Puget Systems Obsidian: Solid as a Rock
by Dustin Sklavos on April 7, 2011 6:15 PM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- Intel
- Puget Systems
Conclusion: Reliability Above All Else
Taken at face value, the Puget Systems Obsidian is a reasonably solid enterprise-class tower. The very basic configuration keeps costs, power consumption, heat, and noise incredibly low. This is due at least in part to the choice of the Antec Mini P180, which is actually a recent development: older Obsidian machines were built in the Silverstone TJ08. That wasn't exactly a problematic chassis to begin with as Silverstone's cases tend to be fairly well built, smartly engineered, and reasonably priced. The move to the Mini P180 just makes the Obsidian that much quieter, and at least anecdotal experience with Antec suggests replacement parts are extremely easy to come by.
The devil with the Obsidian is, of course, in the details. All told, our review configuration runs about $800 if you buy the parts from NewEgg. Tack a Windows 7 Professional 64-bit license on and you're looking at about $940. That means Puget is making roughly $400 off of systems configured like our review unit. Admittedly that feels a little dicey and is liable to give one pause, but it's important to keep in mind the kind of research and careful engineering that goes into this line specifically, along with the extra service of having an advance spare on hand at all times. This system is intended for business/enterprise customers and there's always a premium to be paid for that.
We do have a few concerns with the targeted business/enterprise customers, however. First, we wonder how many businesses actually want to use this size of desktop tower. Yes, the Antec Mini P180 is a great chassis, but it's also far larger than what most businesses need. If your company wants to add a discrete GPU, that's an option, but there are definitely companies that would rather have PCs that are less than half the size of the Obisidian (and still quiet under most workloads). The second issue is the default warranty. You can tell us that your parts are highly reliable and there's a hot-spare on hand for advance replacement, but given the $400 markup we'd suggest that a 3-year parts warranty should come standard. That's what Dell and HP do for their business PCs, and if you want a piece of that pie you need to compete on all fronts.
Add in the 3-year warranty and our Obsidian review system will set you (or your business) back over $1600. Dell's OptiPlex 990 with similar options will cost around $1100 (using the current and frequently available "instant savings"). The HP Compaq 8200 Elite is priced similar to Dell at $1050. Puget Systems may use a higher quality case with cooling that will run quiet even under heavy loads, and their component choices may be more reliable, but you're paying a substantial premium.
Ultimately, taken at face value the information we've seen from Puget Systems indicates their Obsidian is a highly reliable build that would be ideal for mission critical situations. Yes, you can easily use their research to build your own system using the same parts for a lot less money, but then you're stuck with internal support should a problem arise. It's not the fastest computer on the block and certainly it's unfair to place it in a performance race against the hardcore gaming machines we've compared it to. Puget also provides more customization options that larger OEMs should you have special needs--and that's one area where the P180 chassis is a real benefit. The care that has gone into its design along with the virtually silent operation and excellent service make the Puget Systems Obsidian easy to recommend for business users, provided they can stomach the price.
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Belard - Thursday, April 7, 2011 - link
The Obsidian is designed for business people who don't want a generic looking Dell or HP or something that is tiny and hidden. Perhaps something they can see in their office.The parts makes it easy to work with and replace in the future. I had some older Dells that have to be sold for cheap or whatever because while the case/PSU are fine - the non-standard parts makes the computer fit for the city dump.
I've changed out full offices out of DELLs into hand-built computers I made myself. Usually with Antec cases - high end when possible. I am usually able to do a complete rebuild on the inside while keeping the PSU / optical drive.
Things like filters and high end anti-noise features are not part of Dell and HP, etc. Those are mass produce standard generic computers.
I've built a computer for a client 8 years ago - because of the RAID and extra features - it was about $800 in labor. I don't do work like that anymore... at most a rare gaming machine would require a bit of work.
As the article stated: The parts are nothing special. But its the testing and making sure they use some of the best parts that they sell to their customers.
IMHO: WD drives are louder than Seagates thou... ;)
JarredWalton - Thursday, April 7, 2011 - link
Most of the big businesses I know just junk (well, wipe and then recycle) old PCs after four or five years. That's what a corporation I worked at for four years did anyway. Some of the conclusion was added by me based off of my experience supporting Dell and HP desktops and laptops over the years, and I can guarantee that neither company that I worked for would have even considered a smaller computer shop.At one company, we also had the option for mini towers or desktops, and about 80% of the people preferred desktops. I like my towers, though, and would have loved an Antec P180 chassis. Not for $450 extra, though.
