With the release of Intel’s fourth-generation Haswell CPUs, there are also a whole new line of motherboard chipsets available. Initially there are six different chipsets that are divided into two separate categories: consumer and business. In this article, we will examine the features of each of the new chipset to help you determine which is right for you.
Specs Explained: Video Card
With the advancement of computer technology, the number of specifications for video cards has become overwhelming for those not deeply involved in the computer industry. In this article, we will explain all of the different specifications we list for video cards and what they mean for you, the end user.
Updated Puget Traverse Laptops
The 15 and 17 inch laptops in our Traverse line received a slight upgrade from the manufacturer featuring better graphics and better battery life, but at the same time includes a small price increase. So while we want to evaluate these new models to ensure they are right for our customers, we also decided to take this opportunity to evaluate a laptop that removes the NVIDIA graphics completely and only uses the Intel graphics that is integrated into the CPU.
How to Check ECC RAM Functionality
ECC (error-correcting code) RAM is essential in servers and many workstations as it dramatically improves the reliability of the system’s memory. This is great, but we have learned that it is very difficult to verify that ECC is working correctly. In this article, we will go over three methods that we have found to at least semi-reliably show if ECC is working as it should.
Review: Fractal Design Define XL R2
Fractal Design’s Define XL R2 is an EATX chassis with a deceptively simple exterior that hides a wealth of features that will satisfy almost any user. This chassis has great cooling potential with seven different 140/120mm fan mounting locations (including one on the side panel), but also has several acoustic dampening features that make it a great choice for those looking for a quiet system.
Product Review: MSI FM2-A75IA-E53 Motherboard
AMD’s FM2 platform is a great choice when you want decent graphical performance but either do not have the space or do not want to spend the money on a discrete video card. Unfortunately, there are only two mini-ITX boards currently on the market: the ASRock FM2A75M-ITX and the MSI FM2-A75IA-E53. Today we will be looking at the MSI FM2-A75IA-E53 to determine if it is a board we would like to carry in our product line; specifically to update our Echo line of systems.
Review: NVIDIA Geforce GTX Titan 6GB
We normally do not publish reviews of video cards since review sites like Toms Hardware and Anandtech already do a great job reviewing these parts and any article we write would have very little to add. In the case of the NVIDIA Geforce GTX Titan, we were so impressed with its performance that we decided to go ahead and publish our own review for this card.
SATA 3Gb/s vs. 6Gb/s Cable Performance (Revisited)
Since the release of SATA 6GB/s, there has been some confusion regarding the necessity of using a specific SATA 6Gb/s cable for SATA 6Gb/s drives. We have addressed this in previous articles, but enough time has gone by that we wanted to take another look to see if anything has changed since we last examined the issue.
Adobe Photoshop CS6 Memory Optimization
We at Puget Systems have always held the belief that a computer’s hardware should be specifically tailored to match what the computer will be used for in order to maximize its effectiveness. Different programs make use of hardware in different ways, and knowing how the program behaves is important to determine what pieces of hardware need to be more powerful, and which are not as critical. In this article we want to determine if the speed and configuration of RAM affects the performance of Photoshop CS6 and if so by how much.
SSDs: Advertised vs. Actual Performance
Solid state discs are amazingly fast compared to their more traditional platter counterparts, but we keep hearing over and over on the web that people are getting lower performance than they expected based on the manufacturer’s advertised performance numbers. In this article, we will be looking at why this is and whether it is normal or or not.