What are the highest quality components for a desktop if you are looking to build a computer?

Answer 1

That's really a matter of personal opinion, and sometimes a good manufacturer may produce a duff product and a perhaps one with a bad track record might produce something unexpectedly brilliant.

Here are some brands known for high quality.

CPU/processor: i have had more success with Intel over AMD. personal opinion.

motherboard: i definitely choose an Intel chipset for stability over any other. I'm not sure about manufacturers so I'd stick to the well known ones like gigabyte, abit and asustek, but i don't think there's any clear winner. perhaps good advice is try to pick a model that many other people are using, as if there are any significant problems they will have been detected and discussed at length. however, someone somewhere will have a problem with any product, so don't worry too much about the odd complaint.

memory: corsair are probably the best. Kingston, ocz and crucial are generally good enough though. 'value' ram from these brands should be OK, but don't go for any memory that is unbranded or branded with the name of the store.

graphics card: for games I use NVidia chipset cards. BFG may be the best manufacturer as they are good quality and have good warranties. They cost a small premium. if you aren't playing games then it doesn't matter that much.

hard drives: seagate are good quality and have longer warranties than most other brands. western digital and maxtor drives are fine though. if you have important data, keep backups, as any drive can fail.

power supply: seasonic are high quality. antec have a good reputation.

cases: antec, coolermaster, lian li are all known good brands. although they are expensive they are leagues better than cheap unknown brands.

CPU cooler/fan: the stock Intel cooler is probably good enough, unless you want to push the hardware beyond its stated limits.

optical drives: i am not sure but there is not much risk here.