Now, I realize that this video is total Corsair marketing. But! The reality still exists that, while the example “Brand X” PSU’s they use are an extreme case, budget PSU’s have too high a mortality rate to be considered a wise purchase for you custom PC.

This is something we’ve long preached here at Puget…and, I simply thought the video was hilarious!!! Enjoy:

-Perry out.

We now have just under 400 computers out in the field being powered by Corsair power supplies.  How many failures have we seen?  One!  We had one unit that would not power on, and that’s it.  While I’m not sure we have a big enough sample for a definitive statement, that’s a 0.25% failure rate.  That is ten times more reliable than any other power supply we’ve used!  Of course, we’ll continue to closely watch them as time goes on.

 Due to the great reliability of the Corsair units that were manufactured by Seasonic, we have now expanded our Corsair line to include those manufactured by CWT.  We did this about a month ago, and haven’t seen a single failure from those units.  So far, so good!

Needless to say, I’m quite pleased.  When building a computer, some items are easy to troubleshoot (like memory and video cards).  If they fail, you can run specific tests, and see what’s wrong.  There are two items in a computer that are very difficult to diagnose if they’re malfunctioning:  the motherboard and power supply.  A failing power supply can send incorrect voltage to your components, and make it look like the problem lies elsewhere.  That’s why it is extremely important we have rock solid power supplies.   We recently launched a new computer system, called the Puget Obsidian, which is designed to be the most stable, reliable system we can build.  Needless to say, it uses a Corsair power supply.

Consider me an official fan!

On the business side, we’re encountering the same thing.  As our company grows, the 200GB network share we all use for shared storage has become both too small, and dangerously difficult to back up.  As we expand our website with more and more multimedia content, the need for “scratch space” has grown  exponentially.

Both at home and at the office, we need more space, and we need a good level of protection from data loss.   A NAS is a natural choice.

 However, both of these things are simply convenient motivators for the real reason I’m looking deeply into NAS — the point is that if I need one in my personal and business life, then our customers do too.  Some items, like speakers or monitor, are fairly cut and dry when it comes to selection.  With Network Attached Storage, I see a huge variation in the products out there.  Reliability, speed,  usability, features — there is a large set of differences from product to product, and that is an excellent opportunity for Puget Systems.  We can do what we do best:  look at all the options, pick the top contenders, order them in and test them ourselves, and then pick the best ones to recommend to our customers.  It is the same philosophy we apply to the rest of our product line — use our experience and connections to pick the best, and cut through the hype of the industry to help people see what products truly are great.

What inspired me to write this is that I have come across a product I consider to be truly great.  My search for NAS units started with online searches — looking for the most popular units with the best online reviews.  I settled on and ordered in an Intel SS4000 and a Buffalo Terrastation Pro II to look at in more detail.  I was disappointed to learn that with Buffalo, I was required to buy the hard drives from them.  I didn’t like that idea — I wanted to be able to offer any configuration possible to our customers, and I didn’t want to be locked into a separate, unknown RMA process for the hard drives, when our Seagate hard drives are already known to be very reliable, and with an excellent RMA process.  Unfortunately, the Buffalo unit came out ahead of Intel in pretty much every way.  The Intel unit was significantly slower, had much less features, and had a slower, more clunky web interface.  I was torn — I really wanted the Intel to win, but Buffalo came out on top in terms of raw performance.

I took it to the next level with each — I talked to Buffalo about my concerns, and told them about what an easy choice it would be if I could just buy their units without hard drives.   Unfortunately, they wouldn’t budge, not even when I was talking to their business development representative.

With Intel, I had a very different result.  I got in touch with the channel manger for that product, and laid out my concerns about the performance lag I was seeing.  The answer was exactly what I was hoping for:  “We actually have a new unit launching, called the SS4200-E, and it is 5 times faster.  I’ll send you an evaluation unit.”   Awesome.

