Gaming or Workstation build, how to find out what to choose?

[Hebury]

Conclusion time!

The workstation grade components are for a very very small market. More specifically people who do incredibly precise work or need a extremely stable PC. 

Do you need to build a workstation grade PC?

Yes:

- If you can't afford any crashes, losing any data would mean a disaster for your work or yourself.

- You need special functions like "double floating point precision" which is not available in general consumer components

- If you need incredible precise computing (really really precise, almost nobody falls in this category)

- If you use software that is optimized for WS-grade components (not always tho)

- You want a build that is reliable for a longer period of time

 

Still not sure if you want to go WS-grade components?

Calculate your budget and determine what sort of performance you want to get. If you can get workstation grade components in your budget than go for it, but in most cases the money you spend can be put to better use in more performance and less stability.

 

Individual components:

GPU

WS-grade are Quadro and Firepro

- Worse gaming performance

- Better precision

- More stable

- Extra functions like "double floating point precision"

 

CPU

WS-grade is Xeon

- Less heat

- Less power consumtion

- Available in more cores

- Supports ECC-RAM

Can actually be useful outside of servers, some low end i7-xeon can be used with gaming/workstation PC's. Depends on what you do on your PC.

 

RAM

WS-grade is ECC-RAM (Error Correcting Code)

Is more stable than normal RAM.

Only use if there is need for very high stability.

 

MOBO

Supports things like ECC-RAM, also more stable.

 

 

I think that's about it, I'm a bit wiser now ^^

If there is something I missed please leave a reply!

 

 

 

 

 

Hello everyone,

 

How do you choose if your components need to be workstation grade?

Watching, reading and trying things out myself let to me having a decent knowledge about PC's, but this is one thing I just can't seem to get a good opinion on.

 

The problem

Most people building a PC should just get the best components their budget allows following a guide like logicalincrements.com. If you are not planning on gaming, ease on the graphics card a bit and maybe spend your money on a better processor. If you are want a silent PC, spend more money on the fans and the case. Follow the guide but change it a bit for you needs, easy right? Except when we go for workstation grade stuff like quadro's, xeon's, WS-grade mobo's (WS-grade RAM, that probably exist too, but I can't even name 1 of them). How do you find out if you need these type of components?

 

I like to have you guys advice in these component-category's:

 

GPU

Consumer gaming grade vs. Quadro 

 

CPU

Normal consumer vs. Xeon

 

RAM

Normal vs. workstation grade

 

MOBO

Normal vs. workstation grade

 

AMD info is welcome too, the fact is I know even less about workstation-grade AMD components 

 

My knowledge at this moment

 

GPU

Only use Quadro if you are into heavy 3d modeling/animation for some unknown reason.

CPU

Only use Xeon for server applications, I don't know about any other workstation grade cpu's.

RAM

No clue

MOBO

No clue

 

 

The reason I'm asking this is I want to build a PC one day when my laptop no longer does the job. I want to use it mainly for work (I already game too much on a under powered laptop so gaming power is definitely not my #1 concern), things like big batches of photos editing, video editing and there is a small interest in programming but time will tell if that is something for me. 

The problem came with the first time I heard about Quadro cards and  it spread to all other components. I never had any problem running software on consumer grade hardware and I'm doubting about the real use/price increase for all these components.

 

If anyone can shine some light on the subject, it would be much appreciated
 

[Tedster]

These videos may help:

 

[nikolaizombie1]

-snip-

Ok slow down cowboy, first question are you going to use programs such as adobe after effects or sony vegas?

[Sam Z Man]

I think you misunderstand the term and idea of a workstation.

[WereCat]

CPU

Only use Xeon for server applications, I don't know about any other workstation grade cpu's.

I disagree. Xeon is as good for gaming as for servers or wokstations.

[nikolaizombie1]

I disagree. Xeon is as good for gaming as for servers or wokstations.

maybe the lower end one's, getting the higher tier 2011 or 2011-3 xeon are a waste of money for gaming

[WereCat]

maybe the lower end one's, getting the higher tier 2011 or 2011-3 xeon are a waste of money for gaming

True.

The "i5" xeons are usualy more expensive than i5 but the "i7" xeons make a lot more sense since they are cheaper than i7 and about the same price as unlocked i5.

[Dzzope]

Difference between gaming and workstation really boils down to 2 things... Heavy compute that works well with many threads and stability..

 

A good gaming rig will still be a decent workstation for your usage..

 

Unless your doing something professionally you really don't need to go to socket 2011 or ecc memory or such.

[Hebury]

Ok slow down cowboy, first question are you going to use programs such as adobe after effects or sony vegas?

Does it really go that specific? For me it's Adobe, but I would like more general advice too.

[Hebury]

Workstation = pointless unless you are a professional.  Gaming rig=gaming.  280x>Firepro in gaming.  980ti>Quadro in gaming.

Okay I get this, but the real problem is when do you know if you really need it? I know a few people who do video editing for a living on a normal GPU, but they are considered professionals. When (and why) do the benefits outweigh extra cost?

[Hebury]

I think you misunderstand the term and idea of a workstation.

Could be, what would you consider to be the correct term and idea for a workstation? 

[Hebury]

Difference between gaming and workstation really boils down to 2 things... Heavy compute that works well with many threads and stability..

 

A good gaming rig will still be a decent workstation for your usage..

 

Unless your doing something professionally you really don't need to go to socket 2011 or ecc memory or such.

So because the professional programs like the adobe suite and 3dsmax are so good at dividing workload, they become applicable for the WS-grade components?

 

This leaves me with the question, why use a quadro instead of a normal GPU? They are sometimes almost identical to their gaming counterpart but 4 times the cost, are they more stable (give less errors)?

[Hebury]

True.

The "i5" xeons are usualy more expensive than i5 but the "i7" xeons make a lot more sense since they are cheaper than i7 and about the same price as unlocked i5.

But you wouldn't really need multithreading for gaming tho, right? So it only really makes sense if you want to make a workstation + gaming rig combination of sorts.

[Dzzope]

But you wouldn't really need multithreading for gaming tho, right? So it only really makes sense if you want to make a workstation + gaming rig combination of sorts.

Usually more memory and double precision, cost is due to the application.. nothing to do with the cost of components and the like..

 

You'll see a quadro rip through tasks a GTX will struggle with but equally the quadro will struggle with games.

[WereCat]

But you wouldn't really need multithreading for gaming tho, right? So it only really makes sense if you want to make a workstation + gaming rig combination of sorts.

The thing is that if you dont want to OC you can get the Xeon with hyperthreading for the same price as unlocked i5 which will be a lot better for you since you dont have to upgrade if you find out that you need hyperthreading for tasks you will do later.