Quality Control

Phase 1 Build / Assembly

Preparation

• Review Work Order, Build Notes, and Internal Status

  We review the order and notes to ensure that any special build requests are performed.

• Check Parts and Serial Numbers

  Before starting assembly on your system, we verify that we have all the correct parts and everything is accounted for.

• INTERNAL: Remove Plastic Film from Motherboard

Motherboard Assembly

• INTERNAL: Ensure all M.2 Standoffs and Screws are Installed

• Assemble Core Components

  We assemble the core parts of your system outside the chassis. This includes the motherboard, CPU, CPU cooler, and system memory.

• Glue CPU Fan to Heatsink

  We use a small amount of hot glue to help secure the CPU fan to the heatsink to ensure security during shipping.

Chassis Assembly

• Verify Condition of Chassis and Panels

  We inspect your system chassis for any structural or cosmetic defects before beginning to mount components.

• Mount Drives

  We securely install your configured system drive or drives.

• Apply Order Number Sticker

  We apply a small sticker with the order number to the back of your system.

• Mount I/O Shield

  We install the I/O shield that comes with your motherboard.

• Mount Motherboard

  We install the motherboard in your system and ensure it is fastened securely and ports line up correctly.

• Check Rear Ports and I/O Shield Alignment

  Before proceeding we check the alignment of the motherboard and I/O shield to verify that all ports are free of obstruction and easily accessible.

• INTERNAL: Bundle Items in Motherboard Box

Phase 2 Build / Assembly

Preparation

• Review Work Order, Build Notes, and Internal Status

  We review the order and notes to ensure that any special build requests are performed.

• INTERNAL: Remove Plastic Film from Components

Wiring

• Wire Front Panel Connections

  We connect any switches and ports integrated into your system's chassis to the appropriate connectors on the motherboard or add-in cards.

• INTERNAL: Install System Speaker

• Wire Power Supply Connections

  We run the cabling from your power supply to make all necessary power connections to the motherboard, drives, add-in cards, fans, etc. securely and neatly.

• INTERNAL: Number Data Cables

• Wire Data Connections

  We connect the data cables for your drives securely and neatly.

• Install Cards

  We install any video cards or other add-in controller cards in your system.

• Secure Any Unsecured Cables

  We use hot glue on any delicate connections to help keep them from becoming disconnected during shipping.

• Mount Power Supply

  We mount the power supply securely in your system's chassis.

Finishing

• Check for POST of fully completed system

  With assembly fully completed, we make sure that the system still turns on and boots correctly.

• Update System BIOS to Approved Version

  We update your motherboard's BIOS to the most recent stable release provided by the manufacturer and approved by Puget Systems.

• Load BIOS Profile

  We load a profile with the standard configuration settings for your motherboard and configuration.

• Verify All Devices are Detected and Connected to Appropriate Ports

  We verify that all configured devices are connected to the appropriate ports on your motherboard and are detected in the BIOS.

• Save BIOS Profile

Phase 1 Testing

• Verify all fans are spinning at desired RPM

  We check that all system fans spin up and operate with the intended settings. For fans connected to a chassis controller, we check that they operate correctly on all settings of the controller.

• Test Reset Button (If Applicable)

  We check that your chassis' reset button (if it has one) is connected and functional.

• Verify front LED functionality

  We check that any appropriate chassis indicator lights, such as power or disk activity LEDs, are connected and functioning as expected.

• Begin memory testing

  We run an initial test on your CPU and RAM to check for errors that could lead to instability or a corrupted OS install.

• Complete memory testing

  We review the initial CPU and RAM test results to confirm that everything is working as expected.

Install / Setup

Primary OS

• Review order

  We check for any special instructions there may be for your order to ensure that the system is configured exactly how you want it.

• Install base operating system

  Your primary drive is installed with a base level install of the operating system, which is later customized to your order.

• Install / update device drivers

  All the most recent drivers (downloaded from the manufacturer) are loaded for your devices.

• Load Install Program

  Puget Systems uses an internally developed utility for deploying updates, software packages and customized benchmark suites.

• Install Samsung Magician

  We install Samsung Magician in order to properly monitor and manage your SSD/NVMe drives as well as flash to the most current firmware.