I was excited to see the unit, and it arrived a few weeks ago.  When I first turned it on, I was happy to see it was the quietest of all the NAS units I’ve tested (still not silent, but not bad at all).  I immediately ran my set of file transfer benchmarks.  When I see claims of “5 times faster” I’m skeptical.   It rarely happens.  In this case, it is true that “5 times faster” is a bit of a stretch, but not by much!  Check out the benchmarks:

What you see is that the new Intel SS4200-E is indeed 5 times faster!  However, only in certain situations.  What you’re seeing is a dramatic increase in raw CPU power on the unit.  That makes file writes faster, and makes the overhead much less of an issue with small file writes.  This power totally tips the scales of performance.

The improvements continue with the user interface.  It is much faster, and is loaded with features.  Hook it up to a UPS unit (via USB), and it enables write-caching for even greater performance.  Cut power on the UPS, and it will gracefully shut down the NAS.  It has file indexing, Windows media services, easy-to-mange folder quotas and limits, a workstation backup-client, integrated FTP server, and email alerts (if a disk fails, for example).  Plug in a digital camera to USB port, and it copies the pictures into your photos folder automatically.  Plug in a USB thumb drive, USB hard drive, or E-SATA hard drive, and it puts it up on a network share automatically.  I’m very happy with the ease of use, and the thought that went into making this a product that “just works.”

I’m very happy to say that this is exactly what I wanted:  the quality, relationship, and warranty of Intel, with the speed and features that are needed for it to be a competitive product.  This is the best of both worlds.  I’ve already bought one for my home and one for our office.

Creative Labs has had a near-monopoly on the sound card market for a long time. Barring onboard sound controllers (like those integrated into almost all Nvidia and Intel based chipsets), Creative cards make up an overwhelming majority of audio cards currently in use. Creative has not done a very good job of getting Windows Vista sound drivers working which offer the same amount of features that their XP drivers have had. A lot of people have been really frustrated by this, since their expensive audio cards weren’t working or were giving reduced functionality.

In comes Daniel Kawakami, who decides to write his own audio drivers for his creative card. According to his emails, Creative was actually deliberately modifying the Audigy drivers to disable some features when Vista is detected and were purposefully preventing some of the XP utilities from running. Some of these features include: Dolby/DTS, CMSS/CMSS2, Advanced EQ and FX, DVD Audio, and some other things. The drivers that Daniel_K was making worked well in Vista and enabled a lot of the functionality that users lost when they upgraded from Windows XP.  He wasn’t charging for them, but he did have a donation link on his website.

The big hullabaloo started up last week when Creative sent Daniel_K a request to stop producing and distributing these drivers. The general gist is that Creative is looking to protect their intellectual property. They wrote “By enabling our technology and IP to run on sound cards for which it was not originally offered or intended, you are in effect, stealing our goods”. They went on to say that choosing to disable certain features of their sound cards in Vista is “a business decision that only we have the right to make”. A business decision indeed! According to Daniel_K, a lot of the disabled features were re-enabled in a software package called “Alchemy X-Fi”, which you had to buy, even if you were already an X-Fi owner.

Well, this got a lot of folks pretty mad, and there’s been a lot of Internet chatter over the last few days about the whole issue. Websites and petitions have already started cropping up. The topic has hit Slashdot, Digg, and even Consumeraffairs.com. Creative’s forums are slammed with angry customers and nasty feedback. In general, word is getting around and people aren’t really happy about it.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of Creative Labs. They’ve been, to date, the most frustrating company that I’ve dealt with in this industry. A few years back, I was really trying to get some information regarding the pin layout for the front panel connectors on the Audigy2 cards, and trying to get any resolution from Creative was impossible. I’d call them every Friday afternoon, and the conversation would go roughly like this:

Creative: “Hello, how can I help you”.
Me: “Hi, My name is Richard. I called last week looking for some information about the front panel connectors on the Audigy2 cards, and was promised a call back. I never got that call back, so I was calling in to get some information from you. I need to know about getting front panel connectivity on your Audigy2 Sound Cards.”
Creative: “Um, okay. I don’t have any of that information right now, but I’ll get you a call back right away about that.”
Me: “Yeah, you said that last week, and the week before, and the week before, and I’ve never gotten my call back.”
Creative: “Well, okay. I’ll make sure you get a call back this time.”
Me: “You said that last week too…”
Creative: “Have a nice day sir”.

