If you are in the market to buy a PC, then there are generally three main avenues to choose from. You lot tin buy the components and build the computer yourself, yous can buy an off-the-shelf unit from a big box retailer, or yous can get to a boutique organization architect for a custom PC. If you've been in the PC community for a while, you lot may take heard the name Puget Systems earlier. They are a premium custom organization architect specializing in both workstations and gaming computers. This includes workloads such as engineering, content creation, 3D modeling, ML/AI, gaming, streaming, and more.

They serve a relatively small niche market of customers looking for a premium system with the right selection of components for the task. Those customers are as well willing to pay extra for build quality and a customer service team that will guide them through the entire procedure. In that location are a few competitors in this market place such as Origin PC or Digital Storm on the gaming side and Velocity Micro on the workstation side, but Puget has tried to separate themselves from the competition by focusing on component choice and workload expertise.

In addition to building and selling computers, Puget does research to observe the all-time hardware for a given workload. Mayhap a certain Z370 motherboard is great for gaming, while another is better for auto learning. They'll look into which CPUs piece of work more efficiently in Adobe Premiere, while other at less expense does great in AutoCAD. Ocassionally nosotros've republished some of their Labs' blog content on TechSpot to complement our views on gaming and general performance, with their views on workstation-type loads.

The concluding fourth dimension nosotros reviewed one of Puget's systems was back in 2022, but we've stayed in touch on since and earlier this twelvemonth they pitched usa on the thought to receive and review a new PC congenital by them and go through the process as one of their customers would. More than reviewing the hardware itself -- which wouldn't exist much of a surprise to the states -- we played the part of a regular customer, asking questions based on needs and also inquiring most what trends they're seeing, following on the delivery and last production that arrived to our door.

In these pre-sales conversations they told us things like they find that CAD systems are fairly easy to configure because the workflow is standardized. On the other end, content creation systems can exist more difficult since the workflows vary depending on cameras, resolutions, codecs, etc. Puget told the states they've seen workloads and their corresponding systems transition from heavily CPU focused to at present being heavily GPU focused. Eventually we learned that Puget's core customers today are in the content creation space with some large customers doing AI / ML work as well.

If you have a item workload and know what blazon of organization you want, y'all tin can start your custom build based around 1 of their viii different chassis types or choice one of their pre-configured systems with optimized components for your employ case.

Our process began back in July 2022, so if some of the components look as they weren't picked yesterday, that's because they weren't. The system they designed for me is a "content creation by day, gaming by night" system.

Afterwards browsing their site, I had some ideas in mind, simply wasn't exactly sure what type of configuration to get. To get the design process started, Puget scheduled a call with a member of their sales team. The rep walked me through the procedure of component selection based on my use case and felt he was knowledgeable about which components were best for different scenarios. I've specced out and congenital countless systems before but information technology was overnice to sit dorsum and see how they do. We went with the Puget Genesis ane model and this is the system nosotros came upwards with together.

CPU Intel Core i7 7820X
Motherboard Gigabyte X299 Designare EX
GPU GTX 1070 Ti 8GB
RAM 32GB Crucial DDR4 2666MHz
Storage 2x Samsung 860 Pro 512GB SATA SSD
PSU EVGA SuperNOVA 850W P2
Case Fractal Design Define R5 Blackness
Cooling Noctua NH-U12DX i4
Bone Windows ten Pro 64-bit
Total Price $3725.30

The arrangement was roughly the same price a few months ago than you lot tin can notice information technology for at present, just the Fractal case has been upgraded to the Define R6 model. As y'all would await from a custom PC builder, each organisation is entirely customizable. Puget has a few base platforms that they recommend, just y'all can change each component to fit your needs.

With the final components chosen, Puget started the building procedure. We've seen many examples of boutique PC builders keeping y'all posted on the status of your system, but few as detailed as we saw here. For my build, there were 17 pages of notes on everything from who plugged in the RAM, to who verified the rear fan was screwed in, who checked the sound output, who created the shipping label, and so on...

Puget also benchmarks all new builds based on the client'due south workload to ensure it will perform upwardly to my expectations. All of these results are available online and linked to my account so if something doesn't seem correct in the future, I tin go back and check to see what the operation should exist. Puget besides takes photos of the system and its internals, thermal images of the components, and screenshots of BIOS settings which can work to your advantage for futurity reference or troubleshooting.

