logitech (various) – Kingston RAM – Western Digital Hard Drives are all amongst my favorites!
Good:
Lenovo/IBM Laptops (last forever!!)
Dell Laptops (good support)
Windows Xp
OS X 10.4
Bad:
Sony and HP Laptops
Gateway and Emachines desktops
Windows Vista
Like: Asus optical drives and motherboards. Lynksys wireless modems (never lose wireless signal). HP compaq laptops (good price for low end laptops and always seem reliable)DV series had lots of problems and wouldn’t touch them, but may be better now. Samsung lazer printers are great value for money and work well. Canon home printers offer great phone support. Yealink voip phones, great price, easy setup, lots of features and reliable.
Hate: LG optical drives (always problems with reading) Dynalink and Netgear , wireless modems (always need to restart them, or wireless signal gets lost)Lenovo laptops. Old looking and never run smoothly. SSD hard drives (not too much experience with them, but the ones i have had seem to lose data after a few months and windows won’t restart.
I keep tabs on hardware replacements via a spreadsheet. Over the last three years, I’ve noticed that I’ve had to replace a lot of Hitachi 80 GB laptop hardrives. All of them have been made in Thailand.
I despise Gateway and Sony Laptops, Windows Vista and anything HP
P.S: For the tech above. Asus dvd lightscribes work great. Never had a problem. AMD in my opinion is a lot better value for your money than Intel.
I’ve been building and repairing Windows (name your OS flavor) machines for nearly 25 years. Seen a lot of brands cross my bench, and dealt with a lot of manufacturers tech support and websites. Preferred brands, to a large extent are going to be a subjective preference based on your own personal experience. One really horrible, or really outstandingly super experience is probably going to color your opinions to a great extent. Lastly, I don’t care how good a company is, if you buy the bargain basement model (from any manufacturer) and expect more, you’re just not going to have a good experience at all. With those caveats in mind, here are my personal preferences:
Likes:
Major OEM Brand: Dell. Decent hardware, especially for small businesses and small enterprise installations. Above average for Home users. Easy to reinstall/repair OEM OS. Lots of complete sets of drivers and updates available for most models, including a lot of older machines. If you have a warranty or Dell support contract, online interactive help is pretty good (enterprise and business). Home support has been farmed out to the 3rd world, so you’re probably not going to have a good experience there.
Motherboards: ASUS in general; some models more than others. Whether ASUS or not, it’s always good to check reviews and user feedback forums. No matter what the vendor, buying a Rev 1.1 is always going to lead to a better experience than at Rev 1.0 board. And, this should go without saying, no matter what brand or board you buy, you should ALWAYS check for firmware and BIOS updates BEFORE you put it into production.
Hard Drives. I’m pretty much split between WD and Seagate. I’ve had a lot of success with both and the failures I’ve experienced seem to be pretty even across the board. Not so with Samsung, Maxtor and Hitachi. In the case of IBM and Hitachi (same thing, really), I now call them “Deathstars”. Maxtor was always a low-end brand, so you shouldn’t expect more than what you get. Samsung just rates a “meh”.
RAM: Stick with major brand, not “value” RAM and you’ll probably be happy. Over the years, I’d have to say that Kingston and Corsair have been the most reliable for me.
LCD Monitors: Dell and Samsung have proven to be the most reliable and long-term performing. I have some Acers that have lasted a very long time with no problems whatsoever, but I also have a boneyard full of just as many Acers that self-destructed beyond economical repair. Viewsonic used to be really good back in the CRT days, but I think they’ve sold their soul to the Dark Side since then.
CD’s/DVD’s: Lite-On. No contest.
Printers/MFC: My best experiences have been with Brother and Epson. Stay away from the under-$100 bargain-basement models, no matter who makes ’em. HP work okay, but are WAAAAY too bloated with utilities, trialware, and extras. Lexmark: Ugh. A lot of stores advertise a “free” printer if you buy a PC or Laptop, and it’s almost always a Lexmark. Did you ever ask yourself why that is? Samsung: Cheap to buy, expensive to maintain and not all that reliable.
Misc. Hardware: Logitech trumps Creative in general (except for Audio cards… Creative rocks). Microsoft makes some pretty decent keyboards and mice, too.
PSU’s: Stay away from no-name brands, Sparkle or BestTec, otherwise, you’ll probably be ok as long as you don’t under-spec. Pay attention to real specs vs what the box says. Look for ratings that say “max continuous” as opposed to “peak”.
Graphics: I have to say I’ve had about equal luck with both nVidia and AMD, so no real brand preference there, except to note that AMD’s updates and support seem to be a bit better.
Logitech for all my keyboard / sound devices.
Western Digital for HDD’s. I had used Segate in the past but had far to many Segate HDD’s fail on me, Western Digital never given me a problem!
An interesting read! It’s telling to see a brand get recommended in one post, and bucketed in the next.
When recommending laptop brands to customers, the line we use is “If you look hard enough you will people who have had good and bad experiences with everything.”
I think it’s important to remain open-minded in regards to brands and personal preferences. Good brands go bad, and bad brands can get better. The trick is knowing when this has happened!
Why no one has mentioned Apple? :)
Their products are the most reliable, I think.
But when apples fail its way more expensive
I hate Acer because of its standard delivered software on its hardware, and the bad and cheap hardware.
I like LG because of its great service and guarantee.
