Puget Systems' List of Most Reliable PC Hardware

[Julio Franco]

Read the full article at:
[newwindow=https://www.techspot.com/article/780-puget-reliable-pc-hardware/]https://www.techspot.com/article/780-puget-reliable-pc-hardware/[/newwindow]

Please leave your feedback here.

 

[Guest]

Hmm. Why is it I have this feeling that most of these products have a low failure rate because nobody buys them?

 

[Guest]

Exactly what I was wondering.

"The 8GB version does have a fairly high failure rate at almost .5%, but we decided to include it since this .5% actually only equates to a single stick having failed."

20 sticks sold in one year that get into a statistic? Makes you wonder how statistically significant is the data in this article. Without absolute sales number for each product the information is meaningless. Also handpicking a few preferred partners and selling only their products makes you question the data presented.

 

[Guest]

Sorry, I meant 200 sticks but can't edit the post.

The idea is: if the sales are not in the thousands, they are irrelevant as batches can vary, one good batch can be followed by a bad one etc.

 

[dividebyzero]

Hmm. Why is it I have this feeling that most of these products have a low failure rate because nobody buys them?

If few were sold then ANY single failure would actually represent a sizeable percentage...and just for the record, from an earlier iteration of the article:

We reached out to Puget Systems founder Jon Bach to find out which other brands his company tried and were told it gave volume orders to OCZ, Corsair, and Patriot at one point or another. Based on a sample size of 3,000 to 4,000 PCs for each of those brands

Hardly an insignificant sample size.

 

[BiceBolje]

I am chocked at WD Blue line of destkop and their 0% failure rate.

It must be that they send crap versions to Balkans. We included Blue disks in our systems, and just last year we had some 4-5 failures, bad sectors mostly. That is just a desktop line. We had some notebook drives changed and people would bring it in after just month of use, bad sectors again. So we opted for Black edition, and some Seagate drives. Black has 5 year warranty, so that is another factor, Blue has just 2 years, but most of them fail.

 

[dividebyzero]

I am chocked at WD Blue line of destkop and their 0% failure rate.
It must be that they send crap versions to Balkans.

Well, look on the bright side...the Balkans must get the pick of the litter in Seagate drives if you're bagging WD without mentioning Seagate's (lack of) reliability.

So we opted for Black edition, and some Seagate drives.

 

[BiceBolje]

Well, I didn't put hundreds of Blue drives or Seagate drives... but really, Seagate has never returned. Blue on other hand, desktop or notebook... oh man, we stopped buying them. That is why I am shocked (not choked, apparently).

Oh, I forgot, I started with Samsung Spinpoint desktop drives for now, last year and this year. So we'll see, none has returned so far.

 

[BiceBolje]

And yes, most of the disk I am talking about are 500GB versions.

 

[gobbybobby]

The reason I don't buy new games consoles at launch is because they are generally luck to survive 2 years. But for PC components I usually check reviews. And if it does fail then its covered under EU law for 2 years so whatever. Never had a component fail apart from a power supply although the lan on my current foxconn motherboard blue screens when enabled. Tried different versions of windows and drivers. Is likely a driver issue not hardware I get around by using wireless.

 

[tipstir]

I guess this test is done with the supplies on hand. Failure rates base on usage or demand of use.
WD Blue HDD do fail a lot more I still buy them though. WD Green not a fan of them to me they're slower than the WD Blue of course to save powder. PSU (power supply unit) in time they have to be replaced they too fail. There is no hardware that doesn't fail today. MOBO (motherboard), video cards, nic card, memory stick an etc. They can all fail at anytime. So when they fail you replace the part. Just like vehicle parts wear out or fail. You replace them with new parts.

Server, Workstation, Desktop, Laptop, Netbook, Tablet, and Smartphone. All these could fail parts or the entire device itself. Just don't know when something might happen. When it does just have to trouble shoot the issue on hand. Hardware or Software. .

If you take care of system the failure rate is less, but even if you do take care of it. Hardware or software glitches are lurking around. CPU and heat sink. These two should be check yearly to see if the silver gel is still snug. Most overlook these two. If the silver gel is dried up or cracked then the CPU going to not get enough cooling and start to over heat and shut the system down on you. Also the heat sink blades get filled up with dust then tends to clog-up. Again the system needs to be checked every 6 months if you just go it or using the system under heavy usage.

 

[psycros]

A little secret..with a BIOS tweak most of those WD green drives magically become blue. Its not hard to Google.

 

[tipstir]

A little secret..with a BIOS tweak most of those WD green drives magically become blue. Its not hard to Google.

Only if the BIOS has the feature in it. Most of the BIOS today is crippled.

