Replacement Parts - Brand or Generic? New/Used/Refurb?

[brockalee]

I was just curious what kind of brands you guys use for power supplies, cases, memory, etc... When I buy for myself, I normally do a ton of research and buy only the highest rated components. When I'm spending other people's money, it's more difficult. Do you give your clients the choice of brand/generic?

When it's left up to me, I usually fight with the question - do I sell them the 600W Coolmax or the 450W Cooler Master? Knowing that any hardware component is susceptible to failure, paying more doesn't mean no problems... But usually it gives me peace of mind knowing that if there is a problem a day later and have to go on-site that it wasn't because I skimped on a part.

So what do you guys do? Try luck with the off brands, does it depend on the quality and age of the system you're working on? Sell used parts? How do you feel about refurbished products? What percent do you normally markup each category?

 

[SmR13]

Well the first thing i do is get an idea of what the customer is looking to spend then i go from there.

 

[itmgr]

We stick with what has worked well for us

We stick with what has worked well for us over the years.
ATX Power Supplies = sparkle
Hard Drives = seagate or WD
Motherboards = Intel
CPU = Intel

Find a good supplier that stands behind their parts.

 

[vdub12]

I stick with brands that I know and trust. I normaly don't even give the customer the option of going cheaper.

some of the stuff I use.

Hard drives = WD
memory = Kingston, Crucial, Mushkin, Corsair, OCZ, and PNY.
Power Supplies = enermax, coolmaster, Rosewill, Antec, and APEX (They are generic but they have been good to me)
Motherboards = ASUS only
Processors = AMD, Intel (There are many AMD hatters out there but they make great processors no mater what people tell you)
Cases = doesn't matter PS more important
Video cards = MSI, EVGA, XFX, ASUS, BFG, and PNY (Video cards are most important to me. I have had more problems with cheap video cards then any other piece of hardware)

 

[iisjman07]

If it's something like a power supply which are fairly generic (other than in Dells ), we sell them a brand new one that we have in the shop. If it's something like a laptop motherboard/screen replacement in where costs can escalate quickly, we say to the customer 'we can get you a brand new motherboard for £xxx or we can order a second hand one for £xx', and they usually go for the second hand one...

 

[0ldfart]

I dont use any generic parts. Like others, above, I only use name-brands I know and trust. The reason is (1) I dont want people having bad experiences from the parts I install, and (2) I dont want to spend unnecessary time doing warranty followups on crappy components that have broken or dont work properly.

I dont deal in 2nd hand parts unless I have something I have aquired and need to unload. IMO its not worth it for the reliability aspect given how cheap new parts are these days.

With power supplies, I give customers the option; "do you want a corsair vx series with a 5 year warranty and 80plus certification or do you want a cheaper psu with a lesser warranty and lower power efficiency?" People usually pick the better psu but for those on a tight budget the option is there for a cheaper one.

I usually tend to push a bit on the 80plus side of things, regardless of brand, just because the build quality is generally higher. I particularly like Corsair and Seasonic PSUs

I use AMD and Intel. Depends on what the purpose of the build is and what the customers budget is. I do like the performance of the H55 chipset, currently, particularly for low-end builds. The H55/g6950 clarkdale is a neat budget combo IMO.

Mobo's - I prefer ASUS and Gigabyte

HDD's - Samsung Spinpoint F3's in performance builds, and WD/Seagate green in everything else

Tuner cards - I only use higher end cards and dont even give customers the option of cheaper ones as there are quality and reliability issues I dont want to have to follow up on when they dont work properly.

Cases - I have a few models I really like, but I always give customers the option, with discussion about pros and cons (particularly in regard to size and upgradeability). I like Antec cases with earthwatts psu's because they are a good price/quality combo. I avoid cheap, crappy cases and psu's like the plague.

Keyboard and mice - either logitech or microsoft

Fans - noctua or nexus preferably. Coolermaster at a pinch.

GPU's - ATI or nVidia. I prefer Gigabyte and ASUS

ODD's - Sony Optiarc

SATA cables - I only use the clipped type. I have had too many of the vanilla variety fall off, which is a PITA and not worth the small difference in cost for the follow up time involved.

RAM - I prefer Kingston, but will use whatever is available. I ALWAYS test RAM with memtest x86 before I sell it, as there doesnt seem to be any parity or ECC gear around these days.

Thats my 5c worth

 

[brockalee]

Thanks for the replies, and great post Oldfart. (I feel like I just insulted ya there...)

The PSU's seem to have the largest range of brand vs. generic. I actually thought that Sparkle was a generic brand - were they at one point and just got better? I know that some generic brands make a reliable name for themselves. CompUSA's "Ultra" seems to have an OK reputation, and I've been pretty happy with some Rosewill products lately.

So how do you guys feel about refurb products? I try to give a 30 day warranty on used parts and refurb.

 

[Alan22]

If it's something like a power supply which are fairly generic (other than in Dells ),...

I'm sorry iisjman07, but this post makes it seem like every Dell computer uses a proprietary psu, which is not the case for many years. I've replaced dozens of PSU's in Dimension, Inpiron, Precision and Vostro's using off the shelf equipment.

I've seen systems from HP, Compaq, Sony, etc. that need proprietary parts as well, so this is something not specific to Dell.

Getting back to the original post, it depends on ta number of factors like system age, how much the repair will cost, if the client has the means to purchase top quality parts and if it's worth throwing money into an old system. I will use refurb equipment (except for refurb hard drives) as well as properly working system pulls. The client is always informed and it is noted on my invoice.

Here's a perfect example: I have a HP system in my office right now circa 2004 with a Celeron processor & 256MB RAM. It needs a replacement hard drive (squealing, bad sectors, data corruption, seek errors) and could definitely use more ram as well as malware cleanup, OS updates and general maintenance. The client does not have the funds to replace the computer, so I kept the repair/upgrade cost as low as possible by using working pulls from systems I have laying around that I use for parts. Backed up data then imaged the hard drive to a working pull (it worked w/o original hard drive dying, whew ). I also have many sticks of 512MB PC2700 and used two in the system (can upgrade to 1GB max.).

 

[Eddie]

I tend to stick to branded parts when possible.