This, or something close to it, happened every week for about 4 months before I gave up. This is the sort of thing that alienates a customer for life. You’d think that as system builder who was selling hundreds of machines with their product, they’d have at least given us the time of day.

That anecdote aside, Creative has always had terrible software and driver policies. They don’t release standalone drivers, but rather bundle them up in giant, bloated software packages filled with a bunch of software that I don’t want on my computer. I’m obviously not alone. The massive outpouring of anger towards Creative is purely a result of their poor business practices. Obviously a lot of people have been really frustrated with Creative for a while, and this Daniel_K situation was just the catalyst to set them off.

Competition is good for the consumer. I believe a lot of the reason Creative is as unhelpful as they are, is that they’ve never really had any direct competition in the audio card market. There’s no reason to innovate new products, or offer good service when you don’t really have any competitors nipping at your heels. I hope that a lot of people take a look at some alternative sound cards now. It’ll be good for everyone – even Creative. For example, look at Intel. Since they had strong competition from AMD, they’ve actually been forced to innovate much better products, and be much more competitive with their pricing. The consumer wins.

This boycott isn’t going to kill Creative or anything close to it (although their stock may suffer a bit), but it could send a few thousand customers to a different hardware supplier. M-Audio, Turtle Beach, and a lot of other companies have been doing good work in the sound card market for a while now, but have remained completely in the shadow of Creative. A good influx of sales to these alternate brands will be good for them, and hopefully they can expand to fill the hole of support and service that has been left by Creative.

I’ve been really delighted with the newest sound cards from Asus. They’re a great card. The drivers are solid, the cards are well built, and the audio quality is great. (However, they do lack any front panel audio support, which is really disappointing.) The Xonar does 24-bit audio output, 7.1 surround, and has the lowest noise floor of most consumer level sound cards. It’s a great little unit.

In a fantasy world, I’d love to see Creative follow the lead of ATI and AMD, and release their sound card spec’s for open source drivers. Also, while I’m dreaming, I’d like a pony.

     I feel like the majority of people who work with computers today think of them as more or less a necessary evil.  I am the first one to admit that sometimes working with PCs can be a big hassle.  That said, it seems like I see exciting new applications for the PC almost daily.  Just last night I discovered a service online where you can get free topographical maps - Crazy!  Basically, the sky is the limit for the applications a creative programmer can come up with, and if you want to, you can literally find thousands of interesting free applications online.
     If you don’t know much about computers, and you don’t own a PC, I would encourage you to at least learn a little about what you are missing.  I think you will find that owning a computer is worthwhile.  I find that many people are confused about computers, and uncertain of what kind of hardware they should buy, this guide should help answer some common questions.  You don’t need an extremely expensive PC, but buying a PC with reliable hardware is a worthwhile goal.
     I’ve gained a certain perspective on hardware reliability and certain expectations of my computer which I’d like to explain here - I’ve decided to drop them here as a list because I think they are suited to that format:

1. The best thing about a computer is that it is general purpose.  The CPU in your computer is suited for handling so many different types of processes that, as I mentioned before, the only real limit to application is your creativity.
2. The second best thing about a computer is that you can connect to the Internet.  The Internet is the ‘killer-app’ for PCs.
3. Given a choice between a basic reliable PC and a high-end PC that has unproven and/or buggy hardware, the basic reliable PC is a better choice.
4. The people you buy your hardware or computer from make a difference.  Buy hardware from a manufacturer who, if you end up with some problematic hardware, will be ‘on it’ and doing all they can to inform you about the problem and fix the problem.  If you are buying a complete system, the above applies to the people you are buying it from, but check the manufacturers of the parts you are buying anyway because concerns about the manufacturer can still be legitimate.
5. You should never have to reboot unless you are installing new hardware or doing something that requires you to open the PC chassis.  The reality is if you are running Windows, you’re going to have to reboot more than this, but understand that many things that Windows requires a reboot for are only because of limitations in the operating system, and are not a limitation of personal computers in general.
6. In general, your machine should never lock up or give you a ‘blue screen of death’.