Obviously, different companies will have different priorities, but considering the cost and the size of Puget Systems (e.g. quite small), I'm betting mostly they get smaller local companies as opposed to any "enterprise" customers.
Penti - Friday, April 8, 2011 - link
Plus if businesses wants workstations they do have the much better option of buying professional properly built workstations from the OEMs such as HP and Dell that is designed to be workstations and have support. DIY builders cases such as this Antec is bad in comparison any way. So is the high-end gaming cases too. If they just want cheap clients then the cheap OEM machines is better any way. You cant add 70 - 110 dollar cases and 100 dollars PSUs onto 400 dollar clients. With 3 years warranty from the supplier. They simply get better desktopsdeals from others then you (OP). Small businesses can add other services though. You can even add 80+ PSUs as an option to those cheap 400 dollar clients by the way. I doubt anybody wants to support those 4+ years PSUs on the rebuilt clients any way Jarred. Computers can generally be used until they and their components is mostly useless a 3-4 year old PSU and optical drive isn't worth the time / labor to save / reuse. They are at home if there hasn't been shift in standards like moving to new connectors but thats another deal.Azethoth - Thursday, April 7, 2011 - link
I used this case on a custom build. It is full of win and awesome and quiet, etc.But wtf is up with the reset and power switches being hidden? You have to open the case to turn it on or off or reset it. Or if you do not have sausage fingers you can kind of hit the power button through one of the slots but its damn awkward.
JarredWalton - Thursday, April 7, 2011 - link
I could use something like that thanks to my one-year-old running around the house. LOLGami - Thursday, April 7, 2011 - link
it won't help..even at the age of one. They'll figure out how to open the door and than push those buttons.
JarredWalton - Friday, April 8, 2011 - link
No, trust me, it would help. Right now, he's staring at my big blue glowing button on the front of my case and it's only a matter of time before he pushes it. Luckily it will just hibernate the PC and this particular system doesn't have a reset button. My wife's PC, though.... :)RaistlinZ - Thursday, April 7, 2011 - link
Nice system, but I think a business would be looking to minimize costs as much as possible. I configured the below from HP.comHP Pavilion Elite HPE-570t customizable Desktop PC
LC120AV#ABA
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 quad-core processor with Turbo-Boost [up to 3.8GHz, 8MB cache]
8GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM [4 DIMMs]
FREE UPGRADE! 1.5TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive from 750GB
No additional office software
Norton Internet Security(TM) 2011 - 15 month
1GB DDR3 ATI Radeon HD 5570 [DVI, HDMI, DP, VGA adapter]
FREE UPGRADE! Blu-ray player & Lightscribe SuperMulti DVD burner
Integrated Ethernet port, No wireless LAN
15-in-1 memory card reader, 1 USB, audio
No TV Tuner
Beats Audio (tm) -- integrated studio quality sound
HP USB keyboard and optical mouse
TOTAL: $909.99 + Free Shipping.
This system has the advantage of a faster CPU with Hyperthreading, larger hard drive, Blu-Ray player, and discrete graphics and still costs $400.00 less than the Puget system.
Just saying.
argosreality - Thursday, April 7, 2011 - link
Except a business is typically not going to buy a machine aimed at a consumer. Atleast, not a business larger than say 10 or so machines. The business line comes with better support, generally better design and is easier to work on. You also typically get better warranties and options for onsite, 24hr support let alone uplift capabilities. That makes a huge difference in the bottom line especially if you're leasing the machines or writing them off for tax purposes.I can't count the number of times we see business line machines from HP or dell (ok excluding the Dell GX2xx series...) that have been running for years without hardware problems. Consumer grade? Yea, good luck
gr00 - Friday, April 8, 2011 - link
I'm surprised that this system doesn't have RAID out of the box - it has only 1 hard drive. In a business environment where you keep it as a 24/7 running system (maybe as a in-office server) you don't want your hard drive failing - regardless of weather HP and Dell feature this as standard - they have very broad selection of workstations so that is your responsibility. Here you are advertised stability. Dell and HP don't feature 8GB at this price - don't look at desktops because you can get a desktop much cheaper than from those brands anyway, look at workstation section without Xeon cpus.What I'd like to see beside RAID is dual NIC MB.
What I'd do is build a desktop and buy extended warranty.