Puget Systems Obsidian: Solid as a Rock

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.