What is considered a workstation?

[emistery]

Thanks to Linus' video about the hackintosh workstation I asked myself what actually is considered a workstation and although I worked with them quite a while I couldnt find an answer myself...

Maybe you guys can exlain it!

 

Sorry if my english was bad and I didn't really know where to put this topic

[CoolBeans]

A machine in which you work at

[AMICLG]

When people refer to workstations they usally mean a video editing rig or a machine for CAD programs.

[roberto++]

I would classify workstation using high end components such as xenon processors, and quadro graphics or (AMD equivalent), rather than their consumer equivalents, i3 -> i7 and Geforce.

 

or in other words having the most powerful computer in the office, including the server room. :lol:

 

Thanks to Linus' video about the hackintosh workstation I asked myself what actually is considered a workstation and although I worked with them quite a while I couldnt find an answer myself...

Maybe you guys can exlain it!

 

Sorry if my english was bad and I didn't really know where to put this topic

[Paralectic]

Much RAM, such Xeon. wow

[emistery]

Okay thanks! I already thought something like that

 

I would classify workstation using high end components such as xenon processors, and quadro graphics or (AMD equivalent), rather than their consumer equivalents, i3 -> i7 and Geforce.

 

or in other words having the most powerful computer in the office, including the server room. :lol:

[paulsterio]

Thanks to Linus' video about the hackintosh workstation I asked myself what actually is considered a workstation and although I worked with them quite a while I couldnt find an answer myself...

Maybe you guys can exlain it!

 

Sorry if my english was bad and I didn't really know where to put this topic

 

Alright, I don't think a workstation can actually be defined in terms of its hardware. 

 

By definition, a workstation is where you do work. It doesn't dictate what sort of components go in there. 

 

You can use workstation grade components in a gaming PC and it will still not be a workstation, because you do not work there. You can use consumer level hardware to build a PC and if you work there, it will be a workstation. 

 

The components which go into your workstation will be dictated by what sort of work you will be doing on the workstation. Generally, hardware vendors try to sell you workstation class components for two reasons:

 

1) They make huge profit margins off them

2) They are said to be more reliable and more "validated"

 

Thus, people who run mission-critical workstations will use these expensive components, e.g. Xeons, ECC RAM...etc. because they cannot have downtime and for them, the downtime will cost them more than the initial outlay to purchase the expensive hardware. However, for most users who frequent these forums (most not all), they will never need such components because they simply do not offer enough benefit to the average user, even if they are using their computers for work, to justify their price premium. 

 

So if you have a computer and you do work on it, it's a workstation, it has nothing to do with the hardware inside. 

[MrSuperb]

By definition Linus build is not (necessarily) a "real" workstation.

 

The over clocked (aka. running out of specs) processor should be sufficient to disqualify it.

 

 

Don't confuse the word "workstation" with "a computer you do work on". Two different things.

[Nickolas47]

A high-performance, single-user computer typically used for graphics, CAD, software development and scientific applications. A workstation may be a RISC-based computer that runs under some version of Unix or Linux, the major vendors being Sun, HP, IBM and SGI. It may also refer to a high-end PC using Intel or AMD CPUs from any PC vendor. In all cases, the term implies a machine with a fast CPU and large amounts of memory and disk that is geared toward the professional user rather than the consumer.

[paulsterio]

By definition Linus build is not (necessarily) a "real" workstation.

The over clocked (aka. running out of specs) processor should be sufficient to disqualify it.

Don't confuse the word "workstation" with "a computer you do work on". Two different things.

No, this is incorrect, a workstation is a computer you do work on. Nothing more, nothing less.

The hardware that goes into your workstation is dependent on your use case.

It's like saying a racing car is a car which is used to race. It can be a good car or a crap car, as long as you use it for racing, it is a racing car.

[Guest Generallee]

So it's basically a build

 

with components so expensive that they make you rethink your life while you're contemplating specs you can't even understand why it looks like something from the freaking matrix

 

meant to run programs you, as a herp derp gamer, will never use or understand, or even touch, because again the're too expensive for your broke ass

 

so ahead of your can of tuna computer you piss yourself like an overexcited dog at the idea of a 12 core processor.

 

lol jk 

[emistery]

okay thanks, this all pretty much answered my question.

 

So it's basically a build

 

with components so expensive that they make you rethink your life while you're contemplating specs you can't even understand why it looks like something from the freaking matrix

 

meant to run programs you, as a herp derp gamer, will never use or understand, or even touch, because again the're too expensive for your broke ass

 

so ahead of your can of tuna computer you piss yourself like an overexcited dog at the idea of a 12 core processor.

 

lol jk 

 

and yes there are sadly many people who piss themselves "like an overexcited dog at the idea of a 12 core processor" and I'm luckily not one of them haha.

[JAKEBAB]

I would classify workstation using high end components such as xenon processors, and quadro graphics or (AMD equivalent), rather than their consumer equivalents, i3 -> i7 and Geforce.

 

or in other words having the most powerful computer in the office, including the server room. :lol:

its a xeon not a xenon that is what was in one of the first revisions of the xbox360 lol

[Hikaru12]

The common idea is that workstations are high end machines used solely to produce some type or product or to assist a professional like an engineer or graphic designer. They usually use server grade components and costs many thousands of dollars.

Workstations can also refer to low end desktops used by people at any office typically found in a cubicle but this term is often used less for this type of setup.

[B NEGATIVE]

A workstation is a machine that is specialized to a specific task.

[alpenwasser]

Honestly, these days the distincition is not as clear as it once was.

 

Wikipedia actually has some informative remarks on the topic which

provide some historical context:

A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. [...] The term workstation has also been used loosely to refer to everything from a mainframe computer terminal to a PC connected to a network, but the most common form refers to the group of hardware offered by several current and defunct companies such as Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, Apollo Computer, DEC, HP and IBM which opened the door for the 3D graphics animation revolution of the late 1990s.

[...]

The increasing capabilities of mainstream PCs in the late 1990s have blurred the lines somewhat with technical/scientific workstations. The workstation market previously employed proprietary hardware which made them distinct from PCs; for instance IBM used RISC-based CPUs for its workstations and Intel x86 CPUs for its business/consumer PCs during the 1990s and 2000s. However by the late 2000s this difference disappeared, as workstations now use highly commoditized hardware dominated by large PC vendors, such as Dell and HP, selling Microsoft Windows or GNU/Linux systems running on x86-64 architecture such as Intel Xeon or AMD Opteron CPUs.

[...]

A significant segment of the desktop market are computers expected to perform as workstations, but using PC operating systems and components. Component manufacturers will often segment their product line, and market premium components which are functionally similar to the cheaper "consumer" models but feature a higher level of robustness and/or performance. Notable examples of this are the AMD Opteron, Intel Xeon processors, and the ATI FireGL and Nvidia Quadro graphics processors. For instance the Nvidia Quadro workstation GPU is based on the gamer-oriented GeForce, and users could soft-mod the GeForce such that it could perform many of the tasks intended for the Quadro.

A workstation class PC may have some of the following features:

Support for ECC memory

Larger number of memory sockets which use registered (buffered) modules

Multiple processor sockets, powerful CPUs (for Intel CPU it will be server derived Xeon instead of typical for PCs Core)

Multiple displays

Run reliable operating system with advanced features

High performance, reliable graphics card (for Nvidia it will use a Nvidia Quadro series GPU, an enterprise variant of the more cost efficient GeForce consumer cards).

source

So yeah, the lines are blurrier these days than they used to be, which

is probably why you're going to get rather different answers in such a

thread.

Also: Moved to GD.