A solid entry-level workstation which boasts impressive 3D graphics performance.
Specifications
- Intel Core i7 2600 (3.40GHz) Quad Core CPU
- 8GB (2x 4GB) DDR-3 1333MHz memory
- Workstation Specialists mainboard
- PNY Nvidia Quadro 2000 (1GB) graphics card
- 500GB SATA-2 hard drive
- Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
- 36 months full parts and labour system warranty
- £1,169
For this ‘Sandy Bridge’ desktop, Derby-based Workstation Specialists has placed a big emphasis on 3D graphics with Nvidia’s mid-range Quadro 2000 card taking pride of place at the heart of the machine. Based on Nvidia’s Fermi architecture this new 1GB board looks to be an excellent choice for CAD and Building Information Modelling (BIM).
While the WS1410 rates highly in our 3D graphics test, it does not make as much of an impression in our CPU-based benchmarks. It is the only machine this month not to be overclocked and this becomes evident when directly compared to the InterPro IPW-Ci7. The WS1410 relies on the 3.8GHz Turbo Boosted clock speed of the Core i7-2600 processor and while it still performs impressively for an entry-level machine was a little behind the competition in our CPU intensive tests.
Elsewhere in the machine, a standard 500GB 7,200RPM hard drive should satisfy most users’ storage requirements. 8GB of RAM provides plenty of memory for working with large BIM models and by using 4GB modules there are still two slots free for future expansion.
It is very hard to fault the WS1410, and it certainly delivers when it comes to 3D graphics, but it is easy to get distracted by the current availability of overclocked workstations with similar price tags.