Agreed with the Apple comment, I know a lot of people with Apple machines , who have little to no trouble with them. Many of these have handed down older apples to friends/relatives and those are still going as well. I actually have a working Apple 2E sitting in my back shed ( amongst other various vintage technology, I guess many companies made quality items back then)
Mothboards: Gigabyte/Intel
Memory: Transcend/Kingston/Kingmax
HDD’s: Seagate (FreeAgent GoFlex for Externals)
Monitor: Samsung/BenQ
DVD Writer: LiteOn, Samsung is crap
Chassis: Gigabyte/CoolerMaster
PSU’s: Gigabyte,AOPEN, (& other local brands)
Fans/CPU Coolers: CM (Coolermaster)
Keyboards/Mouse: Logitech (& other local brands)
Speakers: Creative/Logitech/Genius(Basic)
Printers:Samsung for Laser printers(MFP), EPSON for POS, SAMSUNG BIXOLON for POS, Oki for DotMatrix
Print Servers: D-LINK
Routers: NetGear/D-LINK/LinkSys/Mirotik
Barcode Scanners: Symbol (Motorolla)
Servers: HP/Dell
Notebooks: Dell/HP/Acer
VOIP: Grandstream/Yeastar
UPS: APC, ECO [local] (& other local brands)
Good:
Clevo notebooks, Seagate hdd, MS mice and k/b, Santronics software, epson printers, Logitech, LG ALL, older Western Digital hdd, netgear, Yamaha, Gigabyte m/b, Kingston RAM, XP Pro, NT 4.0, Win7 Ultimate, Liteon optical, MSDOS 5.0, Intel, AMD, Acer notebooks, Cisco, Sony,
Bad:
HP ALL, Lexmark ALL, apple too expensive, Dell ALL, Proprietry hardware of ANY kind, Canon, Vista all flavours, Samsung, Brother,
Packard Bell and Fujitsu Siemens laptops suck big time, and I never go near any WD HDD either.
Anything HP, cheap hardware, bad drivers, bad support, bad website. Like Dell, old IBM stuff never dies. Like Asus and Toshiba foe laptops.
I cant stand and HP Product. Except there printers which are decent quaility but the drivers sucks beyond all belief, 1gb for a simple driver that comes with so much bloatware.
I hate hp computers because they are always overheating especially the DV Series. Even the desktop the mobos go out all the time and when you want to remove a simple HDD it is fricken impossible considering how much crap like there expansion bay they have packed in there.
HDDS
Western Digital HDDs are amazing and I have never had one fail on me. I think ive seen 1 client have a Western Digital that failed most are seagates that fail sadly.
Ram
Crucial is definitly the number 1 brand but the most expensive, OWC makes great quality ram to.
I’m a big fan of Corsair, Cooler Master, XFX and Asus. They all have great quality products and easy RMA.
I dislike EVGA and OCZ due to their RMA practices.
Like many others here, I like Lenovo notebooks – we sell them, and they rarely come back for repairs. Like Dell’s support for the most part, love the fact that you can find virtually all the info you can think of about any given Dell PC in their support site.
Dislike Japanese notebooks brands in general – their hardware designs and assembly tend to be needlessly and uselessly complex. Dislike Toshiba notebooks especially – I’ve seen more of those with dead motherboards this year than just about any other brand.
Like Microsoft and Logitech for mice and keyboards. Like Crucial, PNY, Kingston, Patriot, Corsair, and Mushkin for RAM, but I never buy or install anything less than lifetime warranty memory, and always test it. Even the best have failures occasionally.
I live in Brazil.. the products that are sold here are ALL substandard or are 2 years old technology. I have to buy products that are manufactured here in Brazil, for the most part, as compnies do not have international waranties.
Sending parts with warantee back to the USA, for example, are cost prohibitive as we have to pay import fees when a free replacement is sent back by return mail!
I imagine there are allot of us in this situation… perhaps adjust the results of this poll per geographic area?
Like
Lenovo laptops have the best durability of any “non-rugged” laptop I’ve ever had. I had a Thinkpad that took a nosedive 4 feet onto concrete and didn’t even get scratched. I’m also a fan of Thermaltake power supplies, Intel over AMD, Nvidia over ATI, and Western Digital for storage needs.
Hates
Dell laptops are the worst brand. Horribly engineered, fragile, bad hinges, batteries and power supplies fail faster than any other brand. Also the “Ultra” brand of computer products. The low price is never worth the constant replacing of parts.
I do not like Western Digital hard drives. I have had a couple of Western digital hard drives that went bed within a year of installing them. I now stay away from them.
IMO
Like
Lenovo Laptops – bulletproof
WD HDD – Reliable
Nvidia over ATI as seems to be less driver issues (in my experience)
Asus, Gigabyte & MSI mobos
Logitech gear (mice,keyboards and speakers) have never had many problems with
Coolermaster Chassis
D-Link Networking products
Dislike
Anything Compaq, Dell (PC’s), Sony, Netgear & Seagate (9 out of 10 HDD’s I replace are Seagate)
Among my favorites are:
WD (black) hard drives
Lenovo Laptops and servers
HP servers (high end only)
Asus M/B’s
Microsoft keyboards and mice
Logitech (most anything they make is good)
Epson inkjet and Xerox color laser printers
Kingston Memory
LiteOn Optical drives
Curses to:
Dell
All Low end HP stuff
HP laptops are special trash, Period.
Anything with Compaq on it
Samsung and Seagate HD’s
Early Asus laptops
I could spend a lot of time on this…these are the most important ones to me:
Brands Liked and Recommended
Dell Computers: not because I believe they make the best products, but because they support their PCs (and operating system-related drivers) better and longer than any other manufacturer. I find it helpful that they have a support document that lists the order in which to install drivers. This matters with the others manufacturer’s products and rarely do the others tell you the correct order of installation. Dell also does a much better job of providing upscale drivers for O/S’s that were not available at the time the particular model was introduced. I find it easier and more possible to upgrade Dell systems to newer O/S’s, like Windows 7, than with any other manufacturer.
HP Laserjets – Medium to High-level units: They work and they work forever. Dependable, solid units that are cost-efficient to operate.
Canon Inkjets: Really, really impressed without eh MVP line of printers. I recommend them as the best choice to my clients and they in turn tell me they have been the best printers ever owned.
——–
Brands Disliked and Usually Not Recommended
Low-line HP printers: HP’s low-line printers come with installers that offer no choice in the software to be installed. Their software is extremely top-heavy and overly done for low to medium level machines.
Gateway Computers: I haven’t worked on any of the newest generation (Acer produced), so my bias is based on working on the original Gateway line. Cheaply built, easily broken and sometimes poorly designed. Along with Acer 9eMachines) , the cheapest machines to buy. Everyone is dumping these on the market for the lowest possible prices.
HP (including Compaq) Laptops: Of all the brands I repair, HP will make me go through more hoops and pitfalls to get at components within. I just replaced and LCD panel in a four month old G56 and couldn’t believe the amount of work involved in removing the old panel. I have also found HP laptops to be problematic, especially with flakey Wi-Fi and AC power jacks breaking away from the mother/daughter boards. I include them in the choices, but don’t recommend them. I also fins the cost of replacement components higher than everyone else except IBM.