• Apply Puget OS Branding

  Give the system a nice Puget Systems feel. We change the background and lock screen as well as add our contact information to the computer properties which can be viewed by pressing the Windows key + pause break buttons.

• Install approved Windows updates

  All Windows updates and service packs are applied.

Testing

• Initialize and format additional disks

  We initialize all additional internal drives as GPT and format them as NTFS. We then assign them a drive letter based on how they appear on the order (i.e. secondary drive = D, tertiary drive = E, etc.). If Linux is on the order, these drives will be reformatted when the final OS is installed.

• Confirm latest SSD firmware

  We open the manufacturers management software for your drive(s) and confirm it has the latest firmware. If needed we will flash them to the latest firmware.

• Confirm wireless and bluetooth functionality

  We check signal strength with in house devices to confirm the controller is working as expected.

• Test DVD-RW burning & playback

  If you have a DVDRW drive, we burn a short movie to a DVD to test the drive. This DVD is next used to verify DVD movie playback.

• Confirm correct Discrete GPU bandwidth

  We double check to make sure that the systems video card(s) are running at the expected bandwidth in relation to motherboard specifications.

• Test front panel USB ports

  All front USB ports are tested to confirm connectivity and speed.

• Test front panel audio

  We confirm that the front panel audio jacks (sound and microphone) are working as expected. The rear audio ports will be inspected during the QC phase.

• Test standby mode

  We put your system into standby and back several times to verify normal behavior.

• INTERNAL: Unplug USB flash drives if needed

  This is just a quick check to make sure we didn't leave any USB keys or similar devices plugged in so they don't accidentally appear in our disk benchmarks.

Phase 2 Testing

• Double check system specs

  Your system specs are double checked for any mistakes, using an automated utility we have built that not only checks for the right parts, but that they are configured correctly.

• Stress Test

  We run a combination of Prime95 and Furmark to stress your system far beyond typical loads.

• CrystalDiskMark

  We run CrystalDiskMark to benchmark the read/write speeds of all your hard drives.

• LAME MP3 Encoder

  LAME MP3 Encoder is used to test system performance when encoding MP3 audio files

• NeatBench

  NeatBench is a standalone benchmarking for Neat Video - a popular tool to reduce visible noise and grain found in footage from digital video cameras, DSLRs, TV-tuners and even digitized film or VHS.

• Linpack

  LINPACK consists of the number of 64-bit floating-point operations to measure the peak theoretical performance of your CPU measured in floating point operations per seconds (FLOPS)

• OctaneBench

  OctaneBench is a benchmarking utility based on OctaneRender (a popular GPU-based rendering engine). This benchmark evaluates the rendering performance of your GPU(s)

• V-Ray

  V-Ray is commercial plug-in for third-party 3D computer graphics software applications and is used for visualizations and computer graphics. This benchmark evaluates both CPU and GPU performance when using V-Ray.

• Adobe Photoshop

  Adobe Photoshop is the most widely used professional photo editing and manipulation software currently on the market. Our benchmark tests a wide range of tasks to give an idea of how your system should perform in Photoshop.

• Adobe After Effects

  Adobe After Effects CC is a widely used application for motion graphics and animation. Our benchmark tests two critical areas of performance - RAM Preview (live playback) and Rendering (exporting) - with a number of different projects.

• Adobe Premiere Pro

  Adobe Premiere Pro CC is an industry-leading non-linear video editing application. Our benchmark tests two critical areas of performance - Live Playback and Exporting - with a number of different media codecs, resolutions, and effects.

• Unigine Superposition

  Unigine Superposition is used to evaluate system performance in DX11 applications at display resolutions including 1080p, 4K, and 8K.

• NBody CUDA

  The Nbody CUDA benchmark is used to verify the maximum theoretical compute performance of NVIDIA-based video cards

• CineBench

  CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer's performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON's award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation

• Upload and review benchmark results

  All the benchmarks taken during the phase 2 testing process are recorded on our server, providing you with benchmark scores, and providing us with statistical information that will help us assist future customers. We also upload our temperature logs, giving you a baseline you can compare to after you receive the system.

