The market for building your own PCs isn’t huge, but for those who do so, it can be life-changing. Crafting a computing rig out of discrete parts is educational and empowering, not to mention a great way to create a device with enough juice to operate high-end AAA games.
Many PCMag readers have embraced this approach to computing. In our most recent desktop PCs survey, 23.2% of respondents rated desktops they built themselves; only one vendor (Dell) has more users in our audience than our DIY readers. We also asked about the internal components readers buy for upgrades or PC builds, and we’re sharing the results here.
PCMag has never surveyed readers about most of the product categories below, with the exception of graphics cards and their chip platforms. (Readers have rated those since 2022.) Meanwhile, if you’re interested in monitors, keyboards, and mice, check out our new PC peripheral brands survey results.
The Top Graphics Brands for 2025
Whether you’re a hard-core PC gamer or just like high-end graphics, choosing a graphics card (aka a GPU)—and the chip platform that powers it—is all-important. GPUs power PC games and make things on a screen look their absolute best. But they can also be the most significant single part of your PC budget, and GPU prices appear likely to rise with the new import tariffs.
AMD, Intel, and Nvidia make the chips that power all GPUs, regardless of what outfit makes the card. According to PCMag readers, MSI is the current graphics card brand with the best cost (based on pre-tariff survey opinions). It also happens to have the best rating for overall satisfaction, reliability, and graphics performance. Those scores are more than enough to place MSI on top for best GPU brand for the second year in a row.
(Note: Click the arrows in our interactive charts to view various elements of our survey results.)
“MSI outdid themselves with the GPU…amazing performance and graphics,” one reader says. PCMag senior analyst Michael Sexton, who tests dozens of GPUs per year, offers this analysis: “With the graphics card market running hot and graphics cards frequently selling out of stock, it’s difficult for any graphics card maker to pull ahead. MSI has been one of the premier graphics card vendors for years now, and its ability to stay competitive in a rapidly shifting market is impressive.”
But it was something of a tight race. MSI shares the same ratings for likelihood to recommend and ease of use with both Asus and Nvidia’s own branded cards. And MSI is a little behind AMD’s GPUs in terms of setup. In other words, MSI should by no means rest on its laurels.
As noted, today’s GPU chips come from one of three silicon makers: AMD, Intel, or Nvidia. Intel scores highest for cost, setup, ease of use, and reliability. These are all critical factors, but they are not our top criteria for picking a Readers’ Choice winner—the contest mainly comes down to overall satisfaction and recommendation ratings. That’s why market leader Nvidia takes the prize for a third consecutive year.
“AMD and Intel are putting up a good fight, but Nvidia is consistently ahead of the curve,” says Sexton, who has written at length about Nvidia’s rivalry with AMD. “New graphics features often make their debut on Nvidia hardware, with AMD and Intel quickly following suit with similar new features of their own. But being first gives Nvidia an edge.”
To see which graphics cards currently lead in our lab testing, read The Best Graphics Cards and The Best Graphics Cards for 4K Gaming.
The Top Storage Drive Brands for 2025
All computers require storage—a drive—for the OS to boot from, as well as for critical files and media. In the old days, that was only available via hard disk drives with spinning platters; today, faster solid-state drives (SSDs) with no moving parts dominate. Now, they’re frequently used in tandem. When people build their own systems, they can use them in any combination.
There’s a relatively even breakdown of the top vendors in our survey, with two hard drive makers and three SSD manufacturers. (WD has made both but is leaving the SSD side of the business.) When we lump them all together, the results reveal just how much more people appreciate SSDs.
The two leading SSD companies, Crucial and Samsung, are at the top of this chart. But Crucial is the overall award winner, thanks mostly to slightly better scores for capacity and likelihood to recommend.
When we restrict the data to just SSDs, the results are almost identical. Crucial ties Samsung on many factors—overall satisfaction, setup, ease of use, and performance—but Crucial still has the edge. Meanwhile, as WD’s SSD business transitions to the SanDisk brand, enough WD SSDs are in long-term use that people will be rating them on our surveys for a time to come.
Crucial earns kudos from readers for pricing, reliability, and easy upgrades. “What a great improvement over HD-based storage!” says one Crucial SSD user. “My OS and applications are on the SSD, while the data resides on a hard drive, making for an economical build.”
