Supermicro 5046A-XB: X58 Workstation Barebones
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We throw the word workstation around fairly regularly because, when you’re talking about high-end hardware, it’s easy to think of the PC sitting on your desk as a true brute. But there’s a more traditional definition that puts technology used for engineering, graphics/audio/video production, and medical tasks on a higher level than standard desktop hardware.
Value-oriented enthusiasts will look at Xeon 3000-series CPUs and Quadro FX graphics cards and astutely note that the technology at the heart of both “workstation-class” offerings comes from the desktop market. They’re right, too. Intel knows this, and prices its 1P Xeons at comparable levels to its Core 2 Quad lineup. Nvidia knows this too, but justifies the higher cost of its professional graphics cards with driver packages developed specifically for those boards. They include optimizations for professional applications and certifications guaranteeing interoperability with the most prolific software titles in that space. After all, when it comes to modeling an aircraft in CAD, there’s no room for “oops, that’s not what I saw on my screen.”
And so, while you might think you’ve already built yourself the ultimate Core i7-based gaming workstation, the folks at Supermicro would likely disagree, unless your rig centers on its SuperWorkstation 5046A-XB platform.
First seen at this year’s CES, the SuperWorkstation includes everything you’d expect from a conventional barebones package: a massive (yet svelte) steel chassis, one of Supermicro’s own motherboards, and a Supermicro-branded power supply. There’s more to the setup than just these three components, though. So, if your needs extend out and around the high-end overclocking or slimmed-down value segments that X58-based boards seem to be getting grouped into, this pure business build will likely give you something to get excited about.
Check prices for Supermicro's 5046A-XB
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My experience with Profesional Workstation users is that cost and longetivity are not issues with them; their biggest issue is time and that is very closely coupled with reliability. Their kind of work is very time intensive and they would not risk a system crash or hang in the middle of their work just to gain 5 or 10 minutes shorter rendering time, especially when you consider that it may take hours to finish a rendering job. Talking about overclocking on the Professional Workstation market is completely pointless and I am surprised that it was even mentioned as anything more than a passing remark.
I wish that Tom's Hardware would just cut to the chase and put in the salient information in its reviews instead of all of the ambling waffle.
The reviews are way too long. The writers should read the reviews in a PC magazine like Computer Shopper and PC Pro(UK) and do their reviews like that. Who has the time or the interest to read all of the technical waffle?
There are technical details that are relevant and interesting, but Tom's Hardware tends to include all kinds of irrelevant technical details that the average reader could not care less about because it is not something that they consider when making a purchase
you have heard off a thing called a conclusion right? they are much longer here then a magazine just because of that reason. A magazine costs a lot more when adding pages, a website costs next to nothing to add a page more. It also provides more information in the whole article then a magazine does. They do use a lot of text to put things down, the questions asked and then aswered could be a whole lot less and making the text size smaller.