IBM Thinkpads: adulterated over-kill for the consumer market, laden with system resource hogging software that robs horsepower like emission controls did on the cars of the ’70s. Security is great, but every client I have that has one (corporate types excluded) complain about connectivity issues and features that cripple their ability to do ‘normal’ things. They might be fine for Corp. America, but their heavy, Checker-cab-style design and over-done software make consumers jump through hoops unnecessarily. Lastly, getting parts (like fan/heatsink units for some models) can be both expensive and nearly impossible to do. I never recommend these to my consumer clients.
——–
Brands Hated and Never Recommended
Lexmark Printers: the most worthless investment anyone can make in printer hardware. Only recently offering Linux drivers…terrible side-feed mechanisms that caused countless jamming problems…cheap and butt-ugly designs. I do everything in my power to get these out of circulation! Oh, can’t forget…no one sells more expensive ink than Lexmark.
I like Biostar motherboards. They have the best user support (and competitive prices) of any electronics supplier I am familiar with.
I hate HP! Although they have decent hardware, the software (drivers)is extremely poor and user support is uninformed, incompetent, and overall perhaps the worst support in the world.
I hate Apple because the company, as well as purchasers, are so arrogant as to make “one sick at their stomach” and the products are extremely expensive when compared with competitive products. The Apple CEO publicly proclaiming, “You’re holding it all wrong” when there was an engineering gaffe present was enough to turn one against the product. (The consumer was not the party who had done something wrong there. The manufacturer had done something wrong in the design of the product.)
I shun Western Digital because the only two actual premature drive failures I have seen in the past 25 years have been Western Digital Caviar drives.
I’m becoming very impressed with Ubiquiti wireless network products. They have ISP-level equipment for consumer prices, some rated for 50km distances in the $50-$200 USD price range.
Reviewing the posts, there seems to be a few common denominators: HP & Gateway do not do well. I agree – my experience with HP printers is that they are far less reliable than 5 years ago and support is horrible. Gateway/eMachines are not great either.
Personally I like Dell Optiplex & Latitude – very reliable and great support. I buy them with 3 or 5 year next busibess day on-site waanties & have yet to be disappointed. Brother printers are my favorite.
I do not have great confidence in AMD CPU and associated motherboards. I’ve seen too many of them having reliability troubles. The chipsets are sub-standard compared to Intel.
Intel CPUs with Intel chipsets on an Asus or Gigabyte mobo are a model of stability and reliability. Performance is also much better than what you have with AMD.
I like the look of Asus laptops but I’ve seen too many of them returned because of display issues like parasites on screen when you move the lid.
I love the quality of Apple hardware. No cheap components, good design, great service.
The cheapo brands I hate are: eMachines, all Manhattan products, japanese hard drives (fujitsu especially), Asrock and Foxconn mobos, all those cheap and sub-standard chinese power-supplies.
The brands I like most: Logitech, Western Digital, Asus, Acer (high end models), LaCie, Enermax, Thermaltake, Apple, Intel, Crucial, Kingston, LG burners.
Final note: stay away of any Lite-On products…
Had a perfect example this week. I recommend and sell Dell business class laptops, in this case a Vostro 3500. I found this one I sold a customer in august developed hard drive problems. After chatting online with Dell support for maybe ten minutes I had a replacement hard drive on the way overnight. Next day a customer brings me a three month old HP that is also having hard drive issues, pulling the SMART record shows it’s failing (which HP says only indicates that it WILL fail but hasn’t so they didn’t want to do anything just yet). After chatting online with HP for two hours now we have to send in the laptop which will be returned in two to three weeks!
I also like Antec powersupplies, I’ve yet to replace one I’ve installed.
BTW both hard drives were Seagates which is why I only use WD, they aren’t perfect but when ones does fail they fast track a replacement to you and let you send the return unit later.
I have a pile of DEAD HP laptops in my shop!
Laptops I hate: HP, Gateway and Compaq. Major motherboard issues with all HP products!
Best Laptops on the market in order from best:
1. Lenovo
2. Dell
Bad Hard Drive: Seagate & Fujitsu
Good Drive: WD
I love…
Mecer desktops (quality South African Brand)
Toshiba notebooks
Brother laser printers
Epson business printers
Keyboards and Mice: Microsoft/Logitech
I hate…
HP printers
Acer notebooks and desktops
Linksys wireless routers
Western Digital External HDD
As already said here many times…. HP printers are a nightmare. As a company it sems that they are still enjoying a reputation in the public mind earned years ago via rock solid laserjets that refused to quit. So sad, but those times are waaaay gone.
Don’t see much Apple HW (probably they go to Apple service) but my personal experience is 100% fail: 2 MacMini’s and 1 TimeCapsule broke up during the first year. Yeah, and pretty expensive to repair.
Love Lenovo, Linksys and Asus.
I love HP and Dell because they keep my business in the black.
Someone mentioned liking apple because they last a long time. Well, so do windows machines. A client recently asked me to get their Win 98 machine onto their wireless network. Another client recently needed a harddrive replaced in an iMac G3. The machines can last but who wants to work so slowly?
I love Chrome because it works on old slow XP machines that chug along in IE. I hate XP machines that have Rambus RAM.
Only Epson printers for home users. Brother for laser. Never Lexmark printers.
Has anyone found a lightscribe drive that actually works more than a few times? If so, what brand?
I’ve had to RMA both Seagate and WD drives. These drives appear in so many machines, it’s no wonder some go bad. We don’t know how those drives are treated by the user either.
I hate USB thumb drives that come preloaded with apps. But in general, havenever had a problem with thumb drives, even after going through laundry.
Love cool new gadgets especially tablets. Hate slow broadband internet connection, it makes my browsing time crawl like crazy..
I think Gigabyte motherboards are best, they test every motherboard before it leaves the factory. You can watch a video on youtube, they take you on a tour of their factory, it’s very impressive.
I don’t like Dell, not an easy computer to service, they make it difficult to take apart.
I worked on tv’s and other stuff before learning computers.
I think computers are becoming like tv’s, they are getting cheaper in design. Some tv brands we did not even try to repair like Funai, Emerson etc. I’d tell the customer to take it outside and toss it into the trash bin.
