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For those people who use a high workstation, what is the typical price? I feel like people spending more than 10k on a machine must not be bothered, they want t

For those people who use a high workstation, what is the typical price? I feel like people spending more than 10k on a machine must not be bothered, they want the performance

rekoil 4y ago
$10k is easily double what a beast workstation has traditionally cost. Yes, you've been able to configure Mac Pros or iMac Pros for similar prices in the past, but it's always been the ultra high-end with niche use cases, currently if you max out a Mac Studio you're up to around $10k. That's with 20x general compute cores, 32x neural engines, and 64x GPU cores, 128GB RAM, and 8TB of storage. I guess it's probably useful for 8K video workloads, but not much else. If the article is right and they're targeting a $10k base price for the Extreme version of the chip, then they better get it VERY right for it to be worth the effort, and I wouldn't expect many customers to be lining up regardless.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 4y ago
  > $10k is easily double what a beast workstation has traditionally cost I was thinking similarly. Not Mac, but $4-5k will get you an extremely well specced Dell/HP workstation suitable for nearly anything. Staying under $5k can also make it easier to push it through finance where higher price premiums typically require more paperwork.
  - kergonath 4y ago
    Here (research lab doing computational materials science), we get a €8k workstation every three years or so. AFAIK there is no review from the accounting people below €15k. In any case, honestly, the expense is tiny compared to the salary and other costs of whoever is using it for 3 years (close to a quarter million overall).
    - 0cf8612b2e1e 4y ago
      > …the expense is tiny compared to the salary and other costs of whoever is using it for 3 years No argument there, but a line is drawn somewhere on ease of purchasing and it usually falls short of $10k.
      - mensetmanusman 4y ago
        Inflation adjustments are needed.
- dagmx 4y ago
  10k is fairly normal for professional workstations when you factor in high memory Quadros and xeons. I would really not recommend comparing to home built machines. Studios tend to lease from Dell/HP and those workstations will often be in the 10k+ range.
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a2tech 4y ago
I regularly see people in the scientific and engineering fields spend more than 10k on a workstation without blinking. A company I work with that does antenna design for example dropped 12k (plus a bit more) on a workstation within the last year. No fancy video cards, just super beefy CPUs and tons and tons of RAM.
mrchucklepants 4y ago
I'm on a $12k Dell workstation. Modeling and simulation work.
the8472 4y ago
$employer procures workstations equipped with 64C Threadripper Pro + A6000 48GB GPUs for CG artists. They haven't said what they're actually paying but list prices of those machines are north of 15k. Devs get a similar setup except smaller GPUs.
deleted 4y ago
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For those people who use a high workstation, what is the typical price? I feel like people spending more than 10k on a machine must not be bothered, they want the performance

rekoil 4y ago

$10k is easily double what a beast workstation has traditionally cost. Yes, you've been able to configure Mac Pros or iMac Pros for similar prices in the past, but it's always been the ultra high-end with niche use cases, currently if you max out a Mac Studio you're up to around $10k. That's with 20x general compute cores, 32x neural engines, and 64x GPU cores, 128GB RAM, and 8TB of storage. I guess it's probably useful for 8K video workloads, but not much else. If the article is right and they're targeting a $10k base price for the Extreme version of the chip, then they better get it VERY right for it to be worth the effort, and I wouldn't expect many customers to be lining up regardless.

0cf8612b2e1e 4y ago
> $10k is easily double what a beast workstation has traditionally cost I was thinking similarly. Not Mac, but $4-5k will get you an extremely well specced Dell/HP workstation suitable for nearly anything. Staying under $5k can also make it easier to push it through finance where higher price premiums typically require more paperwork.
- kergonath 4y ago
  Here (research lab doing computational materials science), we get a €8k workstation every three years or so. AFAIK there is no review from the accounting people below €15k. In any case, honestly, the expense is tiny compared to the salary and other costs of whoever is using it for 3 years (close to a quarter million overall).
  - 0cf8612b2e1e 4y ago
    > …the expense is tiny compared to the salary and other costs of whoever is using it for 3 years No argument there, but a line is drawn somewhere on ease of purchasing and it usually falls short of $10k.
    - mensetmanusman 4y ago
      Inflation adjustments are needed.
dagmx 4y ago
10k is fairly normal for professional workstations when you factor in high memory Quadros and xeons. I would really not recommend comparing to home built machines. Studios tend to lease from Dell/HP and those workstations will often be in the 10k+ range.

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a2tech 4y ago

I regularly see people in the scientific and engineering fields spend more than 10k on a workstation without blinking. A company I work with that does antenna design for example dropped 12k (plus a bit more) on a workstation within the last year. No fancy video cards, just super beefy CPUs and tons and tons of RAM.

mrchucklepants 4y ago

I'm on a $12k Dell workstation. Modeling and simulation work.

the8472 4y ago

$employer procures workstations equipped with 64C Threadripper Pro + A6000 48GB GPUs for CG artists. They haven't said what they're actually paying but list prices of those machines are north of 15k. Devs get a similar setup except smaller GPUs.

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