I think it would be nice to collect information from GWers on their favorite brands of computer parts so that people new to building computers can see what other people have had good luck with.

The format of the topic is pretty simple, just list which brands you have had good luck with and which you have had bad luck with, one of each. If you don't have a specific preference, just list the brand you are currently using for that category (unless you don't like it and are using it only because you can't afford better or something).

Here is an example (and my entry)

Processor: +AMD
Motherboard: +Foxconn, -MSI
Memory: +Kingston, -OCZ
Graphics Card: +ATI, -nVidia
Sound Card: +Creative
Power Supply: +Thermaltake, -Enermax
Case: +Cooler Master
Heatsink: +Thermaltake
Case fans: +Hiper, -MassCool
CD/DVD Drive: +Phillips
Hard Drive: +Seagate
Monitor: +Samsung, -Acer

And if you guys want to suggest other categories, I will add them. Here are the figures so far (as of NES Player). Blue indicates a definite good choice and has been recommended by 5 or more people. Green indicates a possibly good choice, recommended by at least 2 people, black is inconclusive, with only +/- one point, red you should probably stay away from. I will probably increase the number requirements for colors higher as more people recommend.

Processor: +8 AMD, +6 Intel
Motherboard: +5 ASUS, +4 Gigabyte, +2 Foxconn, +1 Biostar, -1 ABIT, -3 MSI
Memory: +7 Kingston, +4 OCZ, +2 Corsair, +1 G-SKILL, +1 Mushkin, +1 PNY, +1 Supertalent, -1 Patriot
Graphics: +11 nVidia, -1 ATI
Sound Card: +4 Creative, +1 M Audio
Power Supply: +2 Thermaltake, +2 OCZ, +1 Cooler Master, +1 Corsair, +1 BeCool, -1 Enermax
Case: +3 Cooler Master, +3 Antec, +2 Thermaltake
Heatsink: +2 Thermaltake, +1 Arctic Cooling, +1 ASUS, +1 Intel, +1 OCZ
Case Fans: +2 Antec, +1 Hiper, +1 Zalman, +1 Nexus, -1 Masscool
CD/DVD Drive: +4 LG, +2 Phillips, +1 Sony
Hard Drive: +9 Seagate, +4 Western Digital, +1 Maxtor, -1 Fujitsu
Monitor: +4 Samsung, +2 Viewsonic, +2 Sceptre, +2 NEC, +1 Gateway, +1 Benq +1 Sony, -1 Hanns-G

Processor: AMD
Motherboard: Gigabyte
Memory: Mishkin, OCZ
Graphics Card: nVidia
Sound Card: Creative
Power Supply: Thermaltake, Cooler Master
Case: Thermaltake, Cooler Master
Heatsink: Thermaltake
CD/DVD Drive: Sony, Phillips
CD/DVD Media: Memorex
Hard Drive: Seagate, Western Digital
Monitor: Viewsonic
Mouse: Microsoft

Processor: +Intel
I don't really have anything against AMD but my most recent processors have been Intels and I am impressed. They're easy as fuck to overclock the shit out of on nothing but air cooling.

Motherboard: +ASUS -ABIT
ABIT gave me problems in the past and just generally seemed like a shoddy product. My ASUS board has been great so far.

Memory: +Kingston +OCZ -Patriot
Don't buy Patriot. It's cheap shit. OCZ has done me well for my gaming machine, and Kingston has never given me problems in my laptop and other non-high-performance machines.

Graphics Card: +nVidia -ATI
ATI is ass now.

Hard Disks: +Western Digital +Seagate
I have used WDs pretty heavily for a long time and have never had a single problem, but I know everyone has completely different luck when it comes to hard disk brands.

Monitor: +Gateway +Viewsonic +Dell
I had a Viewsonic CRT that was pretty rad but haven't had an LCD yet. My current is a Gateway and it's fantastic. I have seen non-cheap Dells at work that are pretty good, but avoid the cheap ones.

Graphics Card: +nVidia, -ATI
ATI is worthless and behind nVidia at the moment, they just don't compare, tbh.

CPU: +AMD, - Intel
Mobo: +Gigabyte or +Asus
Ram: Ultra is all I used
GPU: +nVidia, -ATI
Sound Card: Creative SB is all I've used
HD: +Seagate, + Western Digital, - Maxtor, -Fujitsu
Monitor: +Sceptre (can be amazingly cheap for the given spec), + Acer

I don't know how you guys are like ATI IS BEHIND because if you look at any hardware site on the net, they will tell you that the 4000 series is blowing the pants off nVidia right now, not to mention that faulty hardware recalls have ruined nVidia's stock in the last two months. It is nice and all that you guys like nVidia because you have 8800s or whatever since they are amazing cards and I can perfectly understand giving nVidia a + for that, but don't say "now" if you have not tried the new ATI cards or at least read about them. You can -ATI all you want and I don't care, because that's what this topic is about, but don't make comments like you actually know what you are talking about if you have no basis for it, because if you are saying ATI SUCKS ASS RIGHT NOW, then I can pretty much assume that you haven't looked at an ATI card in more than 6 months and have totally ignored the nVidia 9000 series that has flopped worse than anything they have ever put out because it is just the 8000 series repackaged with lower performance.

