What's good for a workstation these days?

guyinpv

I'm sure this question comes and goes regularly.

I need to replace some workstations, just wondering if there is anything interesting in the market today. Innovations with form factor, power use, administrative features, etc. Anything cool happening I should be aware of? Features I should be sure to get?

Or do I just go grab some Dell towers off their home page as usual?

stacksofplates

We got a bunch of z440s and they're pretty nice for a mid range workstation.

gjacobse

@guyinpv said in What's good for a workstation these days?:

I'm sure this question comes and goes regularly.

I need to replace some workstations, just wondering if there is anything interesting in the market today. Innovations with form factor, power use, administrative features, etc. Anything cool happening I should be aware of? Features I should be sure to get?

Or do I just go grab some Dell towers off their home page as usual?

First question -

What is the end use? If you are talking about AutoCADD different ball game.

But if you are talking about general usage just about any form factor should be fine.

If you want ultra small take a look at these:

quantum byte

RojoLoco

We have had great luck with the newer Dell Precision towers. Tons of power, lots of RAM slots, dual sockets in some, many GPU options, SSDs, etc. Pricey, but dead solid hardware that gives me zero problems.

MattSpeller

@guyinpv said in What's good for a workstation these days?:

just go grab some Dell towers off their home page as usual

Edit: get SSD's

thanksajdotcom

It will entirely depend on the use for them. How many monitors do they need to be able to handle? What will they be used for? Do you need just a basic, solid workstation, or something with more horsepower?

thanksajdotcom

@MattSpeller said in What's good for a workstation these days?:

@guyinpv said in What's good for a workstation these days?:

just go grab some Dell towers off their home page as usual

Edit: get SSD's

This. So much this. Biggest bottleneck on most modern computers is the spinning rust drive. Get SSDs and you can get away with a lot less processing power and RAM, IMO. An i5 with 8GB of RAM on a HDD vs an i3 with 4-6GB of RAM with an SSD, I'll take that i3 anyday. Again, there are variables, but SSD. Just yes.

RojoLoco

If you go the Dell route, order the minimum RAM and HDD options and add on your own SSD and memory upgrades. Much cheaper.

MattSpeller

@RojoLoco said in What's good for a workstation these days?:

If you go the Dell route, order the minimum RAM and HDD options and add on your own SSD and memory upgrades. Much cheaper.

This is 100% true, but even I can't be arsed to deal with it all and just order them loaded as I want.

thanksajdotcom

@MattSpeller said in What's good for a workstation these days?:

@RojoLoco said in What's good for a workstation these days?:

If you go the Dell route, order the minimum RAM and HDD options and add on your own SSD and memory upgrades. Much cheaper.

This is 100% true, but even I can't be arsed to deal with it all and just order them loaded as I want.

Assuming you get matching hardware, it wouldn't be bad to swap out the drive, image it how you want, grab a copy and just push that onto the other machines.

guyinpv

I should have mentioned, they are general office.
Web apps
QuickBooks
Handful of background programs (AV, backup, cloud sync tools etc)
Office
watching media
email
printing/scanning

There are no "power apps", games, 3D, CAD, video rendering, etc.

Regardless, the previous towers aren't that old. For example Core-i5 3GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB platters, Win7.
You'd think this could handle things, and it does chug along, but somehow they make the above work even grind these systems down.

I know SSD will be huge. As well I want to get on Win 10 Pro.

I could keep and upgrade those, but the plan is to replace, and trickle those systems down to be reloaded and replace even older systems around here.
It's nice to make the boss feel special, always getting the new computers, and the rest of us get the hand-me-downs.

guyinpv

I also tend to like the XPS towers.

scottalanmiller

SSD and Win10 is definitely all you need. Get slightly upgraded machines with those changes and you'll definitely be good to go.

scottalanmiller

Newer Core i5 maybe. Stick to the 8GB.

gjacobse

@guyinpv said in What's good for a workstation these days?:

I should have mentioned, they are general office.
Web apps
QuickBooks
Handful of background programs (AV, backup, cloud sync tools etc)
Office
watching media

Kill it,... Kill it with fire!