I have a friend who fixes printers, he says the same thing. The older model HP laser printers etc. were very well made. Today there’s a lot of fragile parts in them. The paper sensor is a small plastic switch that breaks very easily, and when it does the machine shuts down.
Hate: Anything made by sony. Did everyone forget about them putting rootkits in their CDs?
HP and Dell, between these two brands are 95% of the computers that come into the shop so I guess its a love hate thing.
Acer, makes up the last 5%, cheap low walmart quality junk.
Like: Anything made by Apple.
Sandisk flash memory.
Gskill memory
Logitech
Dislike: HP/Compaq anything. Systemax. Dell laptops, Dell servers. Gateway. eMachines. Any inkjet printers. All-In-One printer machines.
Like: Dell Optiplex, Precision range desktops. ASUS (eee) netbooks. Brother printers. Samsung printers.
All others I have open mind.
Shout to Dell for excellent support.
Boo to HP and Systemax for absolutely terrible support.
In most cases I find consumer aimed ranges are typically cause for concern. I try to find the chief motivator for my customers: “Quality or Cost”. then I can send them to the appropriate area with the relevant warnings.
Oh my, this topic has an amazing turnout Bryce.
Well, might as well throw in my $0.02.
In order from first to last I have…
Love
Cases:
– Silverstone Tek
– NZXT
– LianLi
– Coolermaster
– Thermaltake
– Antec
PSU:
– Silverstone Tek
– Thermaltake
– Coolermaster
– OCZ
– Antec
Motherboard
– Gigabyte
– EVGA
– Intel
– ASUS
– MSI
– Zotac (ITX Only)
Memory
– Samsung
– G.Skill
– OCZ
– Crucial
– Corsair
– Kingston
– PNY
Hard Drive
– Western Digital
– Seagate
SSD
– Crucial
– Intel
– OCZ
– Samsung
– Mushkin
GPU
– Gigabyte
– HIS
– EVGA
– PNY
– Visiontek
– MSI
Peripherals
– Logitech
– Microsoft
– Madcatz
Laptops
– Sony
– Apple
– HP
– ASUS (Netbooks only)
Desktops & All-in-Ones
– Sony
– Apple
– HP
– eMachines (For price only)
Every other brand in my opinion is not worth my time.
I know a lot of people ar trashing HP products- I too agree that there low end stuff is not worth there weight in dirt, and there customer service can be REAL annoying. Also everything comes loaded with Bloatware. My experience is that I have never had any problems with there High-end stuff, there “Touch smart” stuff is greatly appealing and most laptop motherboard issues have been Power supply plug related (mostly due to heavy cable and “pull&yank” habits when unplugging). Anyway, like with all manufactured machines I strip the bloatware from them, install “real” utility/security programs this cuts complaints and reliability issues greatly I believe.
Stuff I love- Anything Logitech especially Revolution gear! Asus motherboards, WD (black) drives and passport external drives, Netgear routers, High-end Epson printers, Kingston SSD drives (watch out for counterfiets!)
Things I can’t stand- Any thing Apple (Outdates to fast, TOO Expensive look at the I-Pad). low end printers especally lexmark! Due to there bloatware and drivers- HP printers. Lite-on DVD drives (have a box of dead ones just out of warranty- mostly write issues).
Creative products, Toshiba laptops,
Like: Ubuntu. Most Linux distro’s. XP. Win 7.
Dislike: Vista.
Apple: Everything Apple is too expensive. So I am borderline on them. Every time someone says they are considering Apple to me I suggest putting their money away and trying Ubuntu (free) with Compiz enabled usually on their old machine (free). Not had an unhappy user from this route yet. When I do I’ll help them buy an Apple. That said I still love the iTouch 1stgen that I am refusing to buy again.
Very insightful — Many posters show exact opposite preferences,such as WD vs Seagate. If I could share an observation — disliking a great product because of it’s poor support/customer service is fair, but not. Yes, it makes sense to avoid products with poor support/customer service, but I think the point is to find Reliable products. If it’s Reliable, you rarely need support, right? (But , yes, I get your drift). Also, the most popular products may show up failed units more often, simply because there’s more of them. It’s like saying 90% of the cancer victims in Seattle, WA, worked at Boeing. Well, 90% of the people in Seattle WORK at Boeing. So, to be a little more quantitative about this would be helpful. Seagate has been one of the most popular drives sold lately in my experience, thus, more dead ones will show up, even if they have a high reliability factor.
VERY helpful post, and thanks for the feedback.
My two cents?
LIKE: Dell computers, not because they are so reliable, but because you can reinstall so easily with the restore disks, which I have a full set. Most of the failure is from hard drives. And they are priced low enough, you can justify an upgrade every year or two.
Logitech and Microsoft Keyboards/Mice
Samsung laser printers
Linksys/Cisco routers
ASUS and Abit motherboards
DISLIKE: Norton Security Suite – Firewall problems galore, and system intrusive. I think it’s getting better.
HP printer software – it ruins a good printer
Like: Asus, Corsair, Antech, Logitech, Western Digital, Gigabyte, Epson printers, and Dells in my experience have lasted a long time. Most I see in the shop come in after 6-8 years of use with no internal maintenance.
Dislike: HP(Highly Problematic), Ultra, Diablotec, Centon
I see probably 60-75% of all computers that come into the shop are HPs. Simply terrible products with bad support.
Likes:
Asus & Gigabyte – personally ASUS is my fav.
Logitech – around for years and great service.
Samsung – printers and yes HP printers as well.
Seagate – I do seem to think they have some problems but my records show they all have fairly similar failure rates. I find by far the Seagates replacements arrive fastest.
Dell Laptops – Never an issue in my many years as a tech in PC/Mac repair field.
AMD/ATI – they are rock solid in my book.
LG – great all around.
Dislikes:
Dell desktops and any other branded desktop, meaning built by technician systems superior.
Alienware, HP, Compaq, Gateway, ACER and all other laptops other than Dell. Most hated is Alienware as everyone I have seen that is supposed to be blazing fast aren’t. Dunno know what happened to them as they used to be great systems and no it was happening before Dell took over. It got so bad I refuse to supply anyone who asks for them, even my son found out the hard way.
All Apple products – I dunno who thinks they are so reliable now cause they aren’t over 50% of my service calls are Apple products. Oh compatibility is another factor, haven’t found any peripherals completely compatible unless apple makes it which is costly. Reliability is a thing from the past for them. Not to mention the cost of parts. Even my die hard Apple users are switching over to PC (businesses that is).
