Whether you’re an engineer creating 3D CAD models or a safety inspector working at a nuclear power plant, your workflow may require more computing power than a standard laptop or desktop PC can offer. If so, a workstation is the best choice. These powerful machines are designed, tested, and certified to deliver higher performance and reliability than similar standard components in laptops and desktops. A workstation’s specifications typically include a high-resolution monitor, dedicated graphics cards, and high-speed networking technologies. They can also support more memory than a typical laptop or desktop PC.
Many workstations are equipped with fast Thunderbolt 4 ports that provide high data transfer rates to external drives, RAID arrays, and other accessories. This feature can improve speed and efficiency if you’re transferring large files between locations or collaborating on a project with teammates. Alternatively, some workstations offer PCI Express solid-state drives that plug into a full-size expansion slot and look like a low-profile GPU card. These drives deliver superior cooling capabilities and capacities.
Workstations typically run more demanding software than a standard laptop or desktop, so they’re built with more rigorous thermal management systems to keep temperatures in check. This can prevent throttling, which can affect performance and longevity of the system.
Some workstations are configured with two processors, a capability that’s uncommon in standard desktops and laptops. These systems are ideal for symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) scenarios, such as running demanding software that requires an extreme number of CPU cores. However, ever-increasing CPU core counts have reduced the need for this type of workstation. Workstation pc