With all of that washed, the arrangement shipped out and arrived double-boxed to my door...

The Genesis I system is a keen option for a professional workstation. The Fractal Blueprint Ascertain R5 has plenty of room for high-end components but likewise has sound dampening cloth in the front panel and both side panels.

Around dorsum we run across the wide variety of I/O from the Gigabyte motherboard. The dual USB-C and dual Ethernet ports are a great feature for content creation where you may demand access to multiple networks and loftier-speed devices. To the right of the power supply, Puget has added stickers containing information on the Windows 10 product license and an internal serial number identifying this PC to Puget.

As expected, the cable management is exceptional out of the box. Every concluding item has been taken intendance of including adding some potting chemical compound to the front panel connectors and motherboard speaker to ensure they don't jerk loose during shipping.

The get-go matter I noticed inside were the two big support pieces. Puget has custom support braces out of articulate plastic to provide actress force during shipping for both the CPU heatsink and GPU. Those two components are very heavy and are only secured at the base of operations.

The CPU heatsink slice screws into the top of the case and fits perfectly around the individual heat pipes of the Noctua NH-U12DX i4. The GPU mount screws into the side of the difficult bulldoze bays and has support fingers for multiple GPUs. Every component in the build is customizable, simply I do take two pocket-sized problems with the default component choice for this build.

Everything in the system is top notch and built mostly with off the shelves components, then the fact that the RAM were plain green PCBs with no rut spreader really makes them stick out similar a sore thumb. Not that it will bear on performance, but if I'm spending $4,000 on a organization, this looks a bit too pedestrian for my taste. The 2d issue I take is with the default storage options. I retrieve in 2022 and at this cost signal, the storage drives should be 1000.two instead of SATA. Of course, you can customize everything as you build information technology, but I establish information technology strange that the system didn't come up with these by default.

Moving around back, the splendid cable management continues. Everything is neatly managed and nil tied into identify. Puget has also included an extra prepare of SATA data and power cables for futurity expansion. I thought the custom velcro with a "spare" label was a overnice bear upon. Below the ii extra hard drive mounts we discover the signature of the Puget employee who congenital the system.

Puget includes a box of extras and a binder of arrangement details. Power cable and video cables, Wi-Fi antennas, and more. The system'due south binder has a personalized note signed past the visitor president, detailed photos of the system including thermal imaging, a list of FAQs, several startup guides for common tasks, the full list of associates details and benchmarks, a recovery USB bulldoze, and optical media for Windows 10 and drivers. This is a keen place to go for a paper copy of the system'south details and for preliminary troubleshooting.

In terms of performance testing, at that place wasn't a whole lot to do. Puget made my job easy by running all of the benchmarks already and making the results available online. Since they utilise mutual off-the-shelf components, system performance should exist very close to other systems with like parts. Experience free to checkout our GTX 1070 Ti and Core i7-7820X reviews to get a sense of how this item build performs.

Since this organisation was designed mainly for content creation, below you can see Puget'due south Photoshop benchmark results as an instance.

Puget says their support includes lifetime labor and technical back up, with one-year warranty on parts.

Every bit with most boutique PC builders, value is not on their side, and certainly if you lot like edifice, upgrading and troubleshooting your ain PC, you lot are not Puget'southward typical client. If you wanted to build a similarly configured system yourself compared to the one I tested with (at the fourth dimension of ordering), it would cost around $two,800 according to PCPartPicker and Newegg. What do you get for this 33% premium and who would experience comfy spending this much?

For the boilerplate domicile user, this may audio way out of your ballpark. If you know exactly what computer you want, know how to build information technology, and don't plan on needing assistance with it downward the road, no demand to bother. But precisely for this reason, we asked Puget almost their core clientele, who they are and what kind of support they often asking. Choosing the best components for specific tasks came up at the top of that list, with the option to upgrade down the line at no added support cost is part of the parcel.

Enterprise customers that don't necessarily have the manpower to troubleshoot in-firm will see Puget's support as a worthy complement. Knowing that they can spend fourth dimension using the computers for their business instead of fixing them may be worth the price.

Maybe you have an idea for a machine learning startup simply aren't sure what system you need to get your idea off the ground. Or if you manage a team of content creators and want to focus on fine art instead of the systems themselves. Puget's pitch is they can assistance you understand your workload and put together a organization that will perfectly run across your needs.