Spanning Multiple Monitors

Early this year, I decided to purchase and setup a trio of monitors for a triple monitor display. The setup itself was going to be used in a span configuration with a resolution of 5760 x 1080 on an ATI 5870 Eyefinity Edition video card with the goal of being able to see more while gaming. I thought I’d share my experiences, and what I learned may help you with your own monitor configuration.

Announcing Puget Labs

Last December, we got together at Puget Systems and talked about our industry, how we see computers evolving, and how Puget Systems can continue to grow as a leader in our industry. We mapped out an exciting long term plan, with some ambitious goals for 2011. I am happy to announce today one piece of that plan — Puget Labs. What is that all about?

PCI-Express Performance and the NVIDIA Warning

Puget Systems has been in the business of building computers for 11 years now, and we know what we are doing when it comes to assembling top-notch custom computers. It is a bit insulting, then, when a parts manufacturer puts out a warning which appears – on the surface – to indicate something we do is resulting in anything other than the highest performance possible. Yet here I am, to let you know about just such a notice that nVidia’s latest driver software is giving when using their graphics cards in certain configurations.

H67, P67, and Z68 – Which one is right for you?

Intel’s Sandy Bridge processor architecture is turning 6 months old in July, and has been a major seller in the PC market in these few short months. There was a slight hiccup a month after it was released, when it was found that there was a defect in the SATA controller of the chipsets designed to work with these processors, but that has long since been resolved and no further problems have arisen.

Custom vs. Closed Loop Liquid Cooling

As a custom computer manufacturer, we’ve sold liquid-cooled systems from well before I joined the company. A water-based coolant is able to transfer heat away from hot components like the processor (CPU) and video card (GPU) more quickly than air alone would. That added cooling is appealing for folks who want to push their systems beyond design specifications. Overclocking ability is perhaps the most the most tangible benefit of liquid-cooling, but there are other reasons some folks are interested in it: liquid-cooling can make a computer look very stylish, for example, or allow operation of more hot-running components than a chassis could normally keep cool.

Home Theater PC – John’s Approach

This is the third in a series of blog posts about Home Theater Computers (aka HTPCs), where several Puget employees get a chance to explain their approach to home theater computing. My approach is distinctly different than the previous entries, which can be found here: Richard’s, William’s.

Windows 7 64-bit: Running 32-bit Applications

Windows 7 has taken root in the PC community over the last year, a great improvement from the little-liked Windows Vista, and we’ve made the 64-bit version the de facto standard on the computers we sell – to the point where we no longer even list the 32-bit version on our website. We can special-order it still, though, and I find that I am often asked by customers if they would be better off with that because they need to run older programs. This makes me think there may be some misunderstandings about 64-bit Windows out there, so let me set the record straight.

Home Theater PC – Richard’s Approach

This is the second in a series of blog posts about Home Theater Computers (aka HTPCs), where several Puget employees get a chance to explain their approach to home theater computing. You can read William’s entry here.

If I had to sum up the goals of my home theater with a single word, it would be “Convenience”. I actually don’t spent that much time in my living room, but when I do, I really want to minimize hassle. I don’t mind a lot of work setting things up the first time, but I just don’t want to waste my precious R&R time juggling five remotes, three pointing devices, and a keyboard.