Bought a new computer . . .

. . . from Puget Systems.

I've had it a bit over a month, and I'm quite pleased with the service, support, and the computer itself.

Comments

[David]

I like their customization page. Easier to use than Dell. When it's time to upgrade (pretty soon now), I'll stack one of these up against a comparable Dell and see how they look.

[GaryS]

I see that you went for a quiet machine. Two years ago when I built myself a new machine, I went the same route. The case was the earlier version of the one on your Puget machine, and I went for a "fanless" power supply. I also selected the fastest fanless graphics card available, and a slightly slower, lower power CPU.

Best computing investment I ever made (out of at least 15 machines in total). It runs very cool, is nearly dead silent and I have never had a failure. It also very seldom crashes, despite Microsoft's best efforts.

My office is small and quiet and the fan noise used to make me crazy. After I got the new machine, I found that I was considerably less fatigued after a long day slaving over a hot keyboard.

I suspect that you will find the same.

[Mace]

I'm in the market for a new (Windows 7) machine. I checked Puget's prices and they appear to be considerably more expensive (X2?) compared to HP or NewEgg. What are the arguments in favor of purchasing from Puget? Is the quality of their components that much better? If so, I'd probably buy from them.

[GaryS]

Mace:

Interesting question. Yes, the parts quality is higher for Puget. Plus, they can all be replaced with stuff you can buy at Newegg or Amazon. With HP, there usually are a lot of proprietary components which are very expensive to replace. Usually, after two or three years, if there is a failure most people just scrap the old machine and buy a new one.

So, if you aren't looking for very high performance, or an especially quiet machine, the expected life is a factor. If you plan to replace the machine in three years or so anyway, the extra cost of the Puget may not be worth it to you.

The other factor is reliability. No matter what the manufacturers say, cheaper machines tend to crash more. If you put a high value on trouble free operation, that might justify the extra cost.

My current machine, which is coming up on three years old, was built from the highest quality parts available at the time. It has been at least a year since the last "blue screen" crash, and a few months since any kind of crash at all. That makes it worth the extra money to me. Your mileage may vary.