Next I want to give a list of hardware for an ideal PC experience:

• A reliable motherboard.  The motherboard is the part of your computer which is statistically most likely to fail.  Reliability should be considered above all else when choosing a motherboard.  Look for a simple motherboard (simple means less things to break and you do not want to have to replace your motherboard) with higher quality parts such as solid capacitors.  Expect to go one or two chipsets back from the most recently released to find a motherboard with a good history of reliability.  Go for something mainstream.
• Reliable RAM.  RAM problems constitute a big percentage of the actual hardware problems we talk to customers about (excluding ‘problem lies between keyboard and chair’ type of issues).  Even though most RAM brands use chips from the same manufacturers, there are significant differences in failure rates from brand to brand.  Don’t get the fastest speed available.  Check the ‘validated memory’ list for your motherboard - consider it a better reference than brand-specific ‘validated memory’ lists as generally the motherboard manufacturer is not trying to sell you RAM.  Plan to only populate 2 of the 4 available memory sockets on your motherboard.
• A wired connection from your computer to your router/modem which is connected to your internet service provider.
• A modern CPU (preferably one with the latest available architecture from your preferred vendor).
• A 3D accelerator.  If you want to try any games, or if you work with 3D applications at all (Vista Aero, CAD, 3D modeling, etc.) you will need a 3D accelerator.  Of course if you are mainly using this machine for gaming you will want a fast 3D accelerator.  I don’t do a whole lot of gaming - if gaming is your main purpose, I would recommend looking closely at modern gaming consoles before you decide to buy a PC just for gaming.  Don’t go overboard here, the video card is one of the easiest internal parts of the machine to upgrade so if you need faster you can always get it later.
• A cheap, wired keyboard with your preferred key setup.  Keyboards fail so seldom anyway that theres really no reason to try to get a higher-quality one.  You’ll probably want to replace it after 6 months anyway because they generally get kind of nasty after awhile.
• A monitor that is easy on your eyes.  Most modern LCDs meet this requirement.  Understand that whatever monitor you buy, you will probably be able to use it for much longer than your PC (because monitor technology progresses more slowly than PC technology) so its worthwhile to get the one you really want within reason.
• A good cheap wired optical USB mouse.  Logitech is generally good.  This is another thing you’ll probably want to replace after 6 months if you care about cleanliness.
• A good area to put your PC.  Don’t be afraid to spend extra on some ergonomic keyboard trays and monitor stands, or even a new computer desk - your wrists and neck will thank you.  Experiment with room lighting to find a configuration that eases eye strain.
• Think about buying a battery backup unit.  It sucks to have your work go away when the power goes out.  If you decide to buy one, make sure its a high quality unit as low quality ones have the potential to reduce the life of your power supply.

Next, I want to give a list of hardware that is NOT conducive to an ideal PC experience:

• The very fastest and most modern hardware available.  In general, consider the latest processor architecture, but do not get the model with the highest clock rate available.  CPUs and 3d accelerators with higher clock rates use more power and generate more heat, which will add to system fan noise and your electric bill.  Motherboards using newer chipsets often have unresolved firmware problems, and if you do encounter problems you will find less help online because with newer hardware there are fewer people who have experienced the problems before you.  You might end up being the ‘guinea pig’ and having to call the manufacturer trying to motivate them to fix the problem.  With CPUs, it is unlikely you will find any additional issues in higher speed models, but be aware that CPU clock frequencies are only one part of the overall performance equation for a modern PC.
• Anything wireless.  It might not break, but there is a good chance you will have problems with it at some point.
• TV tuners.  There may be a few that are quality, but generally its not worth trying to find them in the sea of mediocrity that is TV tuner solutions today.  Consider just downloading the shows you want to watch from the Internet or watching them on DVD season sets.  If you want to take advantage of recording shows from your digital cable subscription, just get a ‘Tivo’, or whatever your local cable company’s equivalent is.  TV Tuners for PC can’t currently do digital cable reception (not completely true, but true enough), whereas some of the standalone ‘Tivo’ style units can.

