Charlie's Blog

I feel this post deserves an explanation.

I got the idea for this post earlier today when Dan and I were looking at various custom PC resellers' sites and laughing about all the ridiculous case designs.

Why does that already ridiculous, complicated PC case have a chainsaw attached to it? Well I'll bet the process was the same as the guys who put a chainsaw on a gun... "yeah, he can shoot bullets but you know what would be really cool? a chainsaw!" Followed by murmurs of approval all around the boardroom. What's next???

I bring this up because there is a trend. A trend and a belief that things with more stuff and that look like the Jetsons' car are somehow way cooler than something that does what it is supposed to. Seriously, in Gears of War, if they gave you a gun that did its job, you would not need a chainsaw. If Alienware's customer service was up to snuff, they wouldn't need freakishly stupid, ridiculous cases that look like they will more likely take a trip to the moon and fold up into a briefcase when you get there than play your games without overheating. I mean, what is the point? They put all this effort, R&D, time, money etc... into their case design, and not even the good stuff like airflow and noise-reduction, when they should focus on what people really want to buy: A good solid reliable computer with good support in case (no pun intended) something goes wrong.

In stark contrast is Puget Systems. Yeah, shameless plug, I know... But seriously, take a look. at the time of this writing they are sitting at the 6th highest rated company on that list. Are our systems overly flashy? No. Are they solid, well built and strenuously tested? Yes.

here's a recent review done by tom's hardware.