“Crucial, a Micron brand, consistently makes high-quality SSDs that are great performers, and its products currently hold the top spot as best overall drive in both our Best Internal SSDs and Best External SSDs perennial stories,” says PCMag senior analyst Tony Hoffman. “Their offerings range from budget to bleeding-edge models.”
Hard drives may not garner as much love as SSDs from our readers, but overall satisfaction scores with the former aren’t bad. WD’s SSDs and hard drives both have very similar scores for satisfaction. Enough so that on the hard drive-only side, WD easily tops Seagate as the Readers’ Choice winner.
Get Our Best Stories!
Your Daily Dose of Our Top Tech News
By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
In fact, WD outscores Seagate on every single measure. If you need the higher capacity and better pricing a hard drive affords, go with WD.
Wondering which SSD currently leads in our lab testing? Read The Best Internal SSDs.
The Top CPU Brands for 2025
When it comes to central processing units—at least for the upgrade or DIY PC market—the race comes down to Intel versus AMD. And our first Readers’ Choice survey about processors puts Intel on notice: AMD cleans up with high scores in almost every category, taking the overall prize.
Satisfied AMD users weigh in with raves. “Excellent performance, low cost,” one says, while another offers, “Every machine I’ve built in the past 20 years has used an AMD CPU. I don’t expect that to change.”
Sexton and Executive Editor John Burek have tested dozens of AMD and Intel chips over the years for PCMag. “Processor development is an incredibly complex process, and we often see AMD and Intel test out bold new designs that may or may not work out,” Sexton says. “AMD’s been on a bit of a roll here in recent years. Its adoption of chiplet CPU designs has been beneficial in several ways, and more recently, its maturing 3D V-Cache technology has given AMD a major advantage when it comes to gaming performance.”
Burek offers his own analysis: “On the desktop CPU market, Intel’s had its troubles in recent years—its most recent ‘Arrow Lake’ chips have been widely tested and seen as slight underperformers for PC gamers, who tend to gobble up the latest high-end CPUs.” He adds, “Plus, some of its 13th and 14th Gen Core desktop processors saw rough times in 2024, with the need for motherboard makers to push urgent microcode fixes for them. Overvolting issues were leading to some early chip failures, which put those chips under a dark cloud for a lot of buyers, and rightly so.”
Recommended by Our Editors
Our articles on The Best CPUs and The Best CPUs for Gaming will help you choose the right processor.
The Top Motherboard Brands for 2025
Motherboards are the literal backbone of a PC—a spine you can replace yourself. Our readers had a clear brand preference for these sometimes difficult-to-work-with pieces of hardware. The inaugural Readers’ Choice award for motherboards goes to Asus, which racks up especially exceptional ratings for reliability and performance.
The only spots where Asus isn’t on top are for cost and setup (those go to ASRock) and tech support (MSI wins there).
Sexton, also our resident motherboard expert, has personally handed Asus some high scores in the past. “You often pay a bit of a premium for Asus motherboards,” he says, “but their build quality and reliability are exceptional.”
To see which motherboard would best suit your needs, read The Best Motherboards.
The Top PC Case Brands for 2025
The ultimate way to show off your DIY build is to have a standout case. While all five of the case makers in our list have overall satisfaction marks within tenths of a point of each other, the top rating goes to Fractal Design, which offers some true whiz-bang looks.
But Fractal Design isn’t cheap, so most of the other players score better for cost. Corsair is the top-scoring brand for setup and ease of use, and ties Fractal Design for likelihood to recommend.
“Fractal Design’s Scandinavian-design PC cases are hard to mistake for anyone else’s,” says Burek, who edits our reviews of PC cases. “Everyone knows it for its North cases, which incorporate wood highlights and started something of a mini-trend. But it’s also all about using premium and unusual materials—Fractal has a fabric-coated model now, too. And its build-accessory packaging and instructions are a step above what you get with most PC case brands.”
We should note that the nascent trade war is already a significant factor for PC case makers. At least one case brand has halted all US shipments due to tariffs. So, if you require a PC case and the price seems right, don’t hesitate to order it while it’s still relatively affordable.
Look at the top case designs available now in our roundup of The Best PC Cases.
The PCMag Readers’ Choice survey for PC components was in the field from Jan. 20, 2025 to April 14, 2025. For more information on how we conduct surveys, read the survey methodology.
PCMag Readers’ Choice: How Our Surveys Help You Find the Best Products
About Eric Griffith
Senior Editor, Features