Processor: +Intel, -AMD
Motherboard: +ASUS
Memory: +OCZ
Graphics Card: +ATI, +nVidia
It is to be noted (!!) that I am currently running an 8800GT and I love this card. But as it stands right now, and if you read what Jeff said, there is really no reason not to look into the 4850 or 4870 over the Nvidia "equivalents."
Power Supply: +OCZ
Case: +Antec, +Thermaltake
CD/DVD Drive: +LG
Hard Drive: +Seagate
Monitor: +Acer

Processor: +Intel
Motherboard: +ASUS
Memory: +Kingston
Graphics Card: +nVidia, -ATI
Power Supply: +Corsair
Hard Drive: +Maxtor/Seagate, -Western Digital
Monitor: +NEC, +Sony

I've omitted categories of which I have no preference for.

Also I forgot to mention it but:

Everything EVER they can possibly do: ----------------------------------------------------- SiS

I don't know WHAT all they make besides video cards, but avoid these guys like the plague. If they are even half as bad as they were for my very old PC's vid card for anything, they are horse shit. I used to have an old PC with a vid card from them (Mirage 2), and this video card....nay...company, is so bad, I download drivers for my vid card right? Hahahahaha, this update makes all text in Open GL programs become unreadable. So I download a patch that was supposed to fix this issue, and it not only made it worse, made my card run hotter, but it also made well over 25+ programs I tried fail to run and crash or in some cases fail to detect I had a card at all. I couldn't even get World of fucking WarCraft to run after this update. Needless to say, had to revert to stock vid card drivers.

They are so bad.

Processor: +AMD, +Intel
Motherboard: +Biostar, -MSI
Memory: +OCZ, +Kingston
Graphics Card: +Nvidia, -ATI
Sound Card: +Creative
Power Supply:
Case:
Heatsink: +Intel
Case fans:
CD/DVD Drive: +LG, -LiteOn
Hard Drive: +Western Digital
Monitor: +Sceptre

Everything EVER they can possibly do: ----------------------------------------------------- SiS

Oh man, yes. I had a board with an integrated SiS card and it was the worst thing ever. It couldn't even freaking run WINDOWS properly.

Processor: +AMD, +AMD (I've had two, they were both spiff)
Motherboard: +Foxconn, -ASUS(bad drivers), -ASUS(2 were DOA), -MSI(Caught fire)
Memory: +Corsair, +Kingston, - Unbranded (DO NOT BE STUPID)
Graphics Card: +Nvidia, -ATI (The ATI was good but Nvidia cards have always seemed to handle games better for me)
Sound Card: Never had a good one (much to jeff's distaste)
Power Supply: Casecom or something. It does the job.
Case: Antec +++++
Heatsink: Arctic Cooling+
Case fans: Antec 120mm (quiet and brilliant)
CD/DVD Drive: +LG fairly accurate
Hard Drive: -Western Digital, +Seagate
Monitor: +Samsung (245B), -Hanns-G (total piece of shit no HDCP)

Sound -Creative

I got one of creatives new sound cards, Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio. First, it's not really X-Fi, they pretty much just put that on the box to sell more. But aside from that, it was a pain . I got BSoDs related to it all the time, even with updated drivers. And I had a hell of a time just trying to uninstall the freaking thing. And some of the junk programs it came with won't uninstall. So I finally uninstalled it and have been happy with my Realtek onboard audio.

Sound -Creative

I got one of creatives new sound cards, Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio.

I will definitely add this -, but just so you know, the Xtreme Audio is not representative of their products, really. It is widely considered to be a very bad card. If you would like to see how good creative is, I would highly recommend hitting up eBay for an Xtreme Music. I have had mine for over 4 years now and it is still best on the market except for the new Titaniums.

I got an Audigy 2 SE for free and it rocks. The quality is definitely a notch above integrated.

Also I didn't use the drivers it came with... people had recommended against that. Vista found the drivers and I used those... so no bloat.

Also I didn't use the drivers it came with... people had recommended against that. Vista found the drivers and I used those... so no bloat.

That is more or less fine with the Audigy series, but you HAVE to use Creative's stuff with the X-Fi cards or there is no point in using them. It gives you EQ, CMSSS-3D, SPDIF-I/O, Dolby Decoding options, THX speaker control, etc. Drivers are a very legitimate complaint against Creative, who is notorious for producing bad drivers. Their sound cards are still pretty much bricks when used on 64 bit systems.

Sound -Creative

I got one of creatives new sound cards, Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio. First, it's not really X-Fi, they pretty much just put that on the box to sell more. But aside from that, it was a pain . I got BSoDs related to it all the time, even with updated drivers. And I had a hell of a time just trying to uninstall the freaking thing. And some of the junk programs it came with won't uninstall. So I finally uninstalled it and have been happy with my Realtek onboard audio.

This just happened to me. I kept Bsoding on startup and it didn't stop until I booted without my sb card. I am in the process of installing my realtek audio drivers as we speak (it's been disabled since I got this mobo).

As for ATI.... I'm probably just unlucky, but I've had one come in doa and another fry within two months.

I don't hate ATi, I had one before I had an nVidia card, and have switched back and forth depending on what they currently offered. I've owned several generations of each, and can easily say I've had the most driver difficulty with ATi.