About Us
With George and Don retiring from HLS Systems on April 30th of 2007, Carol Lillard has taken over the presidency of HLS Systems, Inc. while Jim is operating as the Treasurer and Secretary. Carol Lillard is a graduate of CU, worked for the state of
Colorado for many years, is an avid computer user...and shares Jim's passions
for all things computerized. Carol brings much needed expertise to HLS Systems
with her administrative and management skills.
RETIRED!
We originally started our company to provide a business entity through which to develop and commercialize database products. Our first product was a patient tracking system for a local hospital using Ashton Tate's dBASE software as the foundation. We continue to develop custom database applications using Microsoft's FoxPro, Microsoft’s Visual FoxPro, or Microsoft’s Access to meet our customer's specific needs. After hearing one horror story after another from friends and acquaintances about quality and performance issues relating to PCs they've purchased either from some local "white box" supplier or from some "big box" company, we decided to also build PCs for our customers, and to build them using only quality components suited to their specified needs. We do NOT use OEM* hardware parts manufactured specifically to increase our profit margin, but use only quality components having their original "full-up" capabilities and warrantees as provided by the original product's manufacturers. These are "off-the-shelf" manufactured parts with manufacturer's original warranties and specifications. What Can HLS Systems, Inc. Do For You?HLS Systems, Inc. purchases genuine
manufacturer's brand-name parts having their full-up manufacture's stated
capabilities through our distributors and uses them to build customized personal
computers, PCs, each uniquely different and suited to our customer’s specific
computing needs. HLS Systems, Inc.
purchases and installs only the latest, state-of-the-art
brand name components having full
manufacturer's
warrantees. In part what this means is that you can go to the product
manufacturer's web site directly to download the latest drivers for their
products installed in your HLS Systems built PC, as opposed to having to
go to the company from whom you purchased your computer (Gateway, Dell, etc.) to
download custom drivers for the degraded products (having OEM-sourced
brand names attached to them) they provide in their systems. We use quality, recognized
products from Intel (motherboards, CPUs, Chip Sets, etc.); memory from
Crucial, Kingston, and other quality suppliers of RAM; Creative Labs audio
products; Promise Technology RAID controllers; ATI, Matrox, and other brand name
video cards utilizing nVidia chipsets; Maxtor, Seagate, and Western Digital hard
drives along with KingWin removable hard drive systems; IOMEGA ZIP Drive products; Plextor CD-ROM drives; Pioneer DVD, DVD- R/RW combo
Reader/Players; and cases from many sources including Antec (from which we also
purchase our upgraded power supplies), Kingwin, and CoolerMaster to name just a
few. Our case selection considers the new Intel
Thermally Advantaged Case (TAC) specifications to ensure adequate cooling of the
PC's internal components. As
a result of using these as well as other select quality components, it is rare to have our PCs come back to us for repair
as a result of hardware failures! We want
our products to spend their time on your computer desk...not our workbench!
That's why we choose to use quality components from name-brand manufacturers,
and that's what makes our custom computing platform products "worth their price!"
Some of the other services we provide include:
*OEM: "Original Equipment Manufacturer" parts."An OEM (original equipment manufacturer) is a company that uses product components from one or more other companies to build a product that it sells under its own company name and brand. (The term is sometimes mistakenly used to refer to the company that supplies the components.) IBM is an example of a supplier to the OEM market (and IBM is also an OEM itself since it uses other companies' parts in some of its products). Many computer hardware manufacturers [Intel, ATI, etc.] that have their own brand-name products derive considerable revenue by reselling the product or key parts of it to OEM companies that seem to be competing in the same market. Arguments for selling to an OEM are that you may be able to make money from a market sector that your competitor already owns (perhaps because they have an existing customer base) and that you can be a more efficient producer because you sell and manufacture more of your product. Frequently, an OEM company differentiates itself from the company it buys parts from by adding [or deleting] features or using different selling concepts. Many OEM companies are selling a "solution" tailored to a particular vertical market." Here's the issue: A large PC manufacturer XYZ advertises, for example, that an "ATI All-In-Wonder" video card is installed in their PCs. What company XYZ does is to contract with ATI to build thousands of these video cards for their PCs. However, to hold their cost down in order to maximize their profits, there may be features that are disabled, are of lesser quality, diminished in terms of performance, or not even included...as opposed to the ATI card of the SAME name that you would buy off-the-shelf or directly from the manufacturer (supplier) of the card. Bottom line, that "mouse port" included with the video card may not be there on the OEM version of the card! Or, the OEM-version sound chip on your audio card may not implement all of the synthesized features you had expected to be there! A way to know whether or not your installed components are OEM parts in this sense is to find out who warrants the product and where you need to go to download updated drivers should you upgrade your operating system. If company XYZ warrants the parts (and/or provides the driver updates)...then these parts are more than likely "OEM." IF, on the other hand, ATI warrants your video card as well as provides the drivers for their product, then you know for sure you have an "original" version of that particular manufacturer's video card. If Gateway, for example, warrants the same model number card and provides the drivers then it is an "OEM" product. What's on that motherboard?Current motherboards are including integrated products and capabilities that heretofore had to be purchased and installed as separate components. This in turn would increase the price of that product accordingly. For example, you will find video and/or audio capabilities integrated into Intel motherboards that weren't there a few years ago. This means you won't have the additional expense of having to purchase an additional PCI Express x16, PCI, or AGP video card or plug-in audio cards. When you purchase a PC incorporating these new technologies, you should expect to pay less for it. You can also find on newer motherboards additional components and/or capabilities such as USB ports (USB2.0 if current), IEEE-1394 Firewire Ports, and up to 6-channel (or greater) surround sound audio! Of course, motherboards incorporating any of this new technologies will cost you a bit more than a motherboard not having these features, but in the long run your system will cost less than if you had to purchase each of these components individually as add-on plug-in cards. Tutorials and Other Bits of InformationBuilding an Intel D865-based PCBuilding an Intel D875PBZ-based PCBuilding an Intel D850GBAL/P4-based PCBuilding an Intel D850EMV2L/P4-based PC Converting 8mm Videos to VHS Tape, DVDs, etc. Reviews of Selected Pinnacle Systems, Inc. Products Web Page/Cursor/Images/Text Special Effects
Yup! We're now building "Whitebooks!" We are Microsoft System Builders
If we can work with you to build your next PC, your database product...or with any of the other services we provide, please get in touch with: Jim Lillard
Thanks for being visitor
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Jim
spent 20 years in the USAF, with a stint in PMEL as a Metrologist and instructor. A
long-time computer hobbyist, Jim founded "Compupair, Inc." in 1982, a successful
computer maintenance business in Denver with ten employees servicing hundreds of
local and mountain community users. Jim subsequently sold his business and went
to work for a major aerospace company. Jim also heads up HLS's Microsoft Foxpro Database creation team
and specializes in configuring and building servers.
HLS's
computer experience dates back to 1962, when George was assigned to maintain
Minute Man Missile computer maintenance systems while serving in the USAF, following up
with a 2nd career in 1965 as a USAF Metrologist (PMEL) and instructor working with
state-of-the-art electronic test and measurement equipment. George eventually
graduated into building his own PCs over the years, having experience in between
with consumer products built by Atari, Kaypro, and Gateway. George was the
lead with HLS's web site page authoring, managing, and setup team.
