diff --git a/Endpoints/HardwareEndpoints.cs b/Endpoints/HardwareEndpoints.cs
index 585a818..b0c4c19 100644
--- a/Endpoints/HardwareEndpoints.cs
+++ b/Endpoints/HardwareEndpoints.cs
@@ -262,38 +262,60 @@ public static void MapHardwareEndpoints(this WebApplication app)
         });
     }
 
-    private static string? GetString(JsonElement root, params string[] propertyNames)
+    private static bool TryFindProperty(JsonElement root, string[] propertyNames, out JsonElement element)
     {
+        if (root.ValueKind != JsonValueKind.Object)
+        {
+            element = default;
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        // Fast path: O(1) exact lookup by property name
+        foreach (var name in propertyNames)
+        {
+            if (root.TryGetProperty(name, out element))
+            {
+                return true;
+            }
+        }
+
+        // Fallback: Case-insensitive match if property names differ in casing
         foreach (var prop in root.EnumerateObject())
         {
             foreach (var name in propertyNames)
             {
                 if (string.Equals(prop.Name, name, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
                 {
-                    return prop.Value.ValueKind == JsonValueKind.String ? prop.Value.GetString() : prop.Value.ToString();
+                    element = prop.Value;
+                    return true;
                 }
             }
         }
+
+        element = default;
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    private static string? GetString(JsonElement root, params string[] propertyNames)
+    {
+        if (TryFindProperty(root, propertyNames, out var prop))
+        {
+            return prop.ValueKind == JsonValueKind.String ? prop.GetString() : prop.ToString();
+        }
         return null;
     }
 
     private static long? GetLong(JsonElement root, params string[] propertyNames)
     {
-        foreach (var prop in root.EnumerateObject())
+        if (TryFindProperty(root, propertyNames, out var prop))
         {
-            foreach (var name in propertyNames)
+            if (prop.ValueKind == JsonValueKind.Number && prop.TryGetInt64(out var val))
             {
-                if (string.Equals(prop.Name, name, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
-                {
-                    if (prop.Value.ValueKind == JsonValueKind.Number && prop.Value.TryGetInt64(out var val))
-                    {
-                        return val;
-                    }
-                    if (long.TryParse(prop.Value.ToString(), out var parsed))
-                    {
-                        return parsed;
-                    }
-                }
+                return val;
+            }
+            if (long.TryParse(prop.ToString(), out var parsed))
+            {
+                return parsed;
             }
         }
         return null;
@@ -301,21 +323,15 @@ public static void MapHardwareEndpoints(this WebApplication app)
 
     private static int? GetInt(JsonElement root, params string[] propertyNames)
     {
-        foreach (var prop in root.EnumerateObject())
+        if (TryFindProperty(root, propertyNames, out var prop))
         {
-            foreach (var name in propertyNames)
+            if (prop.ValueKind == JsonValueKind.Number && prop.TryGetInt32(out var val))
             {
-                if (string.Equals(prop.Name, name, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
-                {
-                    if (prop.Value.ValueKind == JsonValueKind.Number && prop.Value.TryGetInt32(out var val))
-                    {
-                        return val;
-                    }
-                    if (int.TryParse(prop.Value.ToString(), out var parsed))
-                    {
-                        return parsed;
-                    }
-                }
+                return val;
+            }
+            if (int.TryParse(prop.ToString(), out var parsed))
+            {
+                return parsed;
             }
         }
         return null;
@@ -323,21 +339,15 @@ public static void MapHardwareEndpoints(this WebApplication app)
 
     private static double? GetDouble(JsonElement root, params string[] propertyNames)
     {
-        foreach (var prop in root.EnumerateObject())
+        if (TryFindProperty(root, propertyNames, out var prop))
         {
-            foreach (var name in propertyNames)
+            if (prop.ValueKind == JsonValueKind.Number && prop.TryGetDouble(out var val))
             {
-                if (string.Equals(prop.Name, name, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
-                {
-                    if (prop.Value.ValueKind == JsonValueKind.Number && prop.Value.TryGetDouble(out var val))
-                    {
-                        return val;
-                    }
-                    if (double.TryParse(prop.Value.ToString(), System.Globalization.NumberStyles.Float, System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, out var parsed))
-                    {
-                        return parsed;
-                    }
-                }
+                return val;
+            }
+            if (double.TryParse(prop.ToString(), System.Globalization.NumberStyles.Float, System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, out var parsed))
+            {
+                return parsed;
             }
         }
         return null;
diff --git a/LocalLLMServerManager.Tests/HardwareEndpointsTests.cs b/LocalLLMServerManager.Tests/HardwareEndpointsTests.cs
index e784e14..b198bb6 100644
--- a/LocalLLMServerManager.Tests/HardwareEndpointsTests.cs
+++ b/LocalLLMServerManager.Tests/HardwareEndpointsTests.cs
@@ -259,4 +259,30 @@ public async Task PostHardwareEvaluate_InvalidContentType_Returns400BadRequest()
         var response = await _client.PostAsync("/api/hardware/evaluate", content);
         Assert.Equal(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, response.StatusCode);
     }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task PostHardwareEvaluate_MixedCasingAndAlternativeNames_Returns200AndLlmFitResult()
+    {
+        var rawJson = """
+        {
+            "MODALITY": "llm",
+            "model_name": "DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-14B",
+            "parameters": 14.0,
+            "quant": "Q4_K_M",
+            "context_length": 8192,
+            "available_vram_mb": 16384,
+            "available_ram_mb": 65536,
+            "total_layers": 48
+        }
+        """;
+
+        var content = new StringContent(rawJson, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
+        var response = await _client.PostAsync("/api/hardware/evaluate", content);
+        Assert.Equal(HttpStatusCode.OK, response.StatusCode);
+
+        var result = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<LlmFitResult>(JsonOptions);
+        Assert.NotNull(result);
+        Assert.Equal(48, result.TotalLayers);
+    }
 }
+