Typical PC enthusiasts may spend more on their PCs than you might think—and by the looks of it, their taste for high-end hardware isn’t just limited to core components.

Those are two of the main takeaways from the TR Hardware Survey 2014, in which we invited readers to answer 26 questions about their PCs. Around 4,000 of you participated over a period of about a week and a half, and the results paint an enlightening picture of current trends in the hobbyist PC realm.

The results also gives us a sense of brand preferences for processors, graphics cards, and motherboards. The GPU results are particularly interesting, because they show us the AMD vs. Nvidia split for each generation, indicating which of the two vendors has been gaining ground (and which one has been losing it).

We’ve split our findings into three sections, each with the actual poll results at the bottom. Then, at the end, we’ve used our data to reconstruct the average enthusiast PC. The vote counts aren’t exactly the same for each poll, so there are some very minor discrepancies here and there. Overall, though, the trends are pretty clear and unambiguous.

So, without further ado, let’s get into the results!

TR readers don’t skimp

One would of course expect the audience of a PC enthusiast site to go for speedy hardware, but we were surprised by the extent of that trend. For starters, roughly 80% of all respondents said they have 8GB or more memory in their PCs—and 41% have 16GB or more. Considering today’s memory prices, that’s pretty impressive.

And it’s just the tip of the iceberg. 89% of respondents said their processor has four or more cores, and of those who said they have Intel CPUs, 49% sprung for a Core i7 or Core i7 Extreme. Around 74% of respondents have aftermarket coolers strapped to their CPUs, as well. Just over 67% said they spent $200 or more on their graphics card, with 36% having shelled out $300 or more. (Those figures apply to individual card purchases, by the way, not to multi-GPU setups.)

Overclocking is also pretty widespread: 46% said they overclock their CPU, graphics card, or both.

On the storage front, 81% of respondents have an SSD in their computer, and 57% have more than 128GB of solid-state storage, meaning drives with capacities of 180GB, 240GB, 256GB, and above. Drives like those are enough for Windows and a sizeable selection of games and apps.

Even peripheral choices reflect expensive tastes. 39% of respondents said they have a mechanical keyboard, be it based on Cherry MX switches or otherwise. 39% have multiple monitors hooked to their PC, and 51% said their largest display has an IPS panel. That leaves only 33% with lower-quality TN displays. Our poll questions didn’t cover refresh rates, but I’d wager more than a few of those TN panel users skipped IPS in order to enjoy 120Hz and 144Hz refresh rates.

System memory capacity Less than 1GB (4 votes) 0% 0%

1-1.99 GB (20 votes) 0% 0%

2-3.99 GB (117 votes) 3% 3%

4-7.99 GB (673 votes) 17% 17%

8-15.99 GB (1550 votes) 39% 39%

16GB or more (1655 votes) 41% 41% Number of processor cores 1 (13 votes) 0% 0%

2 (397 votes) 10% 10%

3 (44 votes) 1% 1%

4 (2965 votes) 74% 74%

6 (284 votes) 7% 7%

8 (311 votes) 8% 8%

More than 8 (18 votes) 0% 0% If you have an Intel Core processor, is it a Core i7 Extreme (106 votes) 3% 3%

Core i7 (1448 votes) 39% 39%

Core i5 (1282 votes) 34% 34%

Core i3 (96 votes) 3% 3%

Other/don’t know (263 votes) 7% 7%

I don’t have an Intel Core processor (566 votes) 15% 15% Type of CPU cooler Stock (1007 votes) 26% 26%

Aftermarket heatsink and fan (2060 votes) 53% 53%

Aftermarket closed-loop liquid (674 votes) 17% 17%

Other aftermarket liquid (147 votes) 4% 4%

Other/don’t know (29 votes) 1% 1% Price of each (or only) graphics card at time of purchase Less than $100 (173 votes) 4% 4%

$100-$149 (345 votes) 9% 9%

$150-$199 (540 votes) 14% 14%

$200-$249 (662 votes) 17% 17%

$250-$299 (541 votes) 14% 14%

$300-$399 (642 votes) 16% 16%

$400-$499 (354 votes) 9% 9%

$500-$599 (242 votes) 6% 6%

More than $600 (214 votes) 5% 5%

Nothing (I use integrated graphics) (202 votes) 5% 5% What’s overclocked? Processor (835 votes) 21% 21%

