Puget Systems Obsidian Desktop Platform Puget Obsidian is built from a hand-selected line of the industry's highest performing, highest quality system components. Obsidian is loaded with a clean operating system, is designed with a unique "quiet" configuration, and is custom built to order by experts industry-renown for their ability to create intelligently designed, business critical computing platforms. While each Puget Systems Obsidian is built to order, Puget Systems has tapped its relationships with the industry's leading component manufacturers to design a system based around a core set of components validated for highest reliability. Based around core technology provided by Intel's processors, chipsets, and motherboards, the system also features a specially chosen lineup of a chassis, power supply, memory, hard drives, and cooling accessories, picked specifically for their low, field-tested failure rates. Obsidian Key Partners

Puget Obsidian Key Benefits  Highly stable, using products we personally measured to have dramatically lower failure rates. Quiet operation, with many passively cooled components, and an open airflow design. Advance system replacement: we keep replacement systems in stock, so if you have a major problem, we can have a new one shipped out quickly.

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Product Concept and Details

We at Puget Systems are excited to provide a product that meets our expectations for quality and reliability. As a custom system builder, we have extensive experience sourcing components, building systems, stress testing them, and supporting them. In this process, we gain many insights into which configurations we would personally buy. As a custom builder, we offer personalized consulting that allows us to share our insights, but it is infreqent that we are asked to design from the ground up the "best" computer we can conceive. For a business or home workstation in the $1000-$2500 range, the Puget Obsidian represents this design, due to the following criteria:

Reliability We know what configurations are prone to problems and which are not. As a technology provider, we pride ourselves in maintaining a quality product line -- anything that does not meet our expectations, we do not sell. However, with the products that remain, there is still a vast variation in relability. The Puget Obsidian represents the best of reliability across the board, based on our firsthand measurements and experience, as shown to the right. These failure rates are not official industry measurements -- they are simply Puget Systems' first-hand experience. Every statistic shown has a sample size of at least 200 units. However, there is a certain amount of uncertainty in our measurements, since we are a small company.

Micro-ATX Motherboard Failure Rates Asus P5Q-EM[Approved] 4.17% Asus P5K-VM 5.33% Asus P5B-VM 5.97% ASUS M2NPV-VM 13.99%   Memory Brand Failure Rates Kingston [Approved] 1.02% Corsair 6.79% OCZ 7.17%   Note: CPU and hard drive failure rates were uniform to within 1%, and did not stand to gain reliability benefits by using any specific product.

Power Supply Brand Failure Rates Corsair [Approved] 0.75% Enermax 2.59% Seasonic 5.30% Sparkle 6.11% Antec 8.08%   Video Card Failure Rates Onboard [Approved] 0.69% 7300GS 11.11% 8500GT [Approved] 2.66% 8600GT 5.15% 8800GTS 11.90% 9600GT [Approved] 1.39% 8800GTX 11.69% 8800 Ultra 13.56%

Quiet Cooling

Air cooling a quiet computer is a constant balance -- you want high airflow for good cooling, but high airflow often comes at the cost of noise. The Puget Obsidian tackles this problem by using a small chassis with an open channel of airflow. Two large 120mm fans provide a healthy flow of air from the front of the case out the back. This airflow passes directly over the video card and motherboard chipset, which are passively cooled (no small, loud fans!). The CPU cooler is set up to provide airflow in this same direction, as is the power supply -- all four fans in the system work together towards one airflow concept, for maximum efficiency. This means that we can run the fans at low RPM, cooling this system incredibly quietly!

High Performance

Don't let the cost and talk about efficiency fool you -- this system uses the latest generation technology for excellent performance. The Puget Obsidian has all the hot technology that makes it possible to build a system for $1500 that only a few months ago would have cost you $4000! This was not without challenge -- it is well known (and we can testify!) that bleeding edge technology comes with a cost against reliability. Puget Systems has carefully qualified and selected the hardware in the Obsidian to contain modern innovations, without exposing you to the risks of new hardware.

Locked Configuration

We understand that if you run a business, you want your computers to be as easy to manage as possible. One of the primary ways to do this is to make all your computers the same! This is quite difficult to do when technology changes so quickly. Puget Systems has taken advantage of Asus' CSM (corporate stable model) program, for long lifecycles. Puget Systems builds on this program, by making the same commitment of availability for the Puget Obsidian. We will keep this system available as long as possible with no changes major enough to create OS or disk imaging complications. We feel this kind of consistency from a quality system builder has been sorely lacking in our industry!

Advance System Replacements

No computer will be 100% reliable, so Puget Systems has set out to handle those situations with a very unique program. We will keep replacement Obsidian systems on hand, so if you encounter a problem that cannot easily be solved, we can ship out a replacement to you very quickly, possibly the same day! This is a program that we have not been able to implement as a custom computer provider, due to the large variation in the systems we build. However, with the locked configuration of the Puget Obsidian, this program becomes feasible, and we are excited with the new levels of convenience and satisfaction it will bring to our clients!

If you have any questions about the Puget Obsidian, we encourage you to contact us! We pride ourselves in being a highly personal company, and we are happy to build on this concept to meet your specific needs.