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We put the Armari system through a suite of workstation benchmarks. For comparison, we pitted it against the Overclockers RENDA PW-E7F and Scan 3XS GW-HTX35.
Software:
Cinebench R15
SPECviewperf 12.1
Blender with ProRender
CrystalDiskMark
RENDA PW-E7F Specifications:
- Intel Core i7-5960X @ 4.2GHz
- 32GB DDR4 SDRAM @ 2667MHz
- ASUS X99-E WS Motherboard
- 256GB Samsung 850 Pro SATA III 6Gb/s SSD
- 2TB Seagate Barracuda SATA III 6Gb/s 7,200rpm HDD
- 8GB GDDR5 AMD FirePro W8100 Graphics
- EK-WB water cooling
- SuperFlower PSU
- Phanteks chassis
- Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit
- 5 Years, 3 Years Collect and Return, 2 Years Labour
Scan 3XS GW-HTX35 Specifications:
- 2x Intel Xeon E5-2687W V3 @ 3.1GHz
- 64GB Crucial ECC Registered DDR4 SDRAM @ 2,133MHz
- ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS Motherboard
- 512GB Samsung 850 Pro SATA III 6Gb/s SSD
- 2TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 SATA III 6Gb/s 7,200rpm HDD
- 12GB GDDR5 NVIDIA Quadro M6000 Graphics
- 2x 3XS customised Corsair H80 water cooling
- 1,000W Corsair RM PSU
- Fractal Design Define XL Titanium Grey chassis
- Windows 7 Professional 64bit
- 3 Years warranty, 1 Year Onsite, 2 Years RTB
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.