Graphics card (236 votes) 6% 6%

Both (790 votes) 20% 20%

Neither (2155 votes) 54% 54% Solid-state drive capacity Less than 64 GB (109 votes) 3% 3%

65-128 GB (868 votes) 22% 22%

129-256 GB (1324 votes) 33% 33%

257-512 GB (629 votes) 16% 16%

More than 512 GB (328 votes) 8% 8%

I don’t have an SSD (751 votes) 19% 19% Type of keyboard Cherry MX mechanical (1002 votes) 26% 26%

Other mechanical (460 votes) 12% 12%

Rubber dome (1157 votes) 31% 31%

Scissor switch (265 votes) 7% 7%

Other/don’t know (909 votes) 24% 24% Number of displays 1 (2393 votes) 61% 61%

2 (1179 votes) 30% 30%

3 (309 votes) 8% 8%

4 (34 votes) 1% 1%

5 (4 votes) 0% 0%

6 (4 votes) 0% 0%

More than 6 (4 votes) 0% 0% Panel type of largest display IPS (1966 votes) 51% 51%

TN (1263 votes) 33% 33%

VA (148 votes) 4% 4%

Other/don’t know (482 votes) 12% 12%

Brand preferences

Apparently, most TR readers favor Intel processors. The GPU selection is split more evenly between vendors, though.

Only around 18% of respondents said they have AMD processors—and a large chunk of those folks have older AMD chips. The number of users with recent AMD FX- and A-series chips is just under 8%. To put that number in perspective, 5% of respondents said they’re already using one of Intel’s new Haswell-E (a.k.a. Core i7-5000 series) processors, which came out about a month ago.

What about graphics cards? Overall, 48% of respondents use Nvidia graphics cards, and 46% use Radeons. (The remainder use integrated graphics.) The split isn’t so even for the latest generation: 15% have GeForce 700-series cards, but only 11% have a Radeon from the new R series. It looks like AMD lost some ground recently, because the previous generation looks very evenly split, with a difference of only a few votes.

We also asked about motherboard vendors. Asus is top dog there with 46% of the vote, followed by Gigabyte with 24%, ASRock with 11%, and MSI with 9%. The rankings track with recent market share figures I’ve seen, although Asus’ advantage looks much more dramatic here. We often recommend Asus motherboards in our System Guides on account of their excellent fan controls, so that might have something to do with it.

Processor series Intel Core ix-5xxx (220 votes) 5% 5%

Intel Core ix-4xxx (801 votes) 20% 20%

Intel Core ix-3xxx (751 votes) 18% 18%

Intel Core ix-2xxx (667 votes) 16% 16%

Intel Core ix-xxx (430 votes) 11% 11%

Intel Core 2 (351 votes) 9% 9%

Intel Pentium (59 votes) 1% 1%

Intel Celeron (9 votes) 0% 0%

Intel Atom (2 votes) 0% 0%

Other Intel (88 votes) 2% 2%

AMD FX-series (244 votes) 6% 6%

AMD A-series (68 votes) 2% 2%

AMD E-series (2 votes) 0% 0%

AMD Phenom II (305 votes) 7% 7%

AMD Phenom (11 votes) 0% 0%

AMD Athlon 64 X2 (47 votes) 1% 1%

AMD Athlon 64 (12 votes) 0% 0%

AMD Sempron (1 votes) 0% 0%

Other AMD (27 votes) 1% 1% Graphics card(s) AMD Radeon Rx 200 series (451 votes) 11% 11%

AMD Radeon HD 8000 series (18 votes) 0% 0%

AMD Radeon HD 7000 series (705 votes) 17% 17%

AMD Radeon HD 6000 series (339 votes) 8% 8%

AMD Radeon HD 5000 series (220 votes) 5% 5%

AMD Radeon HD 4000 series (103 votes) 3% 3%

AMD Radeon HD 3000 series (12 votes) 0% 0%

AMD Radeon HD 2000 series (6 votes) 0% 0%

Nvidia GeForce 700 series (629 votes) 15% 15%

Nvidia GeForce 600 series (702 votes) 17% 17%

Nvidia GeForce 500 series (263 votes) 6% 6%

Nvidia GeForce 400 series (137 votes) 3% 3%

Nvidia GeForce 300 series (3 votes) 0% 0%

Nvidia GeForce 200 series (67 votes) 2% 2%

Nvidia GeForce 9 series (35 votes) 1% 1%

Nvidia GeForce 8 series (44 votes) 1% 1%

Nvidia GeForce 7 series (57 votes) 1% 1%

Integrated (234 votes) 6% 6%

Other/don’t know (42 votes) 1% 1% Motherboard manufacturer ASRock (453 votes) 11% 11%

Asus (1857 votes) 46% 46%

Biostar (34 votes) 1% 1%

ECS (11 votes) 0% 0%

EVGA (47 votes) 1% 1%

Gigabyte (956 votes) 24% 24%

Intel (76 votes) 2% 2%

MSI (341 votes) 9% 9%

Other/don’t know (226 votes) 6% 6%

Paradoxes

There were a few surprises in our results—and some figures that went against the expected trends.

