Please just post what you currently have in your rigs and why you choose that brand.
CPU: Intel > Reliable rock steady service with a long (If properly maintained) life span. Built in thermal protection.
RAM: Hundia(SP?) or Samsung based ram cards. Reliable.
Motherboard: MSI and Intel. MSI for my P4 rig. Going on 5 years old and still kicking. Intel for my media rig, Phoenix. Both are solid performers.
Networking: Foxden has a 10/100 lan connection built in. Phoenix sports a 10/100/1000 LAN connection built in.
Video: In both rigs is an Nvidia based card. 8400gs in Phoenix, while in Foxden my P4, is a 6200. I have only had one nvidia based vid card fail on me and I think that was due to a PSU malfunction in another rig. I have used a couple of ATI cards but found the drivers and the user interface to be somewhat unstable and lacking in control features.
Sound: For me the best bang for the buck card ( low to mid range) is the C-Media based 5.1 surround sound card in my P4. In the Intel rig I use the onboard 8.1 surround sound system.
Hard drives: Samsung Spin Point series. Rock solid, long life span performers. I have four of those in my P4 rig. In my Intel rig I have a WD and a Seagate. The Seagate came out of the Dell I gutted to build Phoenix. The WD is the primary drive using the Seagate for non critical storage.
Optical drives: TSST That's the consortium name Samsung and Toshiba took to manufacture some products. The drive for Phoenix came out of the Dell system and is SATA. My P4 rig has a Samsung DVD combo drive.
PSU: In the P4 rig is an Antec He550. In the Intel rig is a Aerocool Zerodba 620W. Both are modular and have the amps to be able to add to the rigs as the need arises.
Case: For my P4 rig it's a down and dirty POS that I scarfed up in a hurry when I need to streamline DoubleWide Project for traveling. For my Intel I spared no expense. Antec P182SE. Mirror finish stainless steel. Amazingly enough though the case for the P4 only needed some minor tweaking to keep FoxDen cool running. For my Antec case I just replaced the fans with some super performing high cfm, low noise ones and been happy ever since.
Add ons: On Phoenix it was the disappointing AeroCool Power Watch. What a waste of good money. Also on Phoenix is the 15 in one card reader from the old Dell rig. It reads xD chips so I kept it.
On Foxden it's a no name temp monitor. Also on Foxden I have an PCI ATA-133 hard drive add on card. Allows me to add 4 more hard drives to the system with 0 fuss or muss. They make another version of the card that will handle optical drives as well as hard drives. Didn't see the need so I got the hard drive only card.
Speaker system: Foxden has fallen silent since she is used as a server now and there is no need for a sound system. For Phoenix I got her a Logitech G51 speaker system. Rocks the house! Makes the movies I watch really come to life.
Monitor: For Phoenix is the Toshiba 32" flat screen. Psst, It's also one hell of a tv. On Foxden it the Acer P201w. I gave Acer another go as the other one failing in the end was not their fault. It got the stuffing knocked out of it in the POD when I moved down here. Still intend to get the old one fixed one of these days. The Toshiba was bought to watch my movies on. But it gets used as the monitor as well. The Acer is a great bang for the buck monitor. Clear, crisp picture across many resolutions.
CPU: Intel > Reliable rock steady service with a long (If properly maintained) life span. Built in thermal protection.
RAM: Hundia(SP?) or Samsung based ram cards. Reliable.
Motherboard: MSI and Intel. MSI for my P4 rig. Going on 5 years old and still kicking. Intel for my media rig, Phoenix. Both are solid performers.
Networking: Foxden has a 10/100 lan connection built in. Phoenix sports a 10/100/1000 LAN connection built in.
Video: In both rigs is an Nvidia based card. 8400gs in Phoenix, while in Foxden my P4, is a 6200. I have only had one nvidia based vid card fail on me and I think that was due to a PSU malfunction in another rig. I have used a couple of ATI cards but found the drivers and the user interface to be somewhat unstable and lacking in control features.
Sound: For me the best bang for the buck card ( low to mid range) is the C-Media based 5.1 surround sound card in my P4. In the Intel rig I use the onboard 8.1 surround sound system.
Hard drives: Samsung Spin Point series. Rock solid, long life span performers. I have four of those in my P4 rig. In my Intel rig I have a WD and a Seagate. The Seagate came out of the Dell I gutted to build Phoenix. The WD is the primary drive using the Seagate for non critical storage.
Optical drives: TSST That's the consortium name Samsung and Toshiba took to manufacture some products. The drive for Phoenix came out of the Dell system and is SATA. My P4 rig has a Samsung DVD combo drive.
PSU: In the P4 rig is an Antec He550. In the Intel rig is a Aerocool Zerodba 620W. Both are modular and have the amps to be able to add to the rigs as the need arises.
Case: For my P4 rig it's a down and dirty POS that I scarfed up in a hurry when I need to streamline DoubleWide Project for traveling. For my Intel I spared no expense. Antec P182SE. Mirror finish stainless steel. Amazingly enough though the case for the P4 only needed some minor tweaking to keep FoxDen cool running. For my Antec case I just replaced the fans with some super performing high cfm, low noise ones and been happy ever since.
Add ons: On Phoenix it was the disappointing AeroCool Power Watch. What a waste of good money. Also on Phoenix is the 15 in one card reader from the old Dell rig. It reads xD chips so I kept it.
On Foxden it's a no name temp monitor. Also on Foxden I have an PCI ATA-133 hard drive add on card. Allows me to add 4 more hard drives to the system with 0 fuss or muss. They make another version of the card that will handle optical drives as well as hard drives. Didn't see the need so I got the hard drive only card.
Speaker system: Foxden has fallen silent since she is used as a server now and there is no need for a sound system. For Phoenix I got her a Logitech G51 speaker system. Rocks the house! Makes the movies I watch really come to life.
Monitor: For Phoenix is the Toshiba 32" flat screen. Psst, It's also one hell of a tv. On Foxden it the Acer P201w. I gave Acer another go as the other one failing in the end was not their fault. It got the stuffing knocked out of it in the POD when I moved down here. Still intend to get the old one fixed one of these days. The Toshiba was bought to watch my movies on. But it gets used as the monitor as well. The Acer is a great bang for the buck monitor. Clear, crisp picture across many resolutions.