Workstation VS Consumer grade systems.

[nitro912gr]

Hello, nice to meet you.

I have been around for some time now and since anandtech is reviewing servers as well, I though that here is the place where I can find an answer to my big question.

The question:

Is a workstation system superior to a consumer grade one?

As far as my research go, in RAW power a consumer level system can achieve the same with less money.

Also what a workstation have vs the consumer is:

More durable and hear resistant cpu, ecc memory, can take much more RAM.
(Also there are the Pro cards like the nVidia Quadro or AMD FirePro but there is no question for me on what they have to offer against a gaming card, also they can be added to any system).

I have met online a lot of people who are telling me that the workstation is faster but nobody told me why and why I can't see that in benchmarks.

After searching the hardware part myself in detail (bus speeds, clocks, CPU extensions, etc) I haven't seeing anything really outstanding on workstations part (or server grade components if you prefer).


I was wondering if there is some short of bottleneck on consumer level motherboards that is gone in server grade ones, but I wasn't able to confirm that (short of hard to find in depth technical details).



So let's say I don't need ecc memory and tons of it, is there any other reason that someone should consider a workstation and not a consumer grade system?

I'm not interested in buying anything now I ask for the shake of knowledge, but If that helps let's say that I want a system for graphics design, mostly adobe suite and some 3D with Vue and blender.

 

[biostud]

Besides the things you've already mentioned, most of the extra cost is paying for support, which is critical for business.

Xeon CPU's and pro video cards offer functions that are not activated on consumer products.

http://ark.intel.com/compare/61275,55452

 

[piasabird]

Everything is geared to maintaining stability during high levels of extended processing.

They may also be including things like an overpirced high-end motherboard. Better Networking, Raid Array, larger power supply. The kind of things you might get from an enthusiast motherboard with a high-end gaming system. Also dont forget to throw in a precision Monitor of large size Larger Resolution and faster fefresh rate like 120hrz. You could get the same thing from a higher end TV.

One thinG you get from a more expensive motherboard is the Power circuits are built to withstand more punishment. Gamers may overclock such a motherboard with less damage to the circuits, because they are built to take it. This would be similar to building animation or editing/encoding video, which can stress out the average motherboard quite a bit. This also means you are pushing the limits of the RAM and the CPU for extended periods of time. This would be like running in TURBO mode non-stop.

 

[nitro912gr]

Thanks for the answers, it seems then that I definitely don't need a workstation.

I do some final renderings from time to time which get the system to it's limit but this is just a small portion of system's time, so I don't think I stress the system so much that I need to get something that expensive.

I was just wondering because I always had high end systems (from a consumer point of view at least) and if there is something that can make my job easier I don't have a problem to spend some extra to get it.
But as it seems the benefits are not worthing to move to a workstation, especially since I know a couple of things about the hardware and the software and I don't need any special support for troubleshotting, neither I see any benefits on the extras a workstation has.

Thanks for your help

btw how do you edit signature? I wanted to add my system's specs but I can't find any option for that at UCP.

 

[Blain]

btw how do you edit signature? I wanted to add my system's specs but I can't find any option for that at UCP.

User Profile Features

 

[mindless1]

Workstation classification can vary, but basically it's a system build with the idea that your productivity is tied to mission or profit, that it's worth a few dollars more initially to reduce the chances of problems later (but nothing is foolproof).

There's the support aspect, and there's amount of work put into debugging, quality of chassis and PSU, lifespan of fans, etc - no corners should be cut to lower price. That doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a high performance system but it wouldn't make much sense to skimp in that regard either.

 

[nitro912gr]

User Profile Features

thanks, it seems I have to make at least 25 posts first to add one.

 

[gmaster456]

btw how do you edit signature? I wanted to add my system's specs but I can't find any option for that at UCP.

Must have at least 25 posts. Also, for the workstation question, they typically have MUCH better support than consumer grade systems.

 

[nitro912gr]

Thanks for the signature answers and the workstation ones.

So it seems if you can manage with the contemporary computer problems you can "risk" to use a consumer level system for a normal workflow.

 

[mindless1]

^ depends still... just because you can DIY, that doesn't mean it's always ok for a system to suffer downtime WHILE you're DIY fixing it. Around here, I'd imagine more people just keep a backup system or their laptop, make data backups, etc so it's more a matter of data management plus redundancy than trying to make a single computer bulletproof.

 

[imagoon]

Thanks for the signature answers and the workstation ones.

So it seems if you can manage with the contemporary computer problems you can "risk" to use a consumer level system for a normal workflow.

Depends. Sure I can build computers. I still buy "Dell" for work. Why? Because it costs more for me to do the repairs (factoring in my labor for my company) than it does to pay for the warranty / support.

Workstations matter when the down time is likely to cost more than the device. Example is CAD machines. A power house workstation may be $6k. It typically costs more than 6k per day the machine is down. You buy the workstation because a company like Dell or HP typically will keep parts for them on hand for years. Mean while you "Abus Powerhouse Motherboard 64+++++1+!!+" is no where to be found except on ebay in 12 months.

 

[mfenn]

Workstation classification can vary, but basically it's a system build with the idea that your productivity is tied to mission or profit, that it's worth a few dollars more initially to reduce the chances of problems later (but nothing is foolproof).

There's the support aspect, and there's amount of work put into debugging, quality of chassis and PSU, lifespan of fans, etc - no corners should be cut to lower price. That doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a high performance system but it wouldn't make much sense to skimp in that regard either.

Depends. Sure I can build computers. I still buy "Dell" for work. Why? Because it costs more for me to do the repairs (factoring in my labor for my company) than it does to pay for the warranty / support.

Workstations matter when the down time is likely to cost more than the device. Example is CAD machines. A power house workstation may be $6k. It typically costs more than 6k per day the machine is down. You buy the workstation because a company like Dell or HP typically will keep parts for them on hand for years. Mean while you "Abus Powerhouse Motherboard 64+++++1+!!+" is no where to be found except on ebay in 12 months.

:thumbsup: to both of these. When you are doing something mission critical on a machine, suddenly the cost of the core performance-related parts starts to look insignificant indeed compared to the value that you get out of the support contract.

 

[Cerb]

So let's say I don't need ecc memory and tons of it, is there any other reason that someone should consider a workstation and not a consumer grade system?

No. If the the idea of an undetected error, that is not the fault of your software vendor, altering your results, does not bother you, then you are fine with consumer-level gear. Real workstation and server hardware is all about RAS, even if all the A and S mean in any one instance is same-day shipping .

There is however, still a mystique about workstation hardware, which is from a bygone era. Until the mid-90s, Big RISC(tm) beat the pants off x86 in every way but price*. By the late 90s, x86 was winning markets Big RISC(tm) had all to itself. By the mid 00s, we all had multicore CPUs with plenty of RAM bandwidth. As the 00s came along, workstation graphics cards made real differences. With everyone either moving Direct3D, or trying to do as much as possible in GLSL, OpenCL, etc., lately, even that is going away, such that most people need a Quadro purely to be able to say they have a supported video card, if something screws up.

* not strictly true, but close enough for this discussion