Monday 23 July 2012

PC Hardware Articles


One of the core values of Puget Systems is transparency

We detest hype in the midst of an industry that is full of it. Our mission is to provide the highest quality hardware and consultation services to our customers, and to back up our decisions by freely sharing what we've learned along the way. To earn a place in our product line, a computer component undergoes rigorous testing. We apply the results of our testing, along with our years of experience in learning reliability trends and manufacturer characteristics, to make prudent decisions about what we can put our name behind, whether that's an individual part or an entire computer. With the following articles, we are writing up the results of these internal processes and discussions, and taking them public. We feel we can take this on with a unique perspective as we evaluate each topic with the experience, resources, and objectivity of a system builder. If there is a topic you'd like us to write about, email us at info@pugetsystems.com!



Introduction to PC Wireless Networking

Wireless networking (also known as WiFi) has greatly evolved over the last few years and as a result has become increasing complex. This article is intended to give the reader the information necessary to make informed decisions when purchasing and configuring a wireless network in order to maximize the performance, speed, and reliability of the network.


Technology Primer: Low Voltage RAM

Voltage is not typically thought of as a key specification for RAM, but can have a significant impact on system stability as it runs much cooler than standard RAM. In this article, we will be looking at Kingston Lovo and G.Skill Sniper RAM to see how well low voltage RAM performs compared to standard RAM and if it has a measurable impact on power draw and system temperatures.


How it Works: Intel SSD Caching

SSD caching is not new, but is something we have not inspected closely since its introduction with the Z68 chipset. In this article, we will be answering the questions: What is SSD caching? How do you set up and configure SSD caching? And what kind of performance improvements you should expect by using it.

Introducing the New Puget Traverse Laptops

With the recent launch of Intel's new Ivy Bridge line of CPUs, Puget Systems has completely revamped our laptop product line to take advantage of the new improvements in technology. In this article, we will be going over the features found on this units as well as battery life estimates and thermal performance measurements.

Product Review: Intel DH77DF

With the launch of the new 7-series chipsets, we spent the last few weeks looking at numerous Mini-ITX motherboards in order to update our Echo line of systems. There are many boards available from various manufactures, but the motherboard that immediately caught our attention was the Intel SF.


Product Review: Intel S2600COE


The Intel S2600COE is a part of the recently launched Romley platform and is intended exclusively for use in server systems. This motherboard includes onboard video and four integrated Intel Gigabit LAN ports, but is very limited in the number of USB ports available. Because of the strong server focus of this board, however, there are many desktop features (namely S3 sleep and fan throttling) that are not supported.


Technology Primer: Intel Ivy Bridge


Intel's new 22nm CPUs - codenamed Ivy Bridge - has finally launched. When combined with one of the recently released 7-series chipsets, this new CPU/Chipset combination provides support for PCIe 3.0 and USB 3.0 as well as allowing RAM up to speeds of 1600MHz to be used natively. The onboard graphics has also received a nice upgrade allowing for the use of onboard graphics in a much wider variety of applications.

Qualification: Asus Z77 Motherboards

At Puget Systems, we are always on the lookout for new products to keep our product at the forefront of technology. In this article, we will be looking at the Asus P8Z77-V Pro, P8Z77-V Deluxe, and P8Z77-M Pro motherboards to determine if they are worthy of a position on our product line.


Breaking the Hype of High Frequency RAM

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

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.

Product Review: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 CPU Cooler

The Cooler Mter Hyper TX3 CPU cooler is a medium-sized cooler designed for mid to low range CPUs. This cooler is very similar to the Scythe Kantana 3 CPU cooler currently in our product line, so the main question is: which CPU cooler is better?

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