AEC Magazine September / October 2012

Review

Scan 3XS GW-MT15 A quality workstation for CAD or BIM, but there is no compelling reason to upgrade from Sandy Bridge Intel’s ‘Ivy Bridge’ processor did not exactly have CAD users rushing to put in a purchase order. But Intel’s third gen Core processor did offer a small boost in performance and better power efficiency over its predecessor, Sandy Bridge.

Compared to the Intel Core i7 2600K, the darling of Intel’s second gen Core family, the new Ivy Bridge Core i7 3770K saves a cool 18W, down from 95W to 77W at peak.

Its base clock speed also moves up a notch from 3.4GHz to 3.5GHz. Not one to be content with off the shelf performance, Bolton-based Scan has done

Lenovo ThinkStation E31 SFF A compact entry-level 3D CAD workstation with excellent build quality

Monitor not included in Price

They say the best things come in small packages. And Lenovo obviously thinks so.

Its new ThinkStation E31 SFF (Small Form Factor) is a great little machine, perfectly proportioned for cramped design offices, but still kitted out with workstation-class components.

This is encapsulated by the Xeon E3-1230 V2, a quad core Ivy Bridge CPU. At 3.3GHz it’s slightly slower at core tasks than the popular CAD

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Vertex 2E look somewhat its trademark job of overclockProduct spec pedestrian. ing, taking the quad core i7 Scan has also upped the 3770K up to 4.4GHz. The prob■ Intel Core i7 3770K capacity of its companion ‘data’ lem is, this is 0.1Ghz less than it (3.5GHz overclocked to 4.4Ghz) (Quad drive and the 2TB Seagate achieved more than a year ago Core) (Ivy Bridge) Barracuda 7,200 SATA will with the ‘Sandy Bridge’ Core i7 ■ 16GB (2 x 8GB) give plenty of space for complex 2600K in its Scan 3XS P67 X3D Corsair PC3-12800 CAD datasets. Scan has been workstation (tinyurl.

(1600) memory equally generous in its memory, com/3XSAEC). And despite the ■ Nvidia Quadro 2000 (1GB GDDR5) delivering 16GB of Corsair PC3small architectural improvegraphics 12800 (1600) RAM in 2 x 8GB ments Intel has made to Ivy ■ 120GB PNY modules leaving two slots free Bridge our Professional SSD + for future upgrades. tests show 2TB Seagate Barracuda 7,200 HDD Despite approaching its two performance ■ Gigabyte GA-Z77year anniversary, the PNY has literally D3H motherboard Nvidia Quadro 2000 is still a stood still.

■ Microsoft Windows solid 3D graphics card. It does There have 7 Professional 64-bit not reach the heady heights of a been some ■ 3 year warranty Quadro 4000 but remains a tweaks in 1st year on site, 2nd & 3rd year return to good option for mid range CAD other parts of base (mechanical and BIM. Scan’s new hard drives only Overall, it is hard to fault the 3XS workstacovered for 1st year) Scan 3XS GW-MT15. It is a good tion, most £1,208 solid mid-range workstation. noticeably in 3xs.scan.co.uk Unfortunately, there is no comterms of storpelling reason to upgrade from age. The new last year’s model. I guess those 120GB PNY Professional SSD boasts that have invested in an overclocked Sandy excellent performance. Its 550MB/s read Bridge workstation will have to wait for and 520MB/s write makes the 285MB/s some Ivy Bridge upgrades. and 275MB/sec of last year’s 120GB OCZ Greg Corke

chip, the 3.4GHz Core i5-3570K, but with ThinkStation E31 SFF’s standing of an support for HyperThreading it gives a wel- entry-level 3D workstation.

Despite its slimline 337 x 369 x 100mm come boost when rendering. Its Xeon crechassis, the E31 SFF has dentials also mean support for retained Lenovo’s trademark Error Correcting Code (ECC) Product spec serviceability. A lever at the memory, which can be impor■ Intel Xeon E3-1230 back unlocks the solid case tant for CAD users who put a V2 3.3 GHz (Quad and the hinged side panel premium on stability.

Core) (Ivy Bridge) CPU flips open. Everything is pretECC does come at a price so ■ 8GB (2 x 4GB) PC3ty cramped inside but to keep costs down our test 12800 1600MHz upgrades are straightforward. machine was kitted out with DDR3 memory The hard drive caddy, mount8GB of more prosaic non-ECC ■ Nvidia Quadro 600 (1GB DDR3) graphics ed on plastic clips, comes out memory. This is a good amount ■ 1TB 7,200RPM with ease, giving unobstructfor entry level CAD and BIM, 6Gb/s SATA drive ed access to the memory. though there are still two slots ■ Lenovo The ThinkStation E31 SFF free for future upgrades. motherboard is not for everyone, which is Storage is nothing fancy — a (Intel C216 chipset) why Lenovo also produces a 1TB 7,200RPM 6Gb/s SATA. ■ Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit larger ThinkStation E31 To boost capacity, 2TB and 3TB ■ 3 year on-site Tower, which offers more drives are available and there warranty expandability and higher-end is also space for a second drive. £750 graphics options. But for Those looking for more perforlenovo.co.uk those in the market for a commance can opt for SSDs or 10K pact entry-level workstation SATAs. for CAD or BIM with excelOne area where there is no flexibility is with graphics. The low-pro- lent build quality the E31 SFF is one of the file Nvidia Quadro 600 is the only real best we have seen. option for CAD confirming the Greg Corke September / October 2012

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