Staff Biographies

THEN: - before Puget -
I began my career with a local printing company, where I worked my way up from being temporary labor to being a full-time service representative. When the company needed a fleet of computers, I was selected as the project coordinator and computer systems manager. Those opportunities lead to the responsibility of their website creation and to managing their internal systems. The experience and confidence I gained from these responsibilities are what made Puget Custom Computers possible.

NOW: - here at Puget -
I started Puget Systems in 2000 in my parents' basement! I've enjoyed growing the business, repeatedly moving locations to accommodate our growth. I appreciate being able to run a company with integrity and old fashioned values, and I am fortunate to have great employees that share those values. Few of us here have a background in the computer industry, and the more I get involved in the industry, the more I see that this is a very good thing. There is so much hype and disregard for the end user in this field, so I appreciate that we can detach ourselves from that and bring a fresh approach to building computers.

MY FIRST COMPUTER:
I built my first computer myself while I was in high school, which was an interesting learning process. I used the cheapest parts I could find online. Should I admit that it caught on fire? I probably shouldn't say that. It definitely taught me that the cheapest hardware is often higher cost in the end, after you put out the fires and replace everything that breaks!

MY DREAM COMPUTER:
I appreciate speed, but more than anything I value reliability. To that end, I am a believer in simplicity. No RAID for me, no SLI, no liquid cooling. Give me a simple computer, with a modern platform and quiet cooling, and I am happy. It's a toss-up between our Obsidian and Genesis I, but I'd probably go with the Genesis I for speed (this is a DREAM computer, after all).

RECOMMENDED SOFTWARE/GAME(S):
I love lightweight programs that run fast. There are a number of these programs I install on any computer: Paint.NET, Open Office, Google Chrome, Notepad++ (for programming), 7Zip, CCleaner, and VLC.

LIFE: - outside Puget's walls -
I am an avid trumpet player, and enjoy nothing more than the opportunity to volunteer for any church orchestra or musical I can find. I enjoy spending time outside with my wife and kids, and taking the jeep up into the mountains. Drive as high as you can on a logging road, then get out and scramble the rest of the way to the top!

HOMETOWN:
Burien, WA

Jon Bach's Recent Comments: Jon Bach (President) Says: This is a great option for home or business. Without a dedicated video card, the system is simpler, lighter, longer battery life, and cooler running. As long as you aren't gaming, this is an efficient powerhouse laptop. Jon Bach (President) Says: This is an excellent way to add 16 more SAS/SATA ports to your system. The quality and speed is excellent. Jon Bach (President) Says: This is an impressive chassis, with impressive cooling potential. If you are building an EATX tower system, this is a strong choice. Jon Bach (President) Says: We have carried both Intel and Asus for our dual socket E5 Xeon boards, and have seen better results with Asus. We also have direct contact with Asus engineers, so if we do find a problem, we can solve it! Jon Bach (President) Says: This card is amazing. It has the same performance as our 8 port LSI 9271-8i card, but it costs less than the LSI 4 channel card. This is definitely the best bang for the buck, if you are using a compatible motherboard (such as the Asus K9PE-D16). Jon Bach (President) Says: This card is not very high performance, but could be a good solution if you're connecting a bunch of slower traditional hard drive. It is very similar in performance to the LSI 9211-4i, because it uses a very similar revision of LSI controller, so check out our review of the LSI 9211-4i for more information on performance. Jon Bach (President) Says: UV lighting is not as bright as other lights (blue, red, green). It is made to not be seen directly, but to make other UV-reactive items light up in your case. It doesn't show up very well in a lighted room, but looks really nice in a dark room. Jon Bach (President) Says: If you have two DVI monitors, you should use this card instead of the K2000. That way, you don't have to use any adapters, which makes your setup easier and less complicated (and therefore more reliable). Jon Bach (President) Says: This card, and its 8 port brother, are the fastest out there for RAID. If you are making a large RAID array of SSDs, you really should be using these cards. Jon Bach (President) Says: This is an impressive card! We can put them in our Serenity PCs and they'll run nearly silent at idle, and are still very quiet at load. It is amazing how much power this card packs into such a quiet package. For quiet high-end gaming PCs, this is no doubt the best pick.