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When we first got our hands on the AMD Ryzen 7 1800X, we were bowled over by the challenge it poses for Intel's top-end Core i7 processors. Intel may have taken up that challenge with the announcement of the Core i9, but despite this the most astonishing feature of Ryzen 7 still remains – its price. The incredibly low cost isn't just interesting for consumers, either. Because Ryzen 7 – and its forthcoming “Threadripper” stable mate – major on how many cores they offer, AMD's new CPUs are extremely interesting for the professional market too. Our first look at the AMD Ryzen 7 in the workstation context comes from top UK integrator Armari, in the shape of the Magnetar V25R-RA750G2.
The V25R-RA750G2 is based on Armari's incredibly dinky V25 chassis, which the company designed itself specifically to pack as much workstation power into the smallest space possible, with a particular emphasis on VR content creation. Certain configurations come with the breakout box and cabling for the HTC Vive, although not the model we are reviewing here. The chassis supports Intel Core i7 up to 10-core and AMD Ryzen 7 up to 1800X, with the latter included in this particular sample.
There's space (and cooling) for either dual single-width graphics or a single dual-width graphics card, and these can be full length too, so cards up to the NVIDIA Quadro P5000 are possible. However, since this V25 specification is intended to be a bit of an AMD showcase, the new version of the Radeon Pro Duo has been included instead. Unlike the original version, the new Radeon Pro Duo doesn't draw so much power that a custom water cooling system is required. But it's still a dual-GPU solution, with effectively two Radeon Pro WX7100 cards packaged together – and each one has a whopping 16GB of GDDR5 memory too.
There's plenty else of interest with the Armari V25R-RA750G2, including the price. So let's find out how the AMD Ryzen 7 1800X stacks up as a professional workstation CPU.
Armari V25R-RA750G2 Specifications:
- AMD Ryzen 7 1800X @3.6GHz
- 32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 SDRAM @ 2,400MHz
- Biostar X370GTN Motherboard
- 512GB Samsung PM961 M.2 NVMe PCI Express SSD
- 32GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon Pro Duo Graphics
- Sealed AIO water cooling
- 750W Platinum Efficiency PSU
- Custom V25 Pristine White chassis
- Windows 10 Professional 64-bit
- 3 Years Warranty Parts and Labour, 1 Year Onsite, 2 Years RTB
Price: £3,118.80 inc VAT & Delivery (Buy from Armari HERE)
It’s very expensive for a ryzen based system. You can build a standard sized mini tower with a 1070 core at 1000€ less !
Taking ~£ prices:
1800x: £450
Mobo: £110
Ram: £250
nvme: £240
Cooler: £60-95 (unsure if it’s a h60 or h90 140mm from the pics)
SFF plat 750w psu: £150
32gb Radeon pro duo: £999
Windows 10 pro: £150
Case: ?? (50-75 conservative estimate? sff cases tend to be pricey.)
Total: ~£2400 (€2700 or so)
Actual price: ~£3100 (about €3500)
Then whatever you value build / 3 year warranty at. I’m not sure I value them at over £700/€800 though. Price seems excessive for a weak motherboard (biostar aren’t exactly top tier) and no large storage.
And that’s just off the shelf prices from ocuk, I’m sure I could go bargain hunting and get everything a little cheaper, probably settle around £2200 for the same components. Hell, you can grab windows 10 pro keys on the likes of reddit for about £20, that’s over a £100 saving alone. Then factor in how much cheaper buying bulk components with no retail tax / vat on them is, I’d say they’re charging well over the cost per unit for these.
I’d say it’s close on £1000 overpriced with its current components, with a gpu less than half the cost of the one it comes with, I’d say it’d be more like £1500 cheaper.
Armari’s systems are expensive, but take a look at that chassis. It’s a custom design that’s better than what the blue chip workstation manufacturers have to offer. The company also offers support for professional applications, which you definitely won’t get buying the components yourself. I think one thing in particulary you have wrong in the pricing above is the PSU. It’s actually pretty pricey because getting the kind of industrial strength PSU in 750W form and that small is expensive – it’s a server PSU. That’s an area I know Armari is looking into. You also forgot to add VAT! The price quoted is inc VAT. It’s £2,599 ex VAT, so you’re only paying a £200 premium ex VAT for the chassis, server PSU, and 3D content creation-focused service and support. Professionals would pay that premium to have a system they can trust.