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Gaming Performance with Dual Monitors

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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.

Dual Boot vs Virtual Machines on the Desktop

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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.

Card Reader Comparison: USB 2.0 vs USB 3.0

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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?

Clarifying ‘Made in the USA’

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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.

Product Qualification: Antec P280 Chassis

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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.

Product Qualification: Intel S1200BTS Motherboard

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The Intel S1200BTS (based on the C202 chipset) is a micro ATX server motherboard designed for small to medium-sized business applications. Puget Systems is already offering another micro ATX server motherboard – the Asus P8B-M based on the C204 chipset – but Intel motherboards are often better choices for a server platform than other brands. In this article we will be examining the Intel S1200BTS to determine if there is enough of a reason to replace the Asus P8B-M.

How We are Handling the Hard Drive Shortage

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Widespread flooding in Thailand is affecting millions of people there, and has shut down many thousands of factories. In the computer industry, this is creating a severe hard drive shortage. Some manufacturers (such as Western Digital) are directly affected, with plants in Thailand that are shut down. In addition, many hard drive component suppliers are also impacted by the flooding, extending the reach of this shortage to all hard drive manufacturers.

Product Qualification: Asus P9X79 Deluxe Motherboard

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With the launch of Sandy Bridge-E and its corresponding Socket 2011, a new line of motherboards has been developed based on the new Intel X79 chipset. What this means for Puget Systems is that we have to look at all the available options to determine which motherboards we want to offer for our customers. We’ve looked at several different motherboards over the weeks leading up to the launch of Sandy Bridge-E and the P9X79 Deluxe jumped out at us as having just the right mix of features and connectivity.

Technology Primer: AMD Opteron 6200 CPUs (Interlagos)

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AMD has launched their new Opteron 6200 series of processors (codenamed Interlagos) based on the recent Bulldozer architecture. Featuring an increase in cache size, up to 16 cores per CPU, a new 32nm manufacturing process and Turbo Core support — Interlagos should have many performance advantages over its predecessor.

Product Qualification: Intel DRX-B Liquid Cooling Solution

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Along with the standard air cooler, Intel has decided to partner with Asetek to launch a closed-loop liquid cooler – the RTS2011LC – for their new 2011 socket. With the rise in popularity of these closed-loop liquid cooling solutions, the real question is how this liquid cooler fares in relation to similar products already on the market.