 

[madboyv1]

I have a WD Black 640GB about to run out of warranty time and is still running strong and a WD Blue 500GB that's a year or so out of band but still chugging along. Those were the last two HDDs sub 1TB I've bought in a while. I've never had failure with a sub 1TB drive in the 15 years I've been buying drives *knock on wood*, they simply got replaced and then donated/target practice from increased storage needs. A mix of Seagate and WD 1TB drives had me burned for a while, and after a circuit board fire on a seagate I swore never again for them (for personal use anyways). Of 1TB+ drives, Samsung F1 and F4 drives were rock solid, I miss buying them. Trying out some 3TB Toshibas; one showed some bad sectors from the start but it used remapped some space and has been holding strong since.

At work however, they have TONS of WD Caviars and Seagate Baracudas and they constantly drop out of the sky (even newer ones). Good thing we've kept all the "spares" that come out of systems whose motherboards have failed. =p

 

[Tmagic650]

"I am chocked at WD Blue line of destkop and their 0% failure rate"... Me too! WD's Blue line of desktop and laptop drives are crap to be sure, and like others have said, this article is really meaningless

 

[Railman]

It would have been interesting to know which makes failed to make the grade. You could ignore a manufacturer solely because Puget had never tested their product which had it been tested might have topped the reliability chart.

 

[dividebyzero]

It would have been interesting to know which makes failed to make the grade.

You want a comprehensive run down on failure rates from manufacturers? In the real world, those numbers are never made public. It is economic and strategically sensitive data for the companies involved.
If you want some inkling, then I'd suggest you check through user reviews at Newegg and other large (r)etailers - verified ownership only of course.
The closest you'll get to being spoon-fed numbers that require no effort to acquire is Marc Prieur's periodic articles of return rates for a large French etailer for Hardware France / BeHardware. Bear in mind that these are return rates, and NOT failure/warranty rates.

 

[Jad Chaar]

I am chocked at WD Blue line of destkop and their 0% failure rate.

It must be that they send crap versions to Balkans. We included Blue disks in our systems, and just last year we had some 4-5 failures, bad sectors mostly. That is just a desktop line. We had some notebook drives changed and people would bring it in after just month of use, bad sectors again. So we opted for Black edition, and some Seagate drives. Black has 5 year warranty, so that is another factor, Blue has just 2 years, but most of them fail.

I am not surprised one bit. I have recommended WD drives and used them personally for years and they are very reliable.

 

[Mike Steele]

I definitely agree with kingston ram, samsung and western digital. I have a pretty awesome msi motherboard, it's also good to see asus getting their **** together again...

 

[cliffordcooley]

As one member pointed out with the difference in opinion on the WD Blue drives. I'm betting a different merchant has different mileage. While it is nice to see these facts from one stand point, I still wouldn't bank on them being better than those items not listed. This is after all just one merchant in a long list of merchants. Until now I had not even heard of Puget, perhaps the rock I've been under is larger than I thought.

 

[tipstir]

Maxtor HDD were my favorite before Segate had taken them over then the Maxtor HDD was never the same. WD Blue I had purchased a lot of 1TB in 2010, 2011, 2012. Only two still working in NAS. The WD Red are too expensive track record is too new to see how well they would hold up WD Black more stable. The WD Green Over heats. The last WD Blue I have here this year are built in 2013 They do not have the shiny metal more black in color. I'll have to see how they do.

 

[dividebyzero]

Until now I had not even heard of Puget, perhaps the rock I've been under is larger than I thought.

That's the thing about Alzheimer's- every day is a learning experience (check out the third post). Puget are one of the larger boutique builders- they predate Maingear and Digital Storm. Maybe not as iconic (and old a brand) as Alienware, VoodooPC, or Falcon Northwest, but they do a substantial range of pro and client systems. Didn't realize they did laptops though.

 

[cliffordcooley]

That's the thing about Alzheimer's- every day is a learning experience (check out the third post).

LOL

 

[Experimentongod]

I like to see Kingston and Asus in the list, it's what I usually buy. On hard drives I used to buy WD but I've switched to Seagate and no problems so far apart from having to use an utility to disable the crazy drive head parking (fingers crossed).

 

[pmshah]

So has AMD sorted out their USB problems ? For that matter even Intel is no better. Only way that I can connect a port powered USB 2 drive is through a powered hub. Connect more than 2 on Intel and you start having dropouts. AMD would disconnect repeatedly aprt from the fact that it would not recognise even USB 2 flash drives that otherwise work flawlessly. I would settle for VIA reliability any day over performance. I have clients with anywhere from 4 to 8 year old via based systems, running 10 - 12 hours a day, 6 days a week - which have not needed anything but battery replacements.