It's likely this workstation will perform circles around your present laptop. Are you running those software packs on your laptop now? Workstation computers are supposed to be "server class".... intended for business and much more durable and long lasting than "consumer" computers. I don't know about power consumption if left on 24/7. The newest "off lease" generation of workstations, about 3 years old, are still in current production... HP Z420/Z440 and Dell Precision T5810. (I'm presently using older Dell Precision T3500s. They are now about 8 years old and still running just fine on W7. I bought them off lease 5 years ago.)
Just starting with CTS, but I want to start myself off with a win for the future. Also flicking through tabs every 5 seconds gets frustrating very quickly. Many Xeon factory refurbished systems in Australia are close to the price of a do it yourself build so that's why I asked.
They ran out of stock in no time.. I used quite a few Z workstations in past and all of them were top notch. The swings on the auction price work fine, if you are patient. That is supply/demand constantly cycling: you may get a better variety and prices on Dells, when they are being dumped in quantity.. and later the same happens with the HP Z stock. Like any market, it favours the most patient observer.
The "off lease" cycle for these is just beginning. Soon there will be lots of them on the market, all about 3 years old, and should be priced ~$350-$400, or less.
I would try to find a 4 core i7 it will have a lower passmark but higher single thread count. The difference is minor. You will not be able to use all the cores and but most times we use just one or two. So each one your using, if it does more your doing better vs having more, but not being able to use them. (its a nice chip) (ask for a back up disc if you buy it) dump the hard drive put in a ssd. !28gb or better Really cheap less than $100. Put new operating system off the disk on it. Use the old harddrive as a 2nd harddrive to store stuff on and no operating system stuff other than backup. It should be able to handle anything most people would do.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Z210-Wor...618868?hash=item4d54f1ddb4:g:-bEAAOSwintXSKI3 More ram, faster dual hard drive, faster procesor, better video card a bit cheaper.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Workstat...6550591?hash=item3f763b803f:g:WVQAAOSwTuJYrvV Like $230 faster processor and hard drive everything else looks the same.
Deal is back again. Looks like LOTS of inventory. No need to spend more for trading rig. Sale ends Sat, Apr 1. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod..._-cables-_-na-_-na&Item=9SIA5YV4ZT5210&cm_sp=
Thank you! I'm not in the US so I couldn't grab this deal, but I picked up a HP z620 E5-1650 16GB ram for $610 USD ($800 AUD) from an IT shop on eBay
It's more than great thing for trading, just believe me, not sure why people go for such powerfull machines, out of my mind really. And the card is also really good and supports like many many monitors probably. DVD now only for windows/office/drivers from new boxes and that's it. Soon will die if not already.