• INTERNAL: Repair Creative Cloud

  We run a customized tool to ensure that our Puget Systems Creative Cloud suite is completely removed along with all Puget System credentials. Creative Cloud is then freshly installed if requested on the order.

Quality Control

• Review Order Updates and Checkoff

  We review the order updates as it contains a build log for all actions performed by the various technicians and recorded notes for your system to check if additional testing has to be performed and verify requests are fulfilled.

• Verify Expected GPU and Disk Results

  We review the benchmark results to verify that components are operating as expected.

• Verify Condition of Chassis and Components

  We physically inspect the exterior and interior of the chassis.

• Verify System Initialization Noise

  When the system is powered on and components are initializing before the system POST beep, we check that the configured components do not have excessive noise.

• Disable Network Stack in BIOS

  We use an imaging software in-house for installing Windows that requires settings in the BIOS to be adjusted. We turn these settings off as they are not normally used outside of our imaging software.

• Verify BIOS Profile is Saved

  We check that a profile is saved in the motherboard BIOS that retains the settings we manually adjust to be used again in case BIOS settings are ever lost due to an unexpected occurance.

• Verify System Boots to OS with USB Drive Attached

  We verify that the system boots normally to the primary drive when an external USB storage drive is plugged in.

• Record Approximate Boot Time

  We record how long, in seconds, the system takes to boot into the OS and also to check that it is booting in the expected amount of time.

• Verify System Properties

  We check in the OS system properties to make sure that the configured OS, processor, and correct memory capacity is detected.

• Verify Puget OS Branding

  We check that our Puget desktop background is set.

• Verify Drives are Present, Partitioned, and Labeled

  We review that all configured system drives are partitioned and drive letters are assigned based on drive priority.

• Verify in Device Manager Components are Detected

• Verify Sound Quality Output

  We check the audio output for clarity, stereo panning, and balanced volume.

• Verify Functionality of Onboard Networking Devices

  We test available networking devices on the system for proper network and device detection.

• Test All External USB Ports

  A USB thumb drive is plugged in and out from every external USB port to verify USB detection.

• Test All Video Outputs

  We verify that all video outputs are functioning correctly even if ports will be disabled or unused due to the system configuration.

• Verify Sleep Functionality

  We check that the system enters sleep mode and wake it shortly after the fans spin down.

• Monitor System at Idle

  We verify that the system is running as expected and within tolerances by monitoring the system at idle. This is performed by using a thermal camera and a wattage meter to monitor the system as load tests on the configured hardware are ran.

• Monitor System under Load

  We verify that the system is running as expected and within tolerances by monitoring the system under load. This is performed by using a thermal camera and a wattage meter to monitor the system as load tests on the configured hardware are ran.

• Clean Up Windows Installation

  We remove the programs used to install and test the hardware on the OS and check that remnant files and folders are deleted.

• Scan Windows COA

  We input the Windows COA into our installation suite to be activated when the system is powered on and connected to the internet.

• Prepare and Verify Restore Media Creation

  After a system inspection we create restore media for your system

Final Preparation

• Verify Check-Off is Completed for all Sections of Production

  We verify that all checkpoints have been completed throughout the production process.

• Affix COA to Chassis

  Your Windows COA is attached to your case.

• Include HDMI Cable

  We include a HDMI cable with your computer so that you are sure to have everything you need when you set it up.

• Include Display Port Cable

  We include a Display Port cable with your computer so that you are sure to have everything you need when you set it up.

• Verify Power Cord and Essential Accessories are Present

  We double check to make sure you have everything you need for system set up!

Packing / Shipping

• Include Marketing Materials

  Getting stressed out? Grab your stress cube and give us a call! We included a sticker to show you are Puget Proud as well as some Business cards.

• Include binder and packet

  A full packet of information, including registration information, contact information, and benchmark information is printed. Also, an invoice and business card packet is included.

• Take Pictures of the System

  We take pictures of each system before we ship.

• Create shipping tag and attach to box

  Your order number is placed into our shipping system, and a tag is generated and placed on your boxes to prevent the possibility of mixup before your boxes receive a shipping label.

• Final Chassis Cleaning

  Since the computer has been handled, we ensure it is clean as a last step before boxing it up.