I thought I would take a minute and let you all know how Puget Systems is doing as a business and how our 2014 shaped up.
How was 2014? In a word? Stunning.
Replacing a front case fan on the Fractal Design Arc MIDI R2
It can be tricky getting to the front fans on the Fractal Design Arc MIDI R2. This is an instructional video showing you the step by step guide for adding or removing a front case fan.
A Race To the Bottom
I’ve been a customer of DirecTV for just over 14 years.
Yesterday, I called DirecTV and cancelled my account. To their credit, they didn’t hassle me very much, and only read off a script a few times to remind me that DirecTV is better than anyone else.
Let’s perform a little back of the napkin math: $100/month for 14 years comes out to just under $17,000. I’ve also recommended DirecTV to a number of friends and family bringing that total much higher.
Introduction to Intel S-series Processors
If you are in the market for a new PC, you have likely had a taste of the huge variety of different Intel CPU models available. In addition to the Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 brands it turns out that there are actual two or three different product lines within each of those brands – including “K”, “S”, and “T”. In this article, we want to take a look at the S-series product line to determine how it differs from the standard line.
Traverse Pro 17 (M765i): Add or remove secondary hard drive/optical
This video will show you how to add or remove an optical(CDROM) or secondary hard drive from your Traverse Pro 17.
In Search Of Things That Do Not Scale
In the late 90s I had the opportunity to take a factory tour of the Porsche plant in Stuttgart Germany. I watched as engineers assembled engines by hand. The only automation I noticed was how parts were delivered to each work station by robotic carts. Our tour guide pointed out that each Porsche was built-to-order and that a number of models had long waiting lists.
But it was an area near the end of the tour, just off the main assembly line that stood out to me that day. In this area were maybe a dozen or so women stitching together what looked to be large swaths of leather or canvas. Looking around the plant of such a high performance car company, this particular area felt antiquated. Another man in our tour group asked the tour guide why those women were not using commercial stitching machines.
Most Reliable PC Hardware of 2014
At Puget Systems, we track a lot of data but one of the most important things we track is the failure rates of individual components. Reliability is of our primary values, so this data is invaluable for tracking both individual component, product line, and overall brand failure rates. With 2014 coming to a close, we thought we make public a bit of this data to let you know what hardware we found to be the most reliable in 2014.
Tiny Glowing Screens
I sat on a chair made for a Kindergartner in the back of a dark auditorium waiting for my daughter to perform at her school Christmas program.
You can almost feel the nervous energy coming from the children and especially the parents like me who are not sure if their child remembered to bring their sheet music, instrument and every part of their costume including the reindeer antlers.
Xeon Phi 31s1p Cooling and Motherboards
OK, you got one of the Intel “fire sale / crazy Eddie sale” Xeon Phi 31s1p cards … now what? I’ll give you some tips on how to get this thing working!
What I Wish I Had Known
As part of my job at Puget Systems, I speak with many of our customers at various stages of ownership that range from about a week to a couple of years. These customers often share feedback that we use to improve our products and services.
Occasionally customers share what they wish they had done differently when they were configuring their computers. I share this information with our sales team, and figured it might be helpful to those of you considering a new computer today.
So in the vein of “If I could do it all over again…” here are a number of items our customers would change if they could turn back time:
