Workstation advice please

[Smalerbi]

Hello,

I would like to get an opinion on the BOXX Workstations. I'm considering getting one for a workstation and I wanted to know if they are really worth the money. I'm not clear why there product is any better than building one yourself with the same components. Are they tweaking the drivers or BIOS? Is there something going on under the hood that I am not aware of? Or is it just marketing hype?

Your opinion would be helpful.

Thanks........Scott

[Morne]

My opinion you're paying for the sticker on the case that says "BOXX" and for the after sales. The after sales is important to some people so they don't mind paying the premium

[Smalerbi]

To me, after sales is not that important......I'm just curious about the performance. They claim blue sky performance and I get that but why? It goes back to my original question, why is the guts of the system any different than a do it yourself system? I guess the best analogy is if you would buy a stock Porsche from the dealer and then take it to a high performance shop where a gear head can tweak the engine, suspension etc. to get even better performance out of your stock Porsche. Is that what BOXX does?

[super gnu]

no, the machines are standard in every respect. they are well built,have good after sales as mentioned, they also -maybe- choose higher quality components than a standard box builder, but no secret magic.

anyway your analogy is basically overclocking. you can do this yourself with a day of research and fiddling round. im not sure (never felt the urge to study BOXX in depth) if they offer any overclocked systems.. but if they do, they would be no different from an overclocked system you build yourself, save the guarantee.

[particlerealities]

It's my understanding BOXX tests the hardware to guarantee functionality with "our" software, whereas Dell, etc. may certify a system for use with Autodesk, but not necessarily the latest version, with the latest cards, or with the latest drivers, and if you contact them for support, they'll be sure to let you know your GeForce 980 Ti is "not a professional card and is unsupported". BOXX will pat you on the back and tell you how to put one or two more in your case. If you're comfortable researching components and building the system yourself, then go for it. That's not for everyone, and that's where BOXX comes in. You can probably build one for much less. For those of us that work in IT managed environments, our IT team may or may not feel comfortable veering away from their HP, Dell, etc. accounts to purchase something like a BOXX. And even less comfortable supporting a DIY build. I believe BOXX is small enough that you can still easily contact them if you ever have any problems. They call me every time I even think about visiting their website. Freaky. No, I do not work for BOXX, but I did contact them before purchasing my new Dell workstation.

[Smalerbi]

Well......the jury is in. I talked with the sales rep from BOXX and he said the current rig I have now is pretty good as far as the bang for your buck goes. He said they could build a faster system but it may not be worth the price to performance ratio. I appreciated his honesty. I guess I will stick to what I have for the time being.