Workstation builder Puget Systems' report shows the stability problems with Intel's CPUs can be managed if only you 'mistrust the default settings on any motherboard'

Intel is currently weathering a storm of epic proportions right now, with falling share prices, a foundry service that's losing billions of dollars, thousands of staff being fired, and processors that are reportedly failing in large quantities due to excessive voltages. Getting concrete data on the latter has been tricky but Puget Systems, a well-known manufacturer of workstation PCs, has issued a report detailing its own findings on the failure rate of 13th and 14th Gen Intel CPUs—and the results might surprise you.

The short version of the Puget report is simple: it has certainly experienced Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh processors crashing and giving up the ghost but it's all been «much more muted in terms of timeline and failure rate.»

That may seem somewhat at odds with what's been said and if one reads nothing but headlines, you'd been forgiven for thinking that Intel's chips are veritable bombs, just waiting to go off at a moment's notice. However, because of the nature of the PCs that Puget Systems builds, its engineers place stability above outright performance and configure the motherboards it uses accordingly.

"[O]ur stance at Puget Systems has been to mistrust the default settings on any motherboard. Instead, we commit internally to test and apply BIOS settings—especially power settings—according to our own best practices, with an emphasis on following Intel and AMD guidelines," said Jon Bach, founder of Puget Systems, in the report.

«With Intel Core CPUs in particular, we pay close attention to voltage levels and time durations at which those levels are sustained. This has been especially challenging when those guidelines are difficult to find and when motherboard makers brand features with their own unique naming.»

But despite this approach, Puget, like all OEM and system builders, still experiences hardware failures, as that's simply the nature of mass-manufactured electronic components. The majority will be fine, a small portion outstanding,