For instance, 75% of respondents said they have no expansion cards other than a graphics card or sound card. 70% of respondents also said they don’t have a sound card. That tells us most of our readers use up only one expansion slot on their motherboard—yet 75% of respondents said they have full-sized ATX or larger systems, with only 21% reporting microATX or Mini-ITX PCs. I keep saying that ATX is overkill for the average enthusiast PC, and these results appear to confirm that assessment.

54% of respondents said they have a DVD drive in their PC. I get the 29% who use Blu-ray, since that format opens the door to high-quality HD movies and large backups. But DVD seems awfully out of date in the age of Netflix, USB thumb drives, and cloud backups.

Perhaps slow Internet upstream speeds play a part in the DVD format’s survival. While 77% of respondents said their Internet connections can download at over 10Mbps, only 22% said the same for their upstreams—and 59% said they’re stuck with 5Mbps or slower uploads. I’d say this result reflects ISP offerings. Aside from Verizon FiOS, most services offer fast download speeds but comparatively anemic uploads.

Last, but not least, a word on displays and graphics. While 37% of respondents said they spent more than $300 on their GPU at the time of purchase, only 20% said their largest monitor has a resolution above 1920×1200. I’d have expected that last number to be higher, considering how well high-end cards run games at 2560×1440 or 2560×1600—and how affordable monitors with those resolutions have become.

Also, our readers’ expensive tastes clearly don’t extend to multi-GPU setups. Less than 10% of respondents said they use two graphics cards or more. Most are apparently happier to splurge on a faster single GPU, which is what we also typically recommend.

Do you have any expansion cards beside a graphics card and sound card? Yes (955 votes) 25% 25%

No (2918 votes) 75% 75% Do you have a sound card? Yes (Asus) (649 votes) 16% 16%

Yes (Creative) (443 votes) 11% 11%

Yes (Other) (115 votes) 3% 3%

No (I use an external USB DAC) (305 votes) 8% 8%

No (I use motherboard audio) (2449 votes) 62% 62% System form factor Mini-ITX (216 votes) 6% 6%

microATX (615 votes) 16% 16%

ATX (2816 votes) 72% 72%

E-ATX (133 votes) 3% 3%

Other/don’t know (122 votes) 3% 3% Do you have an optical drive? Yes (DVD) (2140 votes) 54% 54%

Yes (Blu-ray) (1159 votes) 29% 29%

No (682 votes) 17% 17% Internet connection speed (down) 10 Mbps or less (865 votes) 23% 23%

11-25 Mbps (1095 votes) 29% 29%

26-50 Mbps (936 votes) 24% 24%

51-100 Mbps (631 votes) 16% 16%

More than 100 Mbps (304 votes) 8% 8% Internet connection speed (up) Less than 2 Mbps (1183 votes) 31% 31%

2-5 Mbps (1078 votes) 28% 28%

6-10 Mbps (716 votes) 19% 19%

11-25 Mbps (435 votes) 11% 11%

26-50 Mbps (204 votes) 5% 5%

More than 50 Mbps (213 votes) 6% 6% Resolution of largest display 1366 x 768 (57 votes) 1% 1%

1440 x 900 (61 votes) 2% 2%

1600 x 900 (26 votes) 1% 1%

1680 x 1050 (266 votes) 7% 7%

1920 x 1080 (1689 votes) 43% 43%

1920 x 1200 (908 votes) 23% 23%

2560 x 1440 (517 votes) 13% 13%

2560 x 1600 (232 votes) 6% 6%

3840 x 2160 (4K) (42 votes) 1% 1%

Other/don’t know (146 votes) 4% 4% Number of graphics cards 1 (3534 votes) 90% 90%

2 (356 votes) 9% 9%

3 (17 votes) 0% 0%

4 (11 votes) 0% 0%