Workstations Deep Dive: A Conversation with Andrew O'Neill and Justin Fittro

Solutions Architect Andrew O’Neill and Sales Engineer Justin Fittro recently sat down to answer common customer questions around workstations

What is the difference between a workstation and a regular PC?

Andrew: Reliability. Enterprise workstations will support enterprise level components such as ECC memory, SSDs with capacitor backed write cache, and enterprise level GPUs, among other features.  

Professional, enterprise-level components are rated for three years of daily use, so they can take on more wear and tear than off-the-shelf consumer hardware.  
 
The best way to think about it is a consumer grade PC will be comprised of consumer level components, that aren’t rated for daily heavy utilization. Additionally, items such as ECC memory help with both computational accuracy but also with system stability. If you’re considering a workstation, a good place to start would be our HPX series, our flagship workstation line that incorporates the latest Intel® Xeon and AMD EPYC™ processing platforms aligned with NVIDIA GPUs. 

When looking to upgrade your workstation, is GPU worth the price?

Justin: Whether you need GPUs depends on what you’re doing and what applications you’re running. For certain applications, GPUs can improve performance or reduce calculation time by up to 10x. For workloads such as AI, deep learning, or visually intensive applications like 3D modeling, CAD, or CFD, GPUs can accelerate performance. 

It’s worth discussing your applications with a solutions expert to decide if GPUs are right for you. At Thinkmate, we actually offer this consultation to every customer without charge. If you need a really powerful system to boost performance, I recommend checking out our GPX series. A system like the GPX-WS 540RTP has up to 4 GPUs, 4 A6000s and 192 GB. That kind of power can really help speed up machine learning and other compute-intense workflows.

What is the difference between AMD and Intel and does it matter which one I choose?

Justin: It really depends on your specific needs. AMD has been gaining popularity in workstations recently, one of the reasons being that it supports up to 64 cores. However, Intel has a higher performance per core, so for applications that don’t require a lot of cores, it is a strong option. Intel’s new 12th generation is the first system to have PCIe® 5 and DDR 5 memory, which has led to big improvements in local storage and network performance. 

If you’re interested in AMD, I recommend the GPX-WS 540RTP that supports AMD Ryzen® Threadripper® Pro processors.

If you’re interested in Intel, check out the 12th generation VSX R5 340V12 system.

I've heard workstations are noisy, is that true?

Andrew: They don’t have to be. Yes, systems with a high number of GPUs will always be noisier, but there are alternatives that don’t sacrifice performance. Workstations today use larger fans that spin at lower RPMs, keeping the noise down while still cooling components. Advancements in power control allow for intelligent fan speed systems that can regulate the RPM of system fans and even turn off fans if the system is operating within specific thermal thresholds. 
 
These new technologies help make systems so quiet that you barely notice you have a workstation in your office. You can find a lot of them in our VSX Series, which have been specially designed for low-noise operation. They have dual-chamber, low-noise chassis and fan designs, and ultra-quiet power supplies providing a strong option when you need a quiet system with high performance.  

I know my workload is very demanding, how do I achieve optimal performance?

Justin: We have a range of solutions, some that can handle very large workloads. For the most demanding workloads, we have systems that can support 128 cores, 2 TB of memory, and up to 4 GPUs. Some of our systems, like the GPX XS8-24S3-4GPU, look like workstations, but use server fans and power supplies, handling the most intense performance requirements.