Canon, Lexmark and Brother are most hated printers. Have not had much to do with Epson.
HP (Towers, Monitors, Printers, Camera, Scanner), Linksys (Networking Products), and a Casio Digital Camera. That makes up most of the products that I use on a daily basis or recommend with my business.
IBM has always been reliable, there is a reason why everyone wants to be ‘IBM Compatible’! Lenovo has taken most of their market and has seemed to produce a lower end product but still seems above the average.
I agree that HP printers are bloated in their installation and interface.
Brother printers are a good option.
Fujitsu and HP PCs & laptops have an initial setup routine that is far to complicated and intrusive.
I use PC and Mac. Dell has been OK, HP and Compaq are a no go for me. My first “bought” system was a Packard Bell. What a waste, Fortunately I returned it but then I got a Compaq. Not great. Then I started building my own systems, much better path, so I have not bought a PC for quite some time.
My 2nd mac, an iMac g5, 1st generation, had issues with power supply, DVD drive, wireless card in its first/second year but since I had the extended warranty, everything was replaced for free within a day or so and it is still running strong after 6 years.
That is the difference that I love: apple support has far outstripped any support for any PC I have ever owned. The time I had to call Dell on some obscure problem I could not resolve: on hold for an hour and then have someone read from a script about using DOS-what a waste of time. I called back next day got a totally different tech and got the problem resolved. So kudos to the genius bar people I have met in Las Vegas and Fresno. They were great.
Pure loathing for:
Anything Creative. Lack of useful support, mega-bloated software that leaves your registry one third as big again after installing Creative’s drivers.
Anything Dell, HP or Compaq in the PC line. For all their hype, they are immensely incompetent. Most of the stuff I’ve had in the workshop has been the above brands.
Seagate can burn in hell for the shoddy help they give the little guy. The sudden expiry of near-new Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-USB drives due to a manufacturing fault was the final straw when Seagate refused to take responsibility.
Heads up to:
ASUS motherboards, for desktops and laptops.
Intel Core2 Duo and Quad.
Logitech peripherals.
Viewsonic LCD screen are great for their performance/pricepoint and generous warranty.
NexStar SATA-to-USB hard drive docking bays – superb!
ASUS DVD Burners.
I love all brands for different reasons. Any of the cheap desktops from the big box stores help my business because of the junk they’re made from eventually needs repaired while for custom builds and my own computing needs I have always had great success with Gigabytes motherboards, AMD processors, Seagate hard drives and HP laser printers.
Likes: Dell – no they don’t make the best, but they support what they sell. ASUS motherboards
Dislikes (this is actually too mild a term)- HP anything, but especially laptops. These are pure trash. I remember when HP made decent products, but now I wouldn’t recommend HP brand to anyone for anything.
Personal likes: Asus(MBs and netooks, monitors not too bad), Razer, Corsair(PSU) G.Skill and Mushkin(memory) WD HDD.
Biostar (MBs), Gigabyte (MBs), Logitech (peripherals) Dell
Dislikes. HP, Gateway, Microsoft(peripherals), and Apple (as a company).
Thumbs down on Western Digital hard drives. I’ve had too many failures with them to trust them any further. Have had very good experiences with Seagate/Maxtor hard drives.
Also thumbs down on Vantec’s NexStar HD enclosures. I have 4 Vantec externals. One simply quit working, and another became lame due to a bad AC power adaptor. Azio and BlackX HD docking stations work great.
I noticed the Apple haters started coming out. Almost all complaining about price. You can’t buy a BMW with the same space as a ford for the same money either. You more than get what you pay for in resell value, looks, reliability , and being damn near virus proof.As well as tech support, its unmatched, period.
I’d like to know where the one guy lives who has 50% Macs in his shop. In 11 years I have seen about 3 or 4. I have a fellow tech friend who runs a shop near a large campus of 13,000 students, over 60% of which own Macs and he says he gets one Mac to maybe 100-150 PCs.
I almost forgot emachine in the dislike section.
My biggest grip with HP printers is their lack of support, driver wise, for perfectly functioning printers. A printer less than two years old, supported under XP and Vista, not supported under Windows 7. It’s obvious they are trying to get you to buy another printer… Which we did, but not an HP!
I prefer Dell’s for out business clients, as many have stated, for their support, although I would stay with their business lines, not their consumer models at Best Buy, etc.
Good laptops: Dell – awesome support here in Estonia and i have had very little problems with them compared to other brands.
HP and Samsung laptops, as well as printers – Worst. Thing. Ever. That goes for Samsung HDD-s too, 75% dead HDDs i see are Samsung.
Honorable mentions go to Logitech input devices – they always work.
Wow Bryce, you’ve really struck a chord here.
I see many comments that I agree with based on my experiences with failure rates.
For what it’s worth.
The good:
Lenovo notebooks – 0 return.
Asus notebooks – returns only in extended warranty period. Local service centre has even fixed recent out of warranty machine @ no charge.
LG because it has proven hardy (find me an LS50 notebook that can’t be repaired) Their other consumer grade products have proven pretty good too.
Gigabyte and Asus mainboards. low failure rate
The bad:
Anything branded Norton, from all accounts their recent offering is better but I wrote them off in 2004.
HP Printers – crappy bloated software that only works when it feels like it and takes an hour to install a multitude of services that rival norton in resource usage in order to print a piece of paper.
MSI and Asrock mainboards, too many returns
OCZ RAM – Failures galore >50%
D-Link NAS boxes (323) Failures aplenty
Brands I love.
Asus-Motherboards
Aacer-Aspire 6530G Laptop(hreat quality for the price)
Netgear-Router(much more reliable than the linksys routers I have used in the past)
Printers-Sharp, Cannon, HP-(only a select few)
Mice-Logitech
Keyboards-Logitech, Microsoft
Brands I dislike——
Toshiba-makes expensive and really faulty motherboards in their laptops.
Operating systems
Like: Ubuntu Linux, Open Solaris
Dislike: Windows all flavors
I’ve grown a quick hatred of eMachines. Their products tend to be so cheap they just fall apart. I can make a long list of printer manufacturers that I hate as I have yet to find ANY printer that I like. Dell and HP are pretty reliable, but Dell’s software support is better. Gateway? I don’t even know anymore. Toshiba is okay, but I don’t like their bulky laptop designs.