General guidelines:

• Expect to have to clean the inside of your computer every 6 months or so. Use compressed air specifically made for cleaning PCs.   You can also use an air compressor if you are sure there is no water or oil running through the air hose.  Do not use a vaccuum cleaner or anything wet.
• Think twice about purchasing anything with misspelled words such as ‘xtreme’ or meaningless marketing words such as ‘ultra edition’, or ’elite’ in the name.  This should be self-explanatory.
• Give Linux a try.  Use a ‘Linux live DVD’ so you don’t need to install it on your computer at first.  I think you will find that newer distributions such as Kubuntu, Fedora, and SUSE all have very competitive feature sets when compared to Microsoft Windows, minus all the activation and DRM BS that Microsoft / NBC thinks you should just ‘trust’ them with.

Intel has recently released their CPUs based on a 45nm process.  The two CPUs we’re carrying today are the E8400 and the QX9650, but we’ll have more in a few weeks, when we plan to phase over to an entirely 45nm CPU line.  These new CPUs are faster, run cooler, and are cheaper than their predecessors.   They also are easier to overclock.

From nVidia, we have a similar refresh, as they roll out their 9xxx series of video cards.  We’ve had their 9600GT for a few weeks, and they amaze me.  They’re twice as fast at the 8600GT, and give the 8800GT a good run for the money.  If you know about the 8800GT, you’ll know that video card was impressive in itself, giving the 8800 Ultra some good competition.  On the high end, we have the 9800GX2 released on Tuesday, breaking new records for performance.

Now, new technology is nothing new.  Every time something new comes out, we can all marvel at the performance.  What makes this different for me is the change in pricing from Intel and nVidia.  I’m seeing a definite shift to lower price points, and that is really exciting!  It was only a month ago that we were sending out machines for review that had three 8800 Ultras in triple-SLI, showcasing the absolute fastest computer we could build.  Those computers came with a crazy $10,000 price tag, but scored 26,0000 in 3DMark (a popular gaming benchmark).  Last week on our production bench, we built a computer with the new technology from Intel and nVidia, that scored 23,000 in 3DMark, but at a price point of $2,500.  That’s amazing!   Now, in reality, when you run at higher resolutions or turn on more advanced features in games, you’ll find that performance gap widening, but still — I’m very impressed with how closely this new hardware compares, in a totally different price class.

This is one of the few times that I’ve thought about replacing my home machine.  Usually I wait for something to trickle down so I can get it cheap, as I don’t really care that much about performance.  But to be able to drop a couple hundred dollars on a new CPU, and couple hundred dollars on a new video card, and get a level of performance that would have been absolutely out of my price range only a month ago — that’s exciting!

I’ve set up RMAs with over thirty different suppliers and manufacturers, and have had experiences that range from the disinterested-but-functional to the helpful to the downright horrific. I’d love to tell horror stories, but I think I’ll save that for another day – my purpose here is to rant about the unnecessary obstacles that are often set up between a customer and the working part that they paid for.

One quick disclaimer here. Because Puget is an established retailer, we sometimes get support and RMA privileges that aren’t available to an end user. We have arrangements with half a dozen of our biggest suppliers, but for everyone else we’re stuck with the same process as Jon Doe Customer who bought the part at the local big box retailer. I have a pretty good idea what the average person has to face when trying to get support or replacements for their PC components, and I’m not impressed.

