It depends. Brand computers are generally well tested and are designed by engineers. I (as I have worked as a technician for a computer vendor) have seen many custom built systems, that were built by people that were not aware of the culprits. There were things like putting a CPU with 125W TDP on mainboards only compatible with 90W at maximum, choosing CPU-coolers that were to low dimensioned, and so on. If you know what you are doing, you can built systems that last long (if you also maintain them regularly). I doubt that the lifetime of a computer is depended on if it is brand or not. Maintain your system regularly and it will last long enough.

@ TobiSGD- true, the corporate systems are designed by engineers, but that doesnt make them anything special (pretty much everything in a modern computer is 'designed by engineers').

I would call the problems you have mentioned user error myself. Seen it happen, which is why if you dont know what you are doing as far as specing a system goes you should always ask in a forum or 3.

BTW, I ahve to mention that the 2nd last board I bought (MSI K9A2 CF) had a 125watt TDP max when it was released, later MSI decided that it was actually a 95watt TDP maximum. So there are times when you can think you are doing the right thing, but you arent.

You are probably right. You will sometimes get situations when brand does matter, but its almost impossible to know which system could/would/should last longer.

I think that there is always an element of luck in how long your system lasts. Even with good maintenance, proper power protection, etc..

There are no 'multimedia' video cards. The closest you would get to that is nVidia quadro or ATI/AMD 'fire' series cards. Quadros and Fire cards are made for things like maya, 3D studio max, etc., so they arent really multimedia cards. Both those cards types are based on the much cheaper normal desktop or gaming cards, and you are just paying for the drivers really.

100 or 150 in which currency? I wouldnt even go to $100 US for a desktop card unless you've got a lot of money to play with. Am nVidia GT220/240, GT430 or ATI/AMD 5450, 6450, 6570 or 6670 cards are cheap, fast, run cool and dont use much power.

The faster 'gaming' cards will just eat more power and create more heat.

There has to be good video card out there for multimedia and video editing

It cheap if you get $400 or $500 computer 4 RAM ,i5 or AMD triple core than $900 computer 8 GB RAM ,i7 or AMD 6 core CPU.

The editing of multimedia- and video-files is mainly done on the CPU, not on the GPU. There are efforts to change that, but I haven't seen anything really working and wide-spread now. If you are not a gamer you will be fine with the low-cost cards of NVidia or AMD.

When buying computer hardware, I consider cheap to be the best price/performance ratio, not an absolute price.

As far as I know, all the linux video editing progrmas (and at least most of the windows versions as well) dont use the GPU at all.

There might be some video editing programs that use CUDA or the ATI/AMD version of CUDA, but I dont know of any offhand.

If the program doesnt use the GPU, then it wont matter what video card you are using.

You should be able to get a $500 computer with a AMD X4 (no monitor of course). Depending on where you live.

+1.

Though I'm likely to drop price/performance by getting a nicer motherboard and power supply. Better to spend a bit more, or to get a bit less for your money than to have problems later. In my expereince, cheap motherboards and power supplies are the thing most likely to give you hardware issues.

Tell this to my new Core 2 Duo. I found this made-in-2007 trashed-in-2011 ThinkCenter desktop as case + mainboard with 5 exploded capacitors (with a "Intel inside Celeron" sticker, so no high TDP cpu there. The actual CPU wasn't there). Turned it into a flying fast box

+1. Dealt a lot with glitches / crashes and hardware turned to ash by bad power supplies, bad stuff

Exploded capacitors may be a sign of overheating or overclocking. Do you know if that computer was regularly cleaned inside? Many people forget that this is essential.

I think 5 years is about right for brand computers.Most do no make it past 4/5 year mark.

It could be from overclocking, but in a 2007 era ThinkCenter with a celery sticker, I'd doubt it.

More likely its just one of the many baords out there that got caught with dodgy caps. Less likely, but still possible is the PSU has blown and taken the caps with it, or it was a dodgy PSU with wandering voltages.

Tell this to my NAS (Dell optiplex GX150 Pentium 3 from 2001)

Its not brand name that matters. Its build quality, weak spots specific to the type, ambient temperature / humidity etc that matter

But is it known than that brand name do not use good build quality? Cheap power supply,fans and some times cheap system boards and hard-drives.

If one has to get brand is DELL and HP better than the other brands.

It is not regarding to the brand but to the price what quality a system is. If you buy a really cheap system you simply can't get the same quality as when spending more money.

I don't know about Dell, but I have no problems with my HP laptop. It is even a HP Compaq, that is somewhat like the cheap brand of HP.

They can do that, but not always.

Not in my experience.

Dell used to be real bastards, with proprietary/non standard ATX connectors, motherboard pinouts/trays, etc.. They arent doing that anymore as far as I know, but its a sign of the way that dell works.

If it was just a random choice, I'd take a HP over a dell.

True.

But its worth remembering that Dell, HP etc. all tend to have 'series' of products. Buying a more expensive product from the same series you will just be getting a faster CPU, and/or more RAM, and/or faster video card, and/or bigger HDDs. All the main parts (case, PSU and motherboard) will be the same between computers in the same series.

In my Optiplex NAS :

The ATX connector is standard. I allready upgraded the power supply with a standard one, no problem

The mainboard mounting tray is proprietary. Cannot fit another board, with or without the tray (without going modding)

The CPU cooling is proprietary but the fan in it is standard (took me some playing around to get the RPM signal working with the replacement fan, but it is working now with a standard fan)

The panel connector cables are proprietary but it'll take few minutes to replace a front USB port etc with standard one so no big issue

In my Inspiron notebook :

Upgraded memory without issue (standard SODIMM DDR2 slots)

The empty slot for WIFI upgrade looks standard too (allthough i didnt try to install a card in it)




It is often cheaper to buy the "basic" one and upgrade it yourself than to buy the higher spec one

AND you get to keep the parts you swapped out (or sell them)