Blog Posts

How to build a stable computer

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Choosing the right hardware to go into your next computer can be challenging! It isn’t enough to simply make sure that all your parts are compatible: a few bad choices can mean the difference between having a machine you can rely on for years to come, and having a machine you’re perpetually troubleshooting and fixing…and wishing you could smash to pieces! If you buy a computer off the shelf, you have to go with what you’re given. If you build your own computer, or have one custom built, you have the power to build a great solid machine, but you also have the power to configure a machine that is prone to problems. With experience building thousands of machines, and being in direct control of our product line, I want to share some tips about how to make sure your next computer is rock solid.

Corsair Power Supplies Revisited

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A few months ago, I wrote about why Puget Systems had decided to move towards Corsair power supplies (see post). I promised that I would write an update after some time had passed, with an update. I am happy to say that the power supplies have been everything we thought they would be!

We now have just under 400 computers out in the field being powered by Corsair power supplies. How many failures have we seen? One! We had one unit that would not power on, and that’s it. While I’m not sure we have a big enough sample for a definitive statement, that’s a 0.25% failure rate. That is ten times more reliable than any other power supply we’ve used! Of course, we’ll continue to closely watch them as time goes on.

A Look at Popular NAS Units

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Network Attached Storage (NAS) has been on my mind quite a bit in the last year. With the birth of my son last May, my wife and I are going crazy with our digital camera, and what used to be a nice and spacious hard drive is no longer adequate. What’s worse, we’ve found that video is a much better way to capture all the little things we want to remember, which probably increases our storage needs by a factor of 100!

On the business side, we’re encountering the same thing. As our company grows, the 200GB network share we all use for shared storage has become both too small, and dangerously difficult to back up. As we expand our website with more and more multimedia content, the need for “scratch space” has grown exponentially.

Both at home and at the office, we need more space, and we need a good level of protection from data loss. A NAS is a natural choice.

Sound Cards: Creative Labs, and Alternatives

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The last few days have seen a lot of negative press surrounding the largest sound card manufacturer on the block, Creative Labs. Here’s a little background on what’s happened:

Creative Labs has had a near-monopoly on the sound card market for a long time. Barring onboard sound controllers (like those integrated into almost all Nvidia and Intel based chipsets), Creative cards make up an overwhelming majority of audio cards currently in use. Creative has not done a very good job of getting Windows Vista sound drivers working which offer the same amount of features that their XP drivers have had. A lot of people have been really frustrated by this, since their expensive audio cards weren’t working or were giving reduced functionality.

My Perspective on Personal Computers

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My name is Daniel Brown, I am a PC technician. I’m writing this article because I feel like, based on my experience, I may have some wisdom to impart regarding PCs. I’ve been working with PCs for most of the last 13 years. Even when not employed in the computer industry, I’ve consistently dedicated a significant portion of my own time to staying up to date with PC hardware trends and learning more about personal computers. During my time in the IT industry, I’ve encountered more than my share of problems and done countless hours of troubleshooting. In my current role as ‘Lead Support Technician’ here at Puget, I add to those hours of troubleshooting daily, dealing with modern PC systems.

Drooling Over New Technology

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I don’t drool often, but I have to say — this is an exciting time to be in the technology field. We work closely with both Intel and nVidia, and they both have new products out that are changing the way I look at high performance computers.

Customer Service that Serves Customers

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My job title at Puget is ‘Director of Inventory’, which is a fancy way of saying that I’m responsible for keeping track of any parts that aren’t currently inside a computer. Among other duties, I have the delightful job of arranging Return Merchandise Authorizations (RMAs) with our suppliers – just as our customers come to us for warranty support, we can go to our suppliers or the manufacturer to get defective parts replaced. It’s rewarding to see a stream of broken parts go out the door and come back in a couple weeks as shiny, functional equipment, but trying to get warranty support can also be one of the greatest hassles known to man.

A little clarification about TV tuners

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So during our Puget tech support/production meeting yesterday it was decided to stop carrying TV tuners for a while. The idea is that we need to step back and see what hardware is out there, what our customers are expecting, and if the two are compatible – and more importantly supportable. Since I’m sort of the resident HTPC expert here I wanted to put a little more info out there on exactly what a Vista-based home theater system is and is not capable of (as far as tuning in TV goes, anyways).

Why Corsair power supplies?

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You may have noticed Corsair power supplies popping up in our product line. I wanted to take a minute to tell you about why we’re doing this, and why I’m excited about it!

When I was at CES a few months ago, I was not shopping for a new power supply vendor. We have been using Seasonic for years, and have been very happy with their units. And yet there are times when we find a company speaking our language. Hype doesn’t get our attention. Show us the product! We want to see real, measurable quality. At CES, in their suite at the Wynn hotel, Corsair spoke our language. We weren’t looking to replace Seasonic, but Corsair was too good a fit to not get our attention.

Puget Systems Blog!

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Everyone and their mother has a blog today, and we have been cautious about whether it is really a good addition to our company. I’m happy to report that we have enthusiastically decided it is! This blog will be a place where all Puget Systems staff can post their thoughts and stories, in a venue that we don’t really have otherwise. It will be more formal than our forum posts, but not so complex as hardware articles. We’ve often commented to ourselves that we have good information that the public needs to know! Sometimes writing a full hardware article requires a level of research, data gathering, and formatting that is too daunting to make it worth while for more of your everyday thoughts. This will give us that happy medium! There are quite a few people here enthusiastic about getting started, and I look forward to seeing this in action.