Pick a major PC component manufacturer. Any major manufacturer. Now go to their website. Now try to figure out how to get a broken part replaced. There are two or three that I know of that make it simple to apply for an RMA. Everyone else – you’re doing well if you can find it less than fifteen minutes! The instructions are often hidden deep in the bowels of their overgrown websites, and require navigating multiple dead ends and false trails to find your way to a form that was created some time during the website’s previous revision.  (A hint if you ever find yourself in this situation: check the warranty policy page, sometimes there will be a useful link or a phone number.)

This could be the result of sloppy website maintenance, but often it appears to be deliberate – they want you to use their online no-effort-required-on-their-part troubleshooter that asks if you’ve remembered to plug everything in, and loops you back to the beginning when you exhaust their options. Barring that, they want you to call customer service, navigate a six layer voice menu, and wait on hold for half an hour until a representative can ask you all the same questions about making sure everything’s plugged in. The last thing they want is for you to apply for an RMA – that would imply that their perfectly designed part may actually have broken!

As much as I’m casting this attitude in a very negative light, I’ll admit there are some circumstances where hesitancy to issue an RMA is reasonable. It’d be a waste of time and money to replace a ‘broken’ video card that just needed a driver update, and this sort of mistake certainly does happen. We at Puget insist that customers contact tech support and go through at least a minimal amount of troubleshooting before sending a computer back for repair. However, there’s a difference between doing basic troubleshooting and forcing the customer to jump through hoops, and it’s disappointing to see that many companies tend towards the latter. It’s nice to have tech support information available online. It’s not nice to be forced to dig through all of it before you can find a live person to talk to.  

I was inspired to write this post by one particular experience a few months back. It wasn’t a bad experience – quiet the opposite, in fact. I’ve always admired the quality of Logitech’s products, and I snapped up a VX Nano mouse the day it became available. It was delightful to use, so I was quite disappointed when it died after four months and no amount of battery changing could bring it back to life.

I navigated to their website with trepidation – large companies with a wide product range and distribution area like Logitech often have the worst tech support. Sure enough, there was an online troubleshooter, but instead of sending me in circles it directed me to contact support by phone or email. I sent an email explaining the troubleshooting steps I’d tried, and hoped for the best. To my delight, I heard back within one business day. The technician summarized what he thought I’d said and asked me to correct him if he’d misunderstood (he hadn’t), requested a copy of my receipt, and said that he’d submit a request for a replacement part. Best of all, he apologized for the inconvenience – he really seemed regretful that I’d had trouble with Logitech’s product. One business day after I uploaded a copy of the receipt, I received an email saying that a replacement mouse had been sent, and also inviting me to contact them again if I had any more trouble in the future.

Every interaction with Logitech was quick, painless, and very courteous. I was very pleasantly surprised by the experience – I’ve worked with dozens of companies for hundreds of RMAs, and this was easily in my top five best experiences, even including the companies we have arrangements with! That this level of service was given to Jane Doe Customer is nothing short of phenomenal – most companies of that size treat end users with something varying from distain to disinterest. At best, I’ve seen tech support agents that really want to help, but are bogged down by an overgrown and clumsy system.

The real shame of all this is that Logitech didn’t do anything outside the reach of the rest of the industry. They used the same website technologies, outsourced personnel, and communication systems as everyone else – they just used them effectively! This shouldn’t be so unusual. I know that many companies have this level of infrastructure available to them, I’ve had to fight my way through it. There is no good reason they shouldn’t be able to match Logitech’s example. Until they start doing it, shame on them. I’m buying Logitech.

Puget Systems is committed to offering helpful and timely support. If you’re having any difficulties with your Puget computer, please email support@pugetsystems.com, use the form on our support page, or call us at 888-784-3872. We try to have someone available to answer the phone at all times during business hours, but because we’re a small company it’s not always possible – don’t worry, we will get your message and get back to you.  

First off, let me run down what types of TV service modern PC tuner hardware will and will not work with:

Analog Cable - Almost every TV tuner out there is designed primarily to handle this, and it works very well.

