It seems like there are a ton of gaming brands out there now in terms of accessories, and that the numbers just keep going up. It's not just new brands emerging, but also that now every brand seems to try to make every kind of accessory. For example, NVIDIA makes motherboards and audio parts along with their renowned graphics hardware. I'll admit that when it comes to hardware brands I play favorites a lot. However, I will only like brands for what they are known for. Here's a list of brands I prefer and what I prefer them for:

• For graphics cards I pick NVIDIA hands down every time, but I would never get one of their sound cards. I'll admit that part of why they're better than ATI is they just look cooler. But it's mostly that NVIDIA seems to always be the ones on the cutting edge and the best value (as I mentioned in a previous post).

• For audio it would have to be Sound Blaster, especially their X-Fi line of products. I have never even found any other brand that has anything good to offer in terms of sound cards. Many games have some sort of "ultra" audio setting available only if you have one of their cards installed. Sund Blaster cards make a significant difference in quality, and can occasionally improve performance.

• For RAM I pick Corsair, and I like their flash drives too. Again like NVIDIA, I'll admit they just have a cool logo. But more importantly Corsair memory always delivers some of the fastest response times, which make a big difference in gaming.

• For hard drives I love Western Digital, whether I want speed or size. This brand is undeniably the best in its area. Raptor hard drives are the fastest available on the market, period. Their drives are reliable along with their performance, and always come with a great set of software tools of installation and maintenance.

• For general accessories my favorite is Razer. They make amazing keyboards and mice. Their Tarantula keyboard is my favorite keyboard for gaming that I have ever used. I love Razer not only for their quality, but their style. Everything they make looks really nice with lights and cool colors.

As I said, there are countless brands for gaming hardware nowadays, and far more for hardware in general. These are just the brands I especially like. Ideally I would always buy these brands, but they can be expensive, very expensive. But whenever I want to improve my performance these brands are always the ones I go to.