I’m an Apple fan. Yes, the products are expensive, but they are reliable, and, to me, the computer experience is more important than how many Gigahertz and whatnot you have. Antec makes great last-forever PSU’s. As for hard drives, I have had good luck with Seagate, but I’m not against buying WD or Fujitsu.
There is so much voo-doo surrounding computers it’s almost like a cargo cult, or the proverbial Pavlovian response.
Hardware (and software) is very subjective, and very little thought from the average tech goes toward the reason why products fail.
Surely when a product fails, it’s often easier to blame the product and not the client who mistreats it, or the tech who incorrectly installs it, or the delivery guy who like to drop stuff from 15 feet in the air.
I prefer to ask myself what are the possible causes for failure, including my own mistakes, rather than wholesale write off a product or vendor as garbage.
There are lots of factors that can contribute to product failure, and I think it’s important to consider them as much a possible. If not you may one day find yourself painted into a corner with no products to buy because somehow they are all bad.
Here’s an example. You support a bunch of DVD video recorders. About a year after you install them, they suddenly start getting flakey. Is Sony crap? Is Panasonic junk? Or is it a run of bad media? Is it the wrong media? Did they hire new people who don’t know how to wash their hands, or think that DVDs are to be handled like frisbees? Are they smearing the printable label on the DVD while its lying on an abrasive surface?
There’s lots of human error to be spread around, not just at the manufacturer.
Except Microsoft. I really hate the exorbitant costs we incur for their sub par products. I do mean costs. Once you buy it, you’re not finished paying.
Love: Dell, Cisco, Brother, Canon
Hate: HP, AT&T and any other company that reads me a script, and 2 hours later still has not solved the problem.
Top 5
Video Cards
EVGA Great Modder friendly warranty
Asus Great service and support
XFX Outstanding warranty modder riendly and transferrable
Zotac
Never get an Acer, Emachine, or Sony
Hard Drive: Seagate never fails, Western Digital always fails for me. Hitachi fails on the long term. Fujitsu was good before it sold to Toshiba.
Dell is good for budget and reliability and name.
HP is good but bad support from what I hear.
Lenovo Best for Relaibility Quality and Support.
Optical Drive Liteon first, Samsung Second
Peripherals I use Logitech and Microsoft
Blank Media only name brand like Verbatim or TDK. Cheap discs always seem to come back with errors.
Gigabyte, EVGA Motherboards are best. EVGA I would recommend for gaming.
EVGA, PNY for Video Cards
Creative for Sound Card
Netgear for all networking equipment. I was a fan of Linksys but seems there new generation of products dropped in quality and reliability.
Power supply I use antec, thermaltake, ocz, cooler master, silver.
RAM, Kingston, Corsairs, Crucial, OCZ. No cheap ram ever!
Case, ANTEC, Thermaltake, Coolermaster
Printers: HP, Epson, Brother, Cannon. Never Lexmark! Cheapest crap you can buy
We LOVE Walmart and their cheap computers!
Their cheap HP/Compaq laptops and Emachines computers make us a LOT of money!
Every time I run across a Fujitsu hard drive in a customers system, I BEG them to replace it before it fails.
Dell computers provide steady income also.
I also LOVE the look on a Apple owners face when we tell them that they have a virus.
“I also LOVE the look on a Apple owners face when we tell them that they have a virus.”
I’d be willing to bet thats only happened once or twice in your life time.
Hands down I love my Macs. That is my personal favorites. They are so reliable I don’t get to work on too many though.
I have found that working on the HP and Dell laptops to be very routine. I get a lot of those.
Dislike: Dell DV series laptops
The DV series overheat and fry the boards at an alarming rate. I have seen several of these come through to the point of no longer working on them. I would replace the board (because Dell does not warranty the problem) and they would be back within months looking for a refund on the work.
Dislike: Apple
This is almost entirely based off of the price of Apple replacement part costs. They are outrageous at best. In addition, the first few generations of the IMac had heating problems that would fry video cards and drives on occasions.
Like: Toshiba Laptops
May be personal bias, but I love Toshiba laptops. The older gens weren’t the greatest in the world but the newer ones are on par with the rest of the market and have much better prices in some (if not most) occasions.
Anyway, that is my two cents on the major names that immediately come to mind.
Good Laptops: Toshiba, some Dell, Asus
Bad Laptops: HP (won’t honor warranty on faulty products), Acer, Gateway
Bad Desktop PCs: Any older models with bad caps, eMachines (failed PS blow MB)
Good Desktop PCs: Custom built with Asus, Gigabyte, AMD CPUs
Hard Drives:
Bad Laptop HD: Fujitsu, Toshiba (most of the failures I see)
Good Laptop HD: WD, Seagate
Bad Desktop HD: Later Seagate
Good Desktop HD: WD, Samsung
Like:
Toshiba laptops (mid-price and higher) I support several 4-7 years old and all still going strong.
EnGenius routers, bridges, repeaters, PTP solutions. Easy setup, more powerful and much more dependable than Linksys, Dlink or Netgear (in my experience) and competitively priced with good tech support.
Canon MVP and MP printer line. No customer complaints with almost 35 units running for almost 3 years.
Dislike:
Most everything Compaq or HP(horse poop). I used to love their printers in the 90’s (remember the HP-4?) but now I wouldn’t touch one. I get calls every month on computers and printers less than 60 days old with problems that require the units be returned. Often they need to be returned AGAIN because the problems were not actually fixed.
Linksys/Cicso consumer routers. I’m replacing two to three per month, mostly models three years of age or less. No returns of EnGenius products since I began using them two years ago.
Thanks for the opportunity to air our thoughts.
Favorites:
CASE = Coolermaster Haf X series (great size, cable management, and air flow)
PSU = Corsair or Coolermaster
RAM = Anything name brand ( I avoid generics that will eventually go bad)
MOBO = ASUS (Yet to have an issue with an ASUS Board) Gigabyte (still new to gigabyte but they seem of high quality for the right price)
Mouse = Razer, Razer, and Razer (PC gamer must check out the Razer Death Adder)
Keyboard = Logitech G11 (The G series are nice big backlit keyboards with multiple macro settings)
HDD = Western Digital (all the way)-(price to performance)
I avoid big box name brand computers (hp,dell). They cut to many corners, and make computers that have a lifespan of 1-2 years. I also like to understand my customer support. Outsourcing is cool? anything for that bottom line i guess.
