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.
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.
When using a solid-state drive capacity is at a premium. The things that can be most affected by a SSD’s speed – the operating system itself, programs, and important files to be edited – need to have priority. There are a lot of other things that are located on the primary drive (C:) by default, though, so if you find yourself low on disk space here are some things to try!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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