Analog Over-the-Air - Because it is still analog, most tuners also work well with this.  It will be a moot point soon, though, when the government-mandated switch to digital OTA goes into effect.

Digital Cable - This is where I see a lot of folks I talk to on a daily basis headed, and unfortunately tuner hardware is behind in this area.  Tuners for it do exist, but they are very buggy (from what I hear) and require CableCards in order to work.  The bigger problem, though, is that they are limited to only the industry “big-boys”; we can’t sell them here at Puget, and even if we got our hands on some they require a special BIOS on the motherboard in order to function.  You can get digital cable to work with an analog tuner by using a set-top-box, but because of the digital->analog->digital conversion you loose some quality and any HD signals will be downconverted.

Digital Satellite - Like cable, this only works (currently) by using a set-top-box.  I have heard, though, that some of the larger satellite TV companies are working on USB-based tuner cards that will get rid of that step and allow for pure digital TV on computers.  If this happens before cable tuners get their act together then it might actually be enough to get me to switch (I’ve always preferred cable in the past).

Digital Over-the-Air - This is one area where today’s tuners can really shine.  The higher-end models, like ATI’s Theater 650 and a couple of Hauppauge’s units, can tune in pure digital TV from free over-the-air broadcasts - all the way up to full HD/surround sound if it is being offered.  The major thing to keep in mind here is reception: because of the nature of digital TV you will never get a “fuzzy” signal like you could with analog; you either get perfect quality or stuttering, unwatchable playback.  If you are going for this make sure to have a nice antenna and check to see how your location is in terms of range/direction from broadcasters with a website like AntennaWeb.org.

Windows Vista’s Media Center application will work with any of the methods I have described above.  It comes with both the Home Premium and Ultimate editions of Vista, so most folks buying new computers today should have it.  In fact, Media Center supports up to two digital and two analog tuners - so if you configure it properly it is quite a flexible platform.  If you have a system with Media Center and are having any trouble, I’ve found TheGreenButton.org to be a great community resource.

There is also one more option for TV tuning that Vista isn’t compatible with, but which you can in theory use via certain other 3rd-party media applications.  I am speaking of digital cable with clear-QAM.  QAM is an acronym for the way cable sends digital TV content, and it is usually encrypted -  hence the need for CableCard-based tuners which can decrypt it for full digital cable usage.  However, there is a chance that your local cable company is broadcasting some of its channels without encryption, or “in the clear” (hence ‘clear-QAM’); if that is the case then a tuner which can recieve clear-QAM cable should let you view those stations.  This is highly dependent on your local cable company branch, though, and I wouldn’t necessarily expect their average help-desk folks to know if they encrypt or not.

Hopefully that short primer will help folks who might be looking to get a home theater PC.  Feel free to discuss your thoughts on HTPCs and TV tuners below or in our forums - and definitely let us know if our decision to stop selling tuners in our computers for the time being will impact you!

When I was at CES a few months ago, I was not shopping for a new power supply vendor.  We have been using Seasonic for years, and have been very happy with their units.  And yet there are times when we find a company speaking our language.  Hype doesn’t get our attention.  Show us the product!  We want to see real, measurable quality.  At CES, in their suite at the Wynn hotel, Corsair spoke our language.  We weren’t looking to replace Seasonic, but Corsair was too good a fit to not get our attention.

I should first talk about why we like Seasonic.  We demand a high standard from our power supplies — they need to be able to power our top end configurations, and also be very quiet.  Power supplies are also one of those parts that can cause very odd and difficult to diagnose problems if they are poor quality, so we don’t want to mess around with them.  We started using Seasonic years ago, as our company focus was shifting to providing high efficiency quiet computers.  Seasonic was a name brand in quiet power supplies.   We tried them out, and were happy with the results.  Not only were they quality, quiet units, but our failure rates have been great! A recent sampling of our numbers sums it up:

We also track WHEN the parts fail, because parts that fail when the customer has them is much more of a problem than parts that fail in our testing process (which is still annoying, but at least managable). Looking at that data, Seasonic looks even better:

That’s exactly the kind of data I like to see — the vast majority of the units failed on OUR benches.   When it is all said and done, only 2% of the Seasonic units failed out in the field, and that’s a good number.