I absolutely love Logitech wireless mice, nothing else compares :)
I hate HP printers, takes age to download and install their drivers/software
and it’s a complete PITA when it goes wrong!
Love: Samsung monitors and their awesome replacement model.
Hate: HP entry level printers and G. skill RAM.
Personal preferences:
ASUS M/Bs (good support), Logitec Mice, MS Keyboards, Intel Processors, Crucial & Kingston RAM, Dell Laptops (parts availability), WD HDs (ease of Warranty returns), Benq & Smasung Monitors
Dislikes:
Intel M/Bs, Lexmark Printers (thumbs down), Maxtor (now Seagate, HDs)
LIKE
As a package, ACER computer.
Asus motherboards
AMD processors
Hitachi HDD
Verbatim External
MIXED
Seagate HDD. (See alot of them but then again they sell the most – so its a mix)
RAM – Always buy the most you can avoid, prf KINGMAX
DISLIKE
Intel motherboards + their attitude (Generally CPUs are ok just MOBO letting them down)
HP printers
Good:
Printers: Canon, Epson, Kyocera, Xerox
Computer brands: Lenovo/IBM, Toshiba, Asus, Alienware, Dell Buisness (great warranty here is oz), Most Custom builds
Other brands:
Antec, Corsair, OCZ, XFX, Palit, Saphire, Palsonic, Logitech, internode, leadtek, Cisco, Billion, Sony card readers, Silverstone, WD, Intel, AMD/ATI, APC.
Middle area:
Samsung ODD, Hp Buisness equipment, J&W motherboards, HIS, Tplink, Netgear, Netcomm, EVGA for there failed quality checks, MSI, ARAM, Sony, VANTEC, NVIDIA, Apple, Repotec, belkin.
Bad: These brands make us lots of money :P
SEAGATE, SAMSUNG Internal HDD, Hitachi HDD, Maxtor, Foxconn, Ecs, Albatron, Asrock, Powercase PSU, ACER, Emachine, Dlink, Compaq, HP, Norton, AVG, Comodo ISS (most free av).
The rule of the thumb is that if it is CHEAP compared to other models say 25%+ cheaper than it must not be that good quality wise.
My company started using only Dell computers about 8 years ago. We always buy the 4 year warranty and they have been great about service (NBD). We went through a spell where all of the HDD’s from one time frame would go bad. They replaced them with no problem.
We have had a few HP computers and I hate them. they have proprietary parts and it is sometimes impossible to get drivers for them.
We have had a mismash of printers. I like the HP printers, but you have to make sure the extra software is not installed.
I hate Epson printers. The quality is bad.
We use all Linksys for our routers and switches. They are very good to help you with any problem.
Likes
Logitech – Their products are quality made, they have excellent customer support. I have purchased tons of their stuff and have never been let down.
Toshiba/Lenovo/ASUS – Pretty much the best laptops around. However, recently Toshiba has been getting on my bad side because of their policy with drivers (if they don’t “release” an update, some won’t work without manually installing the actual driver files). Lenovo thinkpads are fantastic laptops. ASUS makes great laptops and desktops – I really like their desktops because I can typically open the case and recognize all the brands of equipment in there (it’s all “name brand”)
HDD wise, I typically buy both Seagates and WD’s. I’ve never seen either be better/worse than the other in my experience.
Corsair RAM is ace, their support is great.
Hates
HP – in any product. Deal a ton with their printers, they seem like they have a ton of issues. Their support has been far less than excellent in my mind – their website is a mess and very unorganized. Driver support is very hit or miss – usually their drivers are very bloated and their “minimal” drivers aren’t typically available for Win7 (most of their older printers now use Universal Drivers for Win7 support, which in a large scale organization is a disaster to deploy!)
Dell – Simple; they cut corners to make their products cheap. From their case to their production, they are not good machines. Someone I knew once had a nice acronym for DELL – doesn’t ever last long.
Hitachi – I guess they were just purchased, but they make some bloody horrible hard drives; failure rates very high in my data.
Gateway/EMachine/Acer – A few years back Gateway was on my good side, but they have definitely fallen. Like Dell, they cut a lot of corners to make their machines cheap, and it shows. I have loathed Acer from the first machine I ever worked on – talk about bad products.
Symantec – This is where good software goes to die folks.
PRINTERS
I like…
Brother Printers for inexpensive ink, driver support, cheap lasers.
Do not like…
Canon – only because they have expensive ink and poor driver support for linux.
Lexmark lasers… ever had to remove 146 tiny screws to swap a control board?
PC – working on
I like
Lenovo laptops and desktops
Apple has quality hardware and great support under warranty
For cheap desktops I like compaqs – bare and basic out of the box
Do not like
HP laptops. So many bad hardware issues.. (they usually will extend warranty however)
Dell Laptops – 10 bios updates in one year and will not admit there is a problem.
Apple laptops and desktops. Is there any that are harder to get at the internal parts?
Router
I like
Buffalo routers (not all but most)
most cheap routers work fine and I can buy 3 for one good buffalo.
do not like
Linksys since cisco has been a pain.
Computer drivers manuals and information
like
Dell – hands down best site for techs
Best OS
for customers is OSX
for the shop Linux and vm for windows
for business Windows 7 (because of proprietary software that they all seem to have)
Worst OS
Vista
I hate HP printers too because the drivers take far too long to install.
I used Cherry keyboards for business clients.
I am a big fan of FSP power supplies (they just work and are a little bit cheaper than the the links of Antec and OCZ).
I like Samsung HD because they are cheap and seem reliable.
I avoid Maxtor drives.
I use Gigabyte and Asus motherboards, don’t bother with anything else.
I use Logitech or Microsoft for mice.
I like TP Link because they are so cheap and very reliable, they also make a lot of products which other companies don’t.
I avoid Belkin routers.
I am so so about Netgear have very mixed experiences, I avoid Linksys routers as theya re too expensive and their adapters can be hard to get drivers for.
I like Dell laptops because they are very very easy to work. Replacing the RAM or HD takes seconds, unlike many Sonys.
