William is one of our most knowledgeable sales consultants.  He works with customer requests full time every day, and his opinion of hardware is usually shaped by his thorough understanding of customer needs and requests.

Z68, Z77, and H77 – What’s the difference?

Posted on April 12, 2012 by William George

Intel LogoIntel is nearing the release of their third-generation Core Processor platform, and in preparation they have launched several new motherboard chipsets this week.  For desktops, there are four variants: Z77, Z75, H77, and B75 – with a couple more coming later in the year.

All of these share the same core functionality, and for our customers here at Puget Systems the more value-oriented Z75 and B75 options aren’t really worthwhile. However, I think a brief overview of the differences between Z77 and H77, with a comparison to the preceding Z68 chipset, merits a look.  In fact, lets start with Z68.

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Brett works full time in our customer service department, working with our customers.   He works with customer requests full time every day, and his opinion of hardware is usually shaped by his thorough understanding of customer needs and requests.

My Favorite Products: Dropbox

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Brett Nordquist

Over the next few months I plan to share with you specific products and services that help me be more productive. I prefer simple, elegant solutions to complex products bogged down by every feature imaginable.

It wasn’t long ago that the task of moving files from one computer to another required a CD burner, flash drive, or emailing them to yourself. If you were savvy, maybe you shared files over a network. Today that scenario is made more complicated with the proliferation of smart phones and tablets that often do not share the same file structure or network protocols.

I have a PC at home and another at work along with a smartphone and tablet. There are times when I want to access a spreadsheet from my tablet that I created on my work PC. Or maybe I have pictures on my home PC that I’d like to show a friend from my smartphone.

Dropbox is the product that makes it happen.

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Jon is the president of the company.  He is frequently exposed to opinions of the managers from all departments, so his comments on parts frequently come from the perspective of overall worth to the company.

We’re in a Post-PC Era, and Everything is Fine

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Jon Bach

I had the opportunity to take a day with Brett Nordquist yesterday, and attend the Geekwire Summit in downtown Seattle. The sessions ended up repeatedly circling back to the overwhelming proliferation of mobile devices. Todd Bishop said something I entirely agree with. “Of course we’re in a post-PC era! Why are we arguing about it?” he said. “But that doesn’t mean the PC is dead.” Exactly! Clearly the technology world is changing. But what does that mean for PCs?

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William is one of our most knowledgeable sales consultants.  He works with customer requests full time every day, and his opinion of hardware is usually shaped by his thorough understanding of customer needs and requests.

What does it really mean to have a silent PC?

Posted on March 5, 2012 by William George

What does it really mean to have a ‘silent PC’?  Many companies these days advertise quiet computers, and some even bill theirs to be silent, but few vendors ever define what they actually mean by those terms.

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Brett works full time in our customer service department, working with our customers.   He works with customer requests full time every day, and his opinion of hardware is usually shaped by his thorough understanding of customer needs and requests.

One Customer At A Time

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Brett Nordquist

Last summer I took my car to the local self-service car wash and was surprised when a man approached me as I toweled off my car. Dressed in cowboy boots and accompanying hat, he introduced himself as the new owner of the car wash.

He explained that the previous owner had provided very little in regards to whom his customers were, so he decided to spend his days meeting them face to face.

After we chatted for a few minutes, he extended his arm to shake my hand and thanked me for visiting his business. This is not something I’m accustomed to. If the vacuums aren’t clogged and there’s plenty of foaming soap on the brushes, I’m generally satisfied.

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William is one of our most knowledgeable sales consultants.  He works with customer requests full time every day, and his opinion of hardware is usually shaped by his thorough understanding of customer needs and requests.

Gaming Computers: Its All About Balance

Posted on February 24, 2012 by William George

We sell all sorts of computers here at Puget Systems, and one of the more popular requests is for a gaming computer.  In fact, we have designed one of our main brands around gaming – the Puget Deluge is an excellent system to consider for a gaming rig.  Some gamers come to us already knowing what specs they want, but others are seeking more detailed guidance on what processor, video card, and other components to go with.  The exact advice we give depends on the situation: the sorts of games they are interested in, the screen resolution they plan to run, their budget, and other preferences.  However, a lot of that advice can be distilled down into the following basic principles.

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Jon is the president of the company.  He is frequently exposed to opinions of the managers from all departments, so his comments on parts frequently come from the perspective of overall worth to the company.

A New Age of Advertising

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Jon Bach

Over the last few days, I’ve been taking some time to update the documentation of the Puget Systems marketing and advertising strategy. I’m finding that what I am really doing is documenting the culture of the company, because the way we approach advertising is a good window on the way we run our business. We are sometimes asked “Why haven’t I seen advertisements of your company?” That is a great question. What the inquirer is really trying to determine is whether Puget Systems is a legitimate, successful business. Most of the most successful PC manufacturers canvas heavily with advertisements, from magazine ads to website banners. Isn’t Puget Systems successful as well? If Puget Systems is successful, where are our advertisements? In answering these questions, we have a great opportunity to talk about something that makes Puget Systems special.

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Posted in Hardware Analysis | 5 Comments
William is one of our most knowledgeable sales consultants.  He works with customer requests full time every day, and his opinion of hardware is usually shaped by his thorough understanding of customer needs and requests.

Overclocking Done Right

Posted on January 25, 2012 by William George

Intel Core i7
One of the services we offer here at Puget Systems, aimed at high-end gamers and enthusiasts, is overclocking.  It is a practice that has been around for quite some time which involves pushing the processor in a computer beyond its rated clock speed.  This can provide an additional performance boost without the need to spend more money on a faster processor, though there are some trade-offs involved: additional heat and stress above and beyond what the CPU may have been designed to handle.

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Posted in Business Practices, Gaming / Entertainment, Technology Commentary | 1 Comment
William is one of our most knowledgeable sales consultants.  He works with customer requests full time every day, and his opinion of hardware is usually shaped by his thorough understanding of customer needs and requests.

Gaming Performance with Dual Monitors

Posted on December 26, 2011 by William George

Many of the computers we sell here at Puget Systems will be used for playing games, and we also get a lot of folks wanting to run two (or more) monitors.  Sometimes those goals intersect, and in those situations I have had people ask if they needed to get a second video card so that using additional monitors will not impact their performance for gaming.  I myself use two monitors here at work, which has been a great improvement in usability, but I don’t play games in the office.  Because of that I’ve had to fall back on anecdotal evidence when this topic comes up, and make educated guesses depending on individual scenarios. Rather than continue in that approach, though, I wanted to get hard numbers to support my advice. 

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Posted in Gaming / Entertainment, Hardware Analysis | Tagged , , | 3 Comments
Brett works full time in our customer service department, working with our customers.   He works with customer requests full time every day, and his opinion of hardware is usually shaped by his thorough understanding of customer needs and requests.

Clarifying “Made in the USA”

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Brett Nordquist

It is not uncommon for our sales staff to field requests from people searching for a computer that is made in the USA. We suspect this uptick in interest originates from those looking to support American workers, especially in times of economic uncertainty. We also believe that many American shoppers are demanding a higher level of after-the-sale support that an US based company is often better positioned to deliver.

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