i've purchased 3 computers this year. 2 acers and one home built. all three are athlon's with ati video. do you purchase by brand or by advancement in technology regardless of the manufacturer?

Purchasing solely by brand is ridiculous. It's certainly a factor (some brands are horrible, some aren't), but it can't be the only decision-making factor. You only screw yourself over in the end.

Ninja edit: Unless it's Apple :hurr:

I'll be going with Intel and nVidia on my next purchase. Mostly for better Linux support.

Value for money, I go for whichever gives me the best bang for my bucks. The brand is pretty much irrelevant.

an upper class hooker gets the best bucks for her bang.

youve been waiting a long time to post that havent you

I always go for value, though I will start my search for parts with brands that have worked well for me in the past because I'd rather pay a little more for a product I know will work than take a crapshoot and save $20.

Here is a list of my x86 computers over the last infinity years:

Intel 386 - Cirrus Logic VGA - ZyMOS chipset
Pentium 75 - Cirrus Logic SVGA - Intel chipset
Pentium 200 - Cirrus Logic SVGA - Intel chipset
Pentium 2 - ATI 3D Rage Pro II, 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics, 3Dfx Voodoo 2, ATI Rage Fury - Intel chipset
Athlon 700 - NVIDIA GeForce DDR - VIA chipset
Athlon XP 2000+ - NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti4600 - VIA chipset
Pentium 4 - Mobility Radeon 9800 - Intel chipset
Athlon XP 3200+ - ATI Radeon X800 Pro - NVIDIA chipset
Athlon 64 3700+ - ATI Radeon X1800 XL - VIA chipset
Core 2 Quad - GeForce 8800 GTX - Intel chipset


I have absolutely zero brand loyalty whatsoever.

I try to balance price with performance, which usually leaves me leaning towards AMD and Nvidia.

i just recently switched to amd mostly for price. ati used to be, and is still in markham, a huge canadian company. i'm not a huge gamer and nor is anyone in my family. amd for price and ati for patriotism (and they work just fine).

But... Intel is faster and cheaper...

^ Indeed.

It's all about value, This AMD was better then the intel in the price range and for less, Same with the video card.

God i love sales.

I generally buy for speed, but I do pay attention to brands because I need to make sure that what I'm buying works with Linux.

i should say i got both acers on sale.
i don't know, i have to claim a bit of ignorance here but my friend's core duo was quite a bit more expensive. it does have a higher clock speed but some of the mid intels were the same price as the higher amd's. (in may).

I don't have brand loyalty, but in the past I've mostly purchased AMD, ATi, Samsung and Sony, for processors/graphics/displays/gaming systems respectively.

However this year I've purchased intel/nvidia/acer/microsoft. I guess I deviated from my pattern ;p

so is nvidia.

amd's fastest-performing video card costs as much as a pre-overclocked 8800 Ultra and barely keeps pace with a 8800 GT

Brand loyalty's the definition of :downs: