Workstation P.C’s blur the boundaries between what is traditionally a desktop computer and a server. Technologies that are traditionally the keepsake of servers have been progressing into the high end desktop market for some time now. For example, we don’t think much these days of hardware RAID setups in standard P.C’s. Workstation computers are a cut above the average home computer, designed to be performance behemoths. Aimed traditionally at high demand users namely for video production, graphic design, technical and scientific applications and for use by secret government agencies!!

HPZ800 Workstation P.C

The HP Workstation Range For PowerHouse Computing or Showing Off

High end P.C. workstations currently tend to use the socket 1366 range of Intel Xeon processors. This technology was originally released in 2008 and a socket 1366 CPU will have 12MB L3 CPU cache, triple channel RAM and QPI (Quick Path Interconnect) data pathways.

A short aside for a quick technical explanation:

CPU Cache : Superfast memory actually on the CPU chip, allowing the CPU to access common data without having to go back and forth to system memory. A larger cache usually means a faster CPU.

Triple channel RAM : Data being accessed by a computer is stored on sticks of RAM. Traditionally a motherboard memory controller will allocate data to one memory stick and when this is full, fill up the next. Each memory/RAM stick is accessed individually. With dual and then triple channel memory, data is mapped across more than one RAM stick so your Word document, for example, is stored partly on one stick of RAM and partly on a second and third. The result of this is that the memory controller can access all three RAM sticks and all 3 bits of information at the same time. Previously the memory controller would’ve had access to only one piece of data at a time.

QPI (Quick Path Interconnect) : A high speed channel through which data flows directly from the CPU to a dedicated contoller (I/O hub) and on to other system devices. Before QPI from Intel, and HyperTransport (HT) from AMD, data flowed from a CPU to a chip termed the ‘north bridge’ through the ‘Front Side Bus (FSB). All data had to flow along the FSB, even in and out of system memory. From 2005 AMD introduced HyperTransport which was replicated by Intel in QPI. The memory controller was included in the CPU, removing the reliance on the FSB data pathway bottleneck. The newer technologies were also faster and today FSB transfer speeds can match only up to 25% of what HT and QPI can do.

So we’ve established that workstation P.C’s are the business when it comes to high performance computing, and socket 1366 Xeon based workstations reflect this performance in their pricing, but the point of this article is to highlight the fact that there are today cheaper CPU’s and technologies that will give you decent high performance computing power in a workstation setup, especially for the system builder.

Firstly, Socket 1366 also supports a range of Core i7 CPU’s that can easily compete with the equivalent Xeon’s in terms of performance.  Xeon server technologies, such as error correcting memory (ECC), are not such a requirement within a desktop workstation environment and so a user can build an equivalent Core i7 based machine for a bit less money. For example, using the Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition socket 1366 chips gets you equivalent blazingly fast performance as the Xeons, but removes the server multiprocessor motherboards and expensive ECC RAM from the machine build costs.

Secondly although performance greats, the socket 1366 range has now been around for a couple of years. Intel have since shifted their product specifications towards improving efficiency and performance for money spent, firstly with the socket 1156 core CPU’s and more recently with the socket 1155, 2nd generation core i series of CPU’s. The newest socket 1155 (Sandybridge architecture) CPU’s have tested well in performance tests against the ageing socket 1366 range. The newer processors are also much cheaper by comparison for roughly equivalent performance. What this equates to for those building high-end workstation P.C’s  is that you can knock-up a very nippy machine, based on the newest Intel technologies for outstanding value when compared with a socket 1366 based build. Good news for system builders and the end user.

Need help specifying and building a new P.C or workstation setup. A.J.Computers can either custom build or recommend a suitable computer for your needs.