What's good for a workstation these days?
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Like @stacksofplates I like the HP z series for a true workstation. They have some different form factors, but you can buy a used one pretty cheap for the power they have because they started off life as $1,600 workstations. The only down side might be that the Xeon is a little more power hungry than some other processors. (and the form factor if you want something small enough to mount to the back of your monitor)
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@Mike-Davis said in What's good for a workstation these days?:
Like @stacksofplates I like the HP z series for a true workstation. They have some different form factors, but you can buy a used one pretty cheap for the power they have because they started off life as $1,600 workstations. The only down side might be that the Xeon is a little more power hungry than some other processors. (and the form factor if you want something small enough to mount to the back of your monitor)
Agree with you, I use a z240 and it's beautifully built. It's cheap, also.
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I'm an HP guy myself. The last round was HP EliteDesk 800 G1 SFF at $850 without a monitor. 3 year warranty with direct to level 2 support - you call and say you have a bad mobo or drive, and they pretty much just ship you one.
I do have two of those micro form factors that @JaredBusch posted (they are HP though). They've been in place for a little over a year and have had no issues.
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@scottalanmiller said in What's good for a workstation these days?:
@MattSpeller said in What's good for a workstation these days?:
@momurda external PSU is the mark of the beast
Agree there, that's awful.
@JaredBusch said in What's good for a workstation these days?:
I only buy the micro form factor any more.
These units require the use of an external powersupply.
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@Mike-Davis said in What's good for a workstation these days?:
Like @stacksofplates I like the HP z series for a true workstation. They have some different form factors, but you can buy a used one pretty cheap for the power they have because they started off life as $1,600 workstations. The only down side might be that the Xeon is a little more power hungry than some other processors. (and the form factor if you want something small enough to mount to the back of your monitor)
Ya we jam ours full of everything. The 440s have 128GB RAM with dual 6 core and the 840s have 256GB RAM and I believe dual 12 core. Both have M4000s also.
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Dare I say it ........... we use Lenovo for our Desktops. Range of i3-i5 8GB Min RAM depending on user requirements
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@hobbit666 said in What's good for a workstation these days?:
Dare I say it ........... we use Lenovo for our Desktops. Range of i3-i5 8GB Min RAM depending on user requirements
Hopefully this changes soon.
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@hobbit666 said in What's good for a workstation these days?:
Dare I say it ........... we use Lenovo for our Desktops. Range of i3-i5 8GB Min RAM depending on user requirements
We still have some S20s (thinkstation) around. I have one at home also.
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@Dashrender said in What's good for a workstation these days?:
@scottalanmiller said in What's good for a workstation these days?:
@MattSpeller said in What's good for a workstation these days?:
@momurda external PSU is the mark of the beast
Agree there, that's awful.
@JaredBusch said in What's good for a workstation these days?:
I only buy the micro form factor any more.
These units require the use of an external powersupply.
Same powersupply that laptops use. and it is not like a computer doe snot need a power cord.
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We had been buying the HP Prodesk 600 G2s (i5 3.2Ghz 6500, 8GB DDR3, 500GB HDD)
We have a few public facing areas, and other areas where clients are located and decided that something smaller and less intrusive would be better and for those areas we get the HP EliteDesk 800 G2 (mini, i5 3.2Ghz 6500, 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD) because we are mounting them on the back of monitors.
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@JaredBusch said in What's good for a workstation these days?:
@Dashrender said in What's good for a workstation these days?:
@scottalanmiller said in What's good for a workstation these days?:
@MattSpeller said in What's good for a workstation these days?:
@momurda external PSU is the mark of the beast
Agree there, that's awful.
@JaredBusch said in What's good for a workstation these days?:
I only buy the micro form factor any more.
These units require the use of an external powersupply.
Same powersupply that laptops use. and it is not like a computer doe snot need a power cord.
Oh of course - I was simply pointing out that people are dishing on external power supplies (for non mobile computers I also hate external PS - but really , does it matter?).
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@ntozier said in What's good for a workstation these days?:
We had been buying the HP Prodesk 600 G2s (i5 3.2Ghz 6500, 8GB DDR3, 500GB HDD)
We have a few public facing areas, and other areas where clients are located and decided that something smaller and less intrusive would be better and for those areas we get the HP EliteDesk 800 G2 (mini, i5 3.2Ghz 6500, 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD) because we are mounting them on the back of monitors.
In places I don't need a DVD reader, I'll be putting these in on my next round of replacements.
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@Dashrender I've been thinking about picking one up for me to replace my aging i3 TV box.
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@ntozier said in What's good for a workstation these days?:
@Dashrender I've been thinking about picking one up for me to replace my aging i3 TV box.
Hey if it has HDMI out (not much AV equipment has DisplayPort yet) and can handle 4 K - I'd be game for that.
really I'm considering an XBoX One S. Cheapest way to get a 4K BluRay player, plus the bonuses of the game station, etc. To bad it will probably never have Playstation Vue on it. LOL
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I've had good luck buying Optiplex 9020 SFF, new with warranty, off of Ebay. Similar to this one.
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@Dashrender It does not have a HDMI out, it has two DPs though. I use a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter to hook my laptop up to my projector at home. I bought a el cheapo $7 adapter but they make 4k ones and have them on Amazon for about $20.
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I have some historical fears of SFF myself. Cases that come stocked with no upgrade path. Tiny underpowered PSes that overheat at the smallest dust ball or fry after a RAM upgrade. Bad thermal in general. After all, most "office" desks put their computers in little enclosed cabinets.
There is also this bizarre connection in my brain between how small it is, and how under-performing it is. I'm fine with SFF but it better still have good power compared to the specs I mentioned before. SSD will certainly help there.
I definitely still need DVD drives and front USB and SD card readers.
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For my workstation at work, I'm very happy with my Dell Precision T3610. It's got a great Xeon in it, 16bg RAM (upgraded from 8 since I was always running out), and a nice Nvidia Quadro... dual monitor set-up.
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@Tim_G I can't recommend that enough... I'll probably never outgrow it (until software specs require more than it has at least).