LIKE:
-Logitech (especially the wireless mice and keyboards. I have yet to have any break. They only get replaced when I get tired of looking at them)
-Sony Laptops
-Epson Printers,
-Lexmark printers, for some strange reason (super cheap and simple. creepy voice on the printing software, though
-Samsung monitors, acer monitors
-Linksys Routers
-D-Link routers and network cards
-ESET Nod32 Antivirus (It uses so little memory and just works. The End.)
DISLIKE:
-Toshiba laptops (they never quite fix the overheating issue. When they come out with a new version, they just adapt the laptop case to sit up higher. All that does is keep your desks from getting burn marks. They all burn out in the end)
-Older Dell laptops and desktops. The hardware is just not up to par, as most people know. The desktop cases are perpetually changing designs throughout the years and often times pinch fingers and hands. Push button cases? Gliding? Really? Just use screws and keep it simple.
-HP Printers used to be good. Then they had to get creative with their software/driver install packages and install things like “HP Customer Survey” and “HP buying suggestions” that have clever warnings about the printer not ever printing again if disabled. Customers have a hard enough time printing as it is. The HP Printing software is reminding me more and more of malware/adware….planting itself everywhere.
-Belkin Routers
-Norton/Symantec anything and everything
-McAfee Antivirus
-AVG is getting just as bad as previous two
I hate ECS motherboard… short life…
I love Intel and ASUS motherboard.. very durable..
I like:
*Dell business class desktops/ laptops/ servers
*Sony Vaio laptops
*HP business class printers
*Kodak printers
*Microsoft mice and keyboards
*ESET for paid AV, Microsoft Security Essentials for free
What I like and use:
Coolermaster cases and PSU’s–bulletproof
IBM/Lenovo laptops—some of the most durable laptops made in the pro series
Intel Box Mobos–boring but very very stable
Hitachi and Samsung Drives–quality has improved a lot and price has stayed low
Gigabyte Mobos–great features, fair price, great support
Comcast Internet–At least in my area they have awesome support, very reliable, and a great reseller program
The new Norton 360–Thats what Comcast gives away to its customers around here. I beta tested it for 3 months on my own machine and was pleasantly surprised with it after years of being bloated, horrid, and inneffective
ASROCK mobos—been fairly impressed with this brand lately
EVGA video cards…their lifetime warranty is stellar and support is awesome
OCZ RAM–see above at EVGA…same deal with OCZ
TONS MORE but enough for now
What I despise and avoid:
ANY Bestech PSU
DELL XPS towers–horrid form factor and low quality components
ASUS–Used to love them…but then had the support experience from hell..Also RAM compatibility with certain chipsets is horrid. Even with sticks on the QVL
Software that installs toolbars, search engines, etc…that takes hitting the right combo of buttons to NOT install.
Fujitsu laptops–last time I checked they will NOT sell parts…They insist on doing inhouse repair at very high rates
HIS video cards..Will NEVER purchase another of their products again. No support, dont handle their own RMA’s, horrid build quality on the cards I have seen
I’m new so I will limit it to that
Is it possible to have a vote on this? I know that many people are going to have a more or less opposite view of certain brands ie: Seagate vs Western Digital but if (and I know this is far beyond the scope of what this forum is intended for) we could give a couple of basic ratings of reliability and backup support, then we could all have a good idea of what’s working and what’s not. I know it’s more complex than that because a 5 year old piece of equipment is not comparable to something bought this year but it still might give us an idea of who keeps their standards up. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t give a newcomer a chance or a company who’s only just lifted their game because, well, if nobody buys the smaller brands, the bigger brands will just have a monopoly. Anyway, enough of my rambling.
For me:
Asus
LG
Gigabyte
Seagate
Western Digital
Not happy with:
Linksys (Cisco, but more useless)
MSI
Samsung
Hitachi
Belkin (not all the time, they do make some quality gear)
L
I hate Acer and HP, because of their support and the low quality components they use, abusing of people’s lack of knowledge.
I love Asus because of the quality of their produces.
I here everyone expressing their feelings towards the brands that are unreliable; but it seems to be the parts that give us the work and are eventually replaced with a more reliable parts. I don’t sell these brands but it doesn’t stop people from buying them else where. Mostly because of these products being so cheap. Most of my residential work is due to these inferior products and software; and well of course Malware. I eventually become the Go-To Computer Guy when they are asking questions on purchasing products.
Good Brands for me are…
Apple, Toshiba, Asus, Gigabyte, Western Digital, Nvidia, ATI, Intel, AMD, Brother, Epson, Buffalo, Netgear, Logitech, Microsoft.
Its great to hear all the opinions, but to be truthful if these brands did not fail as often as they do there would a lot less techs required to remedy faults. The design of some makes leaves a lot to be desired as they are designed for a price point rather than reliability with what can best be described as an “out of Sight warranry”; once out of sight no warranty!
Good for me are
Toshiba, Gigabyte, Asus, WD, Intel, Epson, Logitech, Lenovo, and most supplier support websites.
Fails are
HP budget laptops and the bloated printers, Acer, Lexmark (Yuk!), Maxtor, and all the driver websites that want to run scans etc, good for business but hell for the punters.
Jut read through a bunch of post and the result email. I agree with alot of the other posters (HP BAD, ASUS/GB good) but I have to be the dissenting voice on one point – Lenovo laptops.
I work in a small company (~250 employees). 3 years ago we switched from Dell laptops to Lenovo laptops (X61 and T61’s). The service has been mostly excellent (until very recently when we have seen a remarkable dropoff i.e multiple “fixed” laptops having reoccurring issues a week later). The good service comes in handy because these laptops are FAR FAR FAR from reliable.
The original shipment was delayed because of “fan issues”. When we finally took delivery we were assured the hardware glitches had been rectified. At least a half dozen of the over 100 machines were DOA – fan error.
Subsequently many more of these laptops died in the field of the same issue. But wait… theres more. we also suffered a rash of blown power inverters requiring mobo replacement, dead wireless, dead video cards, strange errors related to the use of dual monitors, strange USB errors when using the docks and most recently a rash of HD failures. The list goes on.
IT hates these craptops and the users hate these craptops. I have a strong feeling we will be going back to dell for our next rollout. For all the bad hinges and poor battery life issues, the Dell were just plain more reliable.
Great post!