Clearly things have changed

[realtrance]

Ok so after just a coupla years, recently I decided to build two new computers. For the sake of familiarity and assuming that combinations I'd used before would have a higher chance of success another time around, I basically chose components from manufacturers -- ASUS, Antec, Maxtor, OCZ -- that I'd had great success with in the past.

Obviously I made a huge mistake. Even choosing the "next generation" in the line of components I'd chosen in the past -- the P5B for the P5AD2, the Antec TX1050B instead of the discontinued 1088AMG, the Antec NeoPower Trio 550watt instead of the older SmartPower 500watt, the Diamondmax 11 instead of Diamondmax10 -- in every single case, I feel this time around that this "next generation" of componentry includes corners cut, cheaper componentry, poorer quality control, and less reliable overall performance.

I had a wave of defective componentry the likes of which I'd never seen before! I built one system where everything eventually worked fine (save the Maxtor drives, I'm never touching anything from that company or their line at Seagate again, after going through no less than SIX Diamondmax drives from two independent sources, ALL of which came up locked-up defective!), but I had failures across the board with the other one.

So I have to ask, given the vast array of manufacturers out there now: if you were putting together a system where you didn't want to cut corners and were willing to pay extra for quality, reliability and good QC, who would you choose these days for Intel-based motherboard, power supply, case and hard drive manufacturers? Who comes up with consistently good results and seems to have the right kind of quality approach to their design and manufacture?

This seems to be a growing problem and not just with PCs; we're seeing a proliferation of crap manufacture in consumer goods in lots of different areas, and it's not just the "internet whine" effect, a dismissal I used to make myself.

Thoughts? Comments? Recommendations? Thanks! I know I'm steering clear of ASUS, Antec and Maxtor in the future in any event, too bad.

 

[lobbyone]

Building your own rig varies by person. Most builders have success with Asus boards, Antec PSUs and Maxtor drives. I have a 10GB Maxtor HDD running Win98 and its still running strong, albeit a little loud! lol.
Its also preference, while I think Antec PSUs are nice, I tend to lean more to ThermalTakes PSU and case, since i've had good experiences with their equipment. MSI/Abit/Gigabyte boards are my cup of tea, but i'm currently on an ASRock motherboard and its been solid since the day I put it together considering Asrock is for budget type builds. Try mixing around different brands, I sometimes choose brands that are not known but are highly reviewed or respected from other regions such as Europe.
Good luck on your next build! :beer:

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Research--that is all... And you will get nothing but opinions here.

For me, this is how I do things.

1) PSU: relatively simple, actually. Although it requires a lot of research. First, know what you are going to be powering. Get an idea of how much power you are going to need, via the various PSU calculator sites available. Then head over to jonny guru's site, and read his reviews about PSUs. Some are more quiet, if that is important to you, others are more stable. Others got bling. Etc, etc., etc.

2) Case: Purely a subjective and personal thing. Just like a kb and mouse. I don't like cases that other people like, so there is no such thing as a best case. And the perfect case for you right now might not work later on. Read the reviews in different forums, and see what they have to say about them--and always take each good and bad review with a grain of salt. Figure out what you have to have in a case (how many 5.25" bays, what material, is weight a consideration, how many internal bays, etc). Pick something, and be happy with it. If you get something that you aren't happy with, mod the hell out of it til you are happy, or get another one.

3) Mobo. Once again, research. Find out what you need in a mobo. Then just do a lot of searching and reading about the particular model that you find that takes care of your needs. Ask around on the forums (or just read really, as somone has likely asked the same question as you before, so searching can be useful here as well), but once again, take everything with a grain of salt.

4) Hard drives. Okay, here's my opinion on this. All hard drives have ones that crash, fail, and are DOA. Accept it, and backup your data. I have had RAID 5 arrays go south on me, due to PSU issues. So even redundancy can fail on you. Check out their warranty available, and check out their performance (Storage Reviews is a good palce to start with that), and see what works for you. Go to Storage Reviews for performance, and go to SPCR (google it, as I don't have the link here at work) if getting a quiet hd is what is important to you.

5) RAM. Seems like there is always one big thing that people are trying to figure out what to get. First it was PSUs, then video cards, then processors; now it seems to be RAM... If you are not into OCing, it's relatively easy. If you are into overclocking, then it gets much more of a PITA, and subjective as well. Everyone has their favorite brands, etc., etc., Just listen to what people have to say, and what memory configurations they have had success with...

Good luck.

 

[lobbyone]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
Research--that is all... And you will get nothing but opinions here.

:thumbsup: I should've said that instead!...dang beat my thinking to it!

 

[realtrance]

Thanks for the input, guys. For context, I've been building PCs since 486 days, even before Windoze. And I've had consistent luck with the mentioned companies, and parts, during this over-10-year-period. I certainly do research what I'm purchasing before buying, and I take a lot of customer input with a huge grain of salt, as well.

I think, however, I've just inadvertently discovered one of the fundamental reasons for my dissatisfaction this time around: I've just noted that the Antec NeoHE 550 power supply (their top of the line unit) has a Product Support "FAQ" question and response that indicates, guess what, a compatibility problem with ASUS motherboards. Who'd have known?! <g> They will apparently replace any unit where the issue cannot be resolved by a motherboard BIOS upgrade (which is my case).

Note that this FAQ was not up weeks ago when I first put together my systems.

I've long considered Abit an alternative to ASUS, but there was that period where their motherboards were failing all over the place due to their having sourced bad capacitor components (this was a pervasive problem a few years ago, no reason it might not happen again, or even be happening again!). They also tend to be a bit fussier than ASUS mobos for compatibility.

I remain firm in my belief that a good PS is the foundation for a reliable system, and a bad or incompatible (?! oh well) PS is the source of many mysteries, such as my sudden boot-up-won't-even-get-to-POST problem that started my ponderings here.

I also thought a 550w ps would be sufficient for a single, mid-high-end graphics card system without any extreme power requirements or significant OC goals (I'm a very conservative overclocker, if at all.... 20% performance improvements are not worth system instability or shortening of component life to me), but I think in the future I'll get even more ambitious with the ps, 600-700 watts to start with, more importantly, a careful analysis of amperage draw as well. One thing I noted with the NeoHE vs. the Smart Power Antec PSes is that the latter has slightly higher amperage on the +5v and +12v lines powering the mobo and CPU, which may be a factor in the whole equation. So, it's not just about wattage, for me anymore, at least.

Whatever happened to PC Power and Cooling? They used to be the king of reliable power supplies.

 

[realtrance]

BTW just in case it "goes away" for some reason, here's the wording of the FAQ at the Antec website for the NeoHE 550:

"Are there compatibility issues between ASUS motherboards and Neo HE power supplies?"

"We have received multiple reports of such issues, and ASUS and Antec technical teams have been able to confirm the existence of a random problem. If you believe you have encountered this incompatibility, please do the following:
1. Update your motherboard BIOS to the latest version. This step solves the incompatibility problem in a majority of cases.
2. If you have successfully updated your BIOS and still encounter the compatibility issue, please contact Antec Customer Support for a replacement power supply unit that has implemented a fix for the "ASUS motherboard problem." "