When we met with Corsair, what caught my attention is that they said they used Seasonic to manufacture some of their power supplies. GREAT! That allowed us to keep a product we had faith in. However, it also caused me to immediately ask the question: why should I add a middleman when I already use Seasonic units?  Their answer hooked me, and has impressed me even more in the months that followed as I researched their claims:

1. They lock Seasonic into agreements for specific, higher quality components

This is of specific interest to Puget Systems because of a recent incident we had with Seasonic. I conveniently left off December 2007 from my statistics above, becuase in that month, we had a 75% failure rate on the Seasonic 380W power supplies. It turns out they changed a transistor somewhere that made them spontaneously turn off when used with Seagate hard drives (just the kind of “weird problem” I was mentioning). We caught 58 of them before they left our door, but 2 units made it out to our customers, and ended up coming back to be swapped out. This is something I am highly motivated to avoid, and to hear Corsair talk about what they do and why was refreshing. They didn’t know anything about our long term or recent experiences with Seasonic, by the way.

2. They provide a strong US presence for technical and warranty support

This also spoke strongly to me given our recent Seasonic experiences. Understand that Seasonic’s presence in the US is quite literally two guys in a warehouse shipping product. Everything else is overseas. When we had our problem with their 380W unit, it took us nearly a week to get in touch with anyone, and the answer we got was completely useless. We emailed them with detail of the problem we were seeing, and the answer was (quote): “So Please fill out the attached RMA Request form then we can process your RMA ASAP.” Sigh. When we later emailed them saying we had narrowed down the problem to systems with Seagate hard drives, the reply was (quote): “I was told we’ve tested the psu with our system analysis machine. So we didnt test any of Seagate hard drives.” Sigh, sigh. So, their technical support was useless. In situations like this, companies like Puget Systems EXPECT to be able to work directly with an engineer, to fix a problem that is mutually beneficial for us to solve quickly. With Seasonic, all we did was end up RMA’ing every single unit. Through the magic RMA process, we got working units back, but to this day, we still don’t know exactly what the problem was. To have Corsair, with a strong US presence, and engineers we can talk to, will ensure that if we have similar issues, we’ll be able to solve it more quickly and intelligently.

3. They are a resource for product development for Puget Systems

In other words, they focus on taking the best products they see, and making them their own (often improving them in the process). This caught my attention because it is exactly what we do with our product development. We look for the best, we qualify it, we add our expertise, and we sell a product to our customers that has a lot of research and testing behind it that our customers can’t feasibly do on their own. This service that we provide for our customers, Corsair would be providing for us (for our power supplies, at least). It means that someday we may branch out from Seasonic, and we’ll do it because we’re confident in Corsair (a confidence they will have to earn, for the record).

After getting back from CES, we did our research, and decided this would be a positive move for our company. We aren’t actively looking to replace Seasonic, but Corsair is an excellent fit. They appear to be able to address a specific vulnerability that we recently discovered in oursevles — Seasonic is fine when things are business as usual, but when problems came up, we are on our own. I decided to move our 650W units over to Corsair first. They are based on the Seasonic S12 EE 650W, which was exactly the unit we were using. We make this move first because when it comes down to it — we don’t KNOW that Corsair is everything they say they are. It certainly appears so, but I trust years of MY numbers more. And the years of numbers I have tell me that the Seasonic 650W is a good unit, so this is a low risk move. Once Corsair has earned our trust, we plan to move most of the rest of our power supply line over — and not all of those units are based on Seasonic. I’m excited about the way this move it strengths our position to consistently provide an excellent product, and how it strengthens our ability to improve and diversify our product line in the future.

Cheers.