Puget Systems Offers Unique Solution to Hard Drive Shortage

Posted 11/23/2011 at 7:39am | by Paul Lilly

9

Comments

Print

Few companies in the PC industry can escape the resonating effects of the hard drive shortage caused by recent flooding in Thailand. It's had a bigger impact than simply doubling, and in some cases, tripling the cost of hard drives, the shortage also creates challenges for PC makers who buy HDDs in bulk and build systems around them. Making the best of a bad situation, Jon Bach, founder of Puget Systems, explains how his company plans to cope with an outside-the-box solution.

Before we get to that, Puget Systems, like other OEMs, is planning to tap into its "extensive supplier network" to strategically manage its inventory.

"This is exactly the kind of scenario we had in mind when we purchased our building in Auburn, WA. The equity in that investment gives us the purchasing power to be aggressive in preparing for shortages. We have bought up many months worth of hard drive inventory, and our hope is that we will not even have to deal with a shortage of supply here!," Bach explained.

If the shortage lasts well into 2012, as industry insiders expect it will, Puget will feel the effects like everyone else. In that case, Puget's outside-the-box solution is two-fold. First, the company will offer to pre-wire new systems for the addition of a second drive. That means you can purchase an SSD for fast performance, and drop a hard drive in for storage at your discretion once prices come down. Nothing wild there.

Secondly, Puget will allow you to send in hard drives you already own for installation in your new PC.

"While our normal policies do not allow this for primary drives, we are happy that as a small business, we can be flexible given the situation," Back said.

That's pretty cool and, as far as we know, unique to Puget at this point in time.

Image Credit: Puget Systems