6 minute read
Hardware Workstations
Scan 3XS P67 X3D-workstation A powerful mainstream CAD system with the capacity to handle large BIM datasets.
Specifications
• Intel Core i7-2600K processor (3.4GHz overclocked to 4.5GHz) (Quad Core) • 16GB (4 x 4GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC3-12800 1,600MHz memory • Asus P8P67 motherboard • 120GB OCZ Vertex 2E Sandforce SSD system drive + 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black SATA data drive • PNY Nvidia Quadro 2000 (1GB) graphics card • Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit • 3 year warranty (1st year onsite, 2nd and 3rd Year return to base)
£1,329 3xs.scan.co.uk
Looking back with beige tinted glasses I remember my first CAD machine: a trusty 386 with a whopping 2MB of RAM. Fast forward 20 years, and swapping AutoCAD R10 for Revit Architecture 2012, most modern workstations now come with 8GB as standard. That’s 4,000 times more than in 1990. It really blows the mind.
The good news is memory is now cheap and users of CAD and Building Information Modelling (BIM) software no longer need to shell out thousands of pounds to simply load up their huge models or, if the purse strings are tight, compromise workflows by having to reduce the complexity of their data.
Scan’s latest 3XS workstation has memory in spades: 16GB of fast DDR3 PC3-12800 1,600MHz to be precise. Coupled with a Core i7 2600K CPU overclocked to 4.5GHz, it’s the perfect specification for a high-performance CAD machine. The high GHz CPU gives leading performance under single threaded operations, while four CPU cores still give a kick for multi-threaded operations like rendering.
But the quality components don’t stop there. Buoyed by a 4.5GHz CPU, the Nvidia Quadro 2000 graphics card should deliver excellent performance in 3D CAD applications, and should not be that far behind the significantly more expensive Quadro 5000 in the Octane Pro from Cryo PC (see below). The increasingly popular combination of SSD (Solid State Drive) and mechanical platter offers the best of both worlds: a 120GB OCZ Vertex 2E for system files and current projects, and a sizeable 1TB Western Digital Caviar for archive data.
At £1,329 the P67 X3D-workstation is an excellent proposition for power users who need to work with large BIM datasets. For those that are really pushing the limits of BIM — and we’ve talked to some Revit users for whom 16GB is not even enough — 8GB DIMMs will be available later this year which will increase capacity of this machine to 32GB.
Since our last Scan review, the Bolton-based company has also extended its standard warranty to three years in line with most other workstation vendors so it’s good news all round. Greg Corke
Cryo Octane Pro workstation An incredibly powerful dual processor machine for those pushing the boundaries of design visualisation.
Architectural firms often have one workstation that stands head and shoulders above the rest, maybe used exclusively for handling huge BIM models or rendering. With Cryo PC’s Octane Pro, however, we’re not just talking metaphorically - this red giant is also the largest desktop workstation we’ve ever seen.
Housing two six core Xeon chips running at 4.5GHz, 24GB of memory, a hugely powerful Quadro 5000 graphics card and an ultrafast SSD hard drive, the Octane Pro has all the hallmarks of a machine built for demanding design visualisation professionals. And the stats back this up. The machine set new records in our rendering and 3D graphics tests and was incredibly responsive when handling everything we threw at it.
Driving this exceptional performance are two Xeon X5680 processors, running at 4.5GHz instead of the usual 3.33GHz. Most people call this overclocking, but Cryo PC prefers ‘Cryo Boost’. This is partly for branding, but the company also wants to differentiate itself from other system builders who it says often use a standard overclock template for all machines. With Cryo PC each workstation is individually tuned.
In order to keep both supercharged Xeon chips running cool, the machine features a bespoke sealed water-cooling system. Water is pumped close to the chips and four big fans expel the heat via a radiator at the top of the machine. The speed of the fans is controlled by a switch, which can be set at ‘low’, ‘medium’ or ‘high’. Even when rendering continuously for over an hour the default ‘medium’ setting kept things ticking over nicely. The high setting, which increased fan noise significantly, is only really needed in exceptional circumstances.
There are a few quirks to the machine. Ignoring the neon lights and red chassis (also available in silver or black), our review machine featured non-ECC (Error Code Checking) memory — usually a hallmark of entry-level workstations. Cryo PC says this helps boost performance, though some may feel safer with ECC memory, which is said to reduce crashes. This would add almost a grand onto the price of the system though, which at £5,935 is already a big investment.
We often get asked why would anyone want to invest that much money in a workstation when you can get a highly capable machine for a quarter of the price. The simple answer is: to turbocharge design viz workflows. If you regularly punish the likes of 3ds Max this machine is built for you. It can render faster than any other desktop machine we’ve seen, can handle huge 3D datasets with aplomb and also has capacity for additional GPUs should you wish to dabble in GPGPU rendering with technologies like iRay, which is now built into 3ds Max. Greg Corke
Specifications
• 2 x Intel Xeon X5680 processors (3.33GHz Cryo Boost to 4.5GHz) (Six core) • 24GB (6 x 4GB) Corsair PC3-12800 1,600MHz • eVGA Classified SR-2 Intel 5520 motherboard •120GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD system drive + 2TB Seagate Barracuda XT data drive • Nvidia Quadro 5000 (2.5GB) graphics card • Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit • Three year return to base warranty (optional upgrade available to a 5 year on-site)
£5,935 www.cryopc.co.uk
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