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My Favorite Products: Dropbox

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Over the next few months I plan to share with you specific products and services that help me be more productive. I prefer simple, elegant solutions to complex products bogged down by every feature imaginable.

It wasn’t long ago that the task of moving files from one computer to another required a CD burner, flash drive, or emailing them to yourself. If you were savvy, maybe you shared files over a network. Today that scenario is made more complicated with the proliferation of smart phones and tablets that often do not share the same file structure or network protocols.

I have a PC at home and another at work along with a smartphone and tablet. There are times when I want to access a spreadsheet from my tablet that I created on my work PC. Or maybe I have pictures on my home PC that I’d like to show a friend from my smartphone.

Dropbox is the product that makes it happen.

Breaking the Hype of High Frequency RAM

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High Frequency RAM is often touted as being essential for high-performance computing, but in our experience has little to offer in actual performance gains. In this article, we will be using a large set of benchmarks across both Intel and AMD platforms to show that RAM running at higher frequency at the cost of increased timings gives little to no real-world performance improvements.

Performance Comparison: E5-2690 vs E5-2687W

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When comparing two CPUs within a product line, it is usually very easy to tell which CPU has the better relative performance by comparing the specifications for each. The E5-2690 and the E5-2687W are a bit of an oddity in that they both have the same maximum Turbo Boost frequency even though the E5-2687W has a higher base clock speed. In this article, we will the question of whether or not the E5-2687W is actually any faster than the E5-2690 since both can technically turbo to the exact same frequency.

We’re in a Post-PC Era, and Everything is Fine

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I had the opportunity to take a day with Brett Nordquist yesterday, and attend the Geekwire Summit in downtown Seattle. The sessions ended up repeatedly circling back to the overwhelming proliferation of mobile devices. Todd Bishop said something I entirely agree with. “Of course we’re in a post-PC era! Why are we arguing about it?” he said. “But that doesn’t mean the PC is dead.” Exactly! Clearly the technology world is changing. But what does that mean for PCs?

Product Review: Asus Z9PE-D8 WS

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The Z9PE-D8 WS is the first motherboard we have had a chance to qualify with the new Romley chipset. This board is geared towards workstation-class systems, but does it have what it takes to earn a place on our product line?

Tech Primer: Intel E5 Xeon CPUs (Sandy Bridge-EP)

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The launch of Intel’s new Xeon line has finally arrived with the arrival of the Intel Xeon E5 processors. With the move to the Sandy Bridge-E architecture, the E5 series should give higher CPU performance with the same or better thermal limits as the previous generation of Xeon processors.

One Customer At A Time

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Last summer I took my car to the local self-service car wash and was surprised when a man approached me as I toweled off my car. Dressed in cowboy boots and accompanying hat, he introduced himself as the new owner of the car wash.

He explained that the previous owner had provided very little in regards to whom his customers were, so he decided to spend his days meeting them face to face.

After we chatted for a few minutes, he extended his arm to shake my hand and thanked me for visiting his business. This is not something I’m accustomed to. If the vacuums aren’t clogged and there’s plenty of foaming soap on the brushes, I’m generally satisfied.

How to Set Up Multiple Monitors

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When it comes to setting up a new computer, something we get asked about here at Puget Systems on a regular basis is the use of multiple monitors. The use of dual monitors seems to be the most common goal customers have, but many want three or even more – and so we are often asked if that requires two video cards, how easy it is to set up, and even how to use multiple screens effectively. This article aims to answer some of those basic questions and act as a central resource for folks who are considering a new computer or want to upgrade their existing system.