Complete Systems and Builds

Complete Systems

Asus Eee Box
Asus All-in-One
Zotac ZBOX

Custom Builds

Start with the CPU; that determines motherboard and RAM. Decide on other components from there.

Floppy Drive

All-in-one media readers are a nice use of the 3.5" drive bay

Motherboard

Asus is my go-to brand

Gigabyte is my backup brand

Biostar is my value brand

CPU

AMD is my choice for custom builds

PSU

Antec is my go-to brand

Cooler Master and Thermaltake are close seconds

Sparkle is a backup brand if I cannot find anything else suitable

HD

Western Digital is my go-to brand

Seagate and Hitachi are my backups

Case

Antec is my choice for consumer builds

Chenbro is my choice for server (rack-mounted) builds

RAM

I used to buy Kensington exclusively

Recently, I have been buying Crucial also

GPU

Plan your motherboard purchase appropriately if you are planning on adding a discrete GPU later

I rarely buy anything but nVidia cards

Look for SLI-capable motherboards

Fans and Heat Sink

A retail CPU will come with a heat sink and fan, but it will be a bit loud

Cooler Master is usually the brand that I buy

Look for processor socket compatibility, then look at decibels (26dB or lower will be pretty much inaudible)

Buy additional case fans only if needed; most cases come with more than enough

Display

Typically, I only buy Dell or Acer monitors

Input Devices (KB, Mouse)

Microsoft used to be my exclusive brand, but Windows 7 requires IntelliPoint and IntelliTouch now.

I have switched to Logitech

Wires

If you are installing more than one hard drive or are installing an optical drive, buy extra SATA cables

Do not purchase cables retail; get them with your other parts or order them from Cable Wholesale or Monoprice

Optical Drive

LG has treated me well for Bluray drives, as have Sony and Asus for DVD drives

NIC/WLAN/BT

D-Link is my preferred brand for most networking cards

Intel is my preferred brand for server builds

Trendnet tends to be pretty solid for the value-conscious

Printer

HP or Brother for consumers

OS

Be sure to include a valid license when building systems for others

Complete Systems and Builds