This motherboard is very nearly the ideal micro ATX motherboard for Intel 1155 CPUs; the chipset is well established to be a great performer with excellent reliability and all of the features present on this board have been well tested on other models. The main issue with this motherboard is the lack of an internal USB 3.0 header, although at the moment that is only a concern for a limited number of chassis.
Product Qualification: Asus Rampage IV Gene
The Asus Rampage IV Gene motherboard is a micro-ATX motherboard based on the Intel X79 chipset. Sandy Bridge-E has proven to be a powerhouse, but until not has been limited to full size computer systems. With this motherboard, Puget Systems will be able to offer smaller, micro-ATX computers with all the power of Sandy Bridge-E.
Product Qualification: Asus P8H61-I
Our Echo line of systems has always strived to balance size, cost and performance. The Asus P8H61-I has just the right balance of features and cost and comes in the small mini-ITX form factor. There are a few features missing on this motherboard (SATA 6Gb/s notably), but overall this is a great motherboard at a great price point.
Dual Boot vs Virtual Machines on the Desktop
We often talk to people who are interested in running multiple operating systems on the same machine. Sometimes that’s Windows 7 + XP, sometimes it’s Windows 7 + Ubuntu Linux, or various other combinations.
One of the most common ways to achieve multiple usable operating systems on a single computer is known as ‘dual boot’. Desktop virtualization is a newer way of running multiple operating systems on one desktop system.
Card Reader Comparison: USB 2.0 vs USB 3.0
Anyone who has used a digital camera or smart phone has probably seen flash memory cards – small, removable devices on which a variety of data can be stored. Card readers in computers allow easy access to read those memory cards, or write new data to them, but the process can be slow for folks like photographers, who often work with multiple cards each full of image files. Can the move to a faster interface for card readers, like USB 3.0, improve performance substantially?

Product Qualification: Antec P280 Chassis
IN this article, we will be reviewing the Antec P280 which is a great chassis for a wide range of system configurations, but really shines in keeping high-end configurations both cool and quiet. Lower power configurations may run quieter in other chassis such as the Antec P183 V3, but since Antec is advertising this chassis as a high-performance option this is not much of a surprise. This chassis is close to ideal, but for a few small issues that will keep us from carrying this chassis.
Product Qualification: Intel S1200BTS Motherboard
The Intel S1200BTS (based on the C202 chipset) is a micro ATX server motherboard designed for small to medium-sized business applications. Puget Systems is already offering another micro ATX server motherboard – the Asus P8B-M based on the C204 chipset – but Intel motherboards are often better choices for a server platform than other brands. In this article we will be examining the Intel S1200BTS to determine if there is enough of a reason to replace the Asus P8B-M.
Product Qualification: Asus P9X79 Deluxe Motherboard
With the launch of Sandy Bridge-E and its corresponding Socket 2011, a new line of motherboards has been developed based on the new Intel X79 chipset. What this means for Puget Systems is that we have to look at all the available options to determine which motherboards we want to offer for our customers. We’ve looked at several different motherboards over the weeks leading up to the launch of Sandy Bridge-E and the P9X79 Deluxe jumped out at us as having just the right mix of features and connectivity.
Technology Primer: AMD Opteron 6200 CPUs (Interlagos)
AMD has launched their new Opteron 6200 series of processors (codenamed Interlagos) based on the recent Bulldozer architecture. Featuring an increase in cache size, up to 16 cores per CPU, a new 32nm manufacturing process and Turbo Core support — Interlagos should have many performance advantages over its predecessor.
Product Qualification: Intel DRX-B Liquid Cooling Solution
Along with the standard air cooler, Intel has decided to partner with Asetek to launch a closed-loop liquid cooler – the RTS2011LC – for their new 2011 socket. With the rise in popularity of these closed-loop liquid cooling solutions, the real question is how this liquid cooler fares in relation to similar products already on the market.




