DigitalStorm Slade Pro Workstation PC Review
by Dustin Sklavos on April 23, 2014 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- desktops
- Xeon
- Quadro
- DigitalStorm
- Workstation
- Octalcore
When it comes to performance, the DigitalStorm Slade Pro is definitely a strong contender. The octalcore Ivy Bridge-EP CPU is one of the best workstation chips you can buy, and the NVIDIA Quadro K4000 is an efficient and capable partner for professional rendering tasks. If performance is your primary deciding factor in looking at a workstation, then DigitalStorm certainly has you covered here.
As far as pricing, we're still in the ballpark, but it's a little hazier. Dell will charge you $5,527 for a similarly configured Precision T5610 system, ~$300 less than this one, but theirs includes a dual socket workstation board and ECC memory and comes with a three year professional level warranty complete with on site service. HP wants nearly $3,000 more for a comparable system, pricing them out of competition. Even with their 20% coupon code, you're still looking at ~$1,500 more. And Lenovo wants a hilarious $3,500 premium just for a $2,000 CPU. Ultimately, Dell continues to be the one to beat.
And that's kind of the issue that DigitalStorm ultimately faces. There are things you can get from DigitalStorm that you can't get from Dell: the 4TB hard drive, the blu-ray reader, the liquid cooling. But these are comparatively small potatoes. As long as Dell is this hungry in the enterprise space, system integrators are going to have an extremely hard time producing a value proposition to compete with them. Dell's cheaper, their service is more capable, their warranties are longer, and the parts are workstation class across the board.
Compared to other system integrators, DigitalStorm makes a solid argument for their Slade Pro. The performance is there, it's quiet, it's efficient, and the components are generally quality. But the elephant in the room for SIs is going to continue to be Dell for the foreseeable future. They win on price, arguably win on service, and on value adds. The Slade Pro is the finest system I've tested yet from DigitalStorm, and for small businesses who just need one or two solid workstations it's a fine alternative to ordering from the evil empire. But for everyone else, I'd still strongly recommend sticking with Dell.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
52 Comments
View All Comments
Antronman - Monday, April 28, 2014 - link
Umm, I could build a notably better system with that kind of money.Most of the Firepros actually outperform the Quadro cards (W9100 vs K6000, W7000 vs K5000).
MP doesn't have a front io, you don't have any PCIe storage, thunderbolt 2 is available on consumer mobos, etc.
Apple is pretending to innovate.
Antronman - Monday, April 28, 2014 - link
Actually it is not powerful enough to not need to upgrade it.The best model available via their website is a 6-core Xeon, with dual CF-Pro 2GB cards.
Looks to me like an upgrade is in order.
KAlmquist - Wednesday, April 23, 2014 - link
I doubt that the processor is available for $1100. Still, online retail prices are processor $2200, GPU $800, motherboard $320, memory $330, power supply $122, case $140, MS Windows $132, giving a total of $4055. Figure less than $200 for liquid cooling, optical drive, card reader, and cables, and you are talking over $1600 markup. This certainly isn't justified by the warranty, since the expensive parts aren't covered after the first year. AVA Direct will sell a similar system for about $5000, with a 3 year parts, lifetime labor warranty.wwwcd - Thursday, April 24, 2014 - link
Yes this is a consumer prices for one piece in shops. DigitalStorm do not buy components on retail prices.blackmagnum - Wednesday, April 23, 2014 - link
For this price... I expect real wood paneling and genuine leather seats! And does it come in white?etamin - Wednesday, April 23, 2014 - link
A bottom of the barrel PSU for a $5K+ system, and it's a workstation no less. What a joke.piroroadkill - Wednesday, April 23, 2014 - link
That was the first massive gaffe that caught my eye.CX series for anything you spent real money on is a totally incorrect choice.
etamin - Wednesday, April 23, 2014 - link
not just CX series...CX series with M suffix :)Antronman - Wednesday, April 23, 2014 - link
Yeah.I'm RMDing over here.
80+ Bronze, not even modular, with no professional standards at all.
I mean, WTF.
zero2dash - Thursday, April 24, 2014 - link
PSU is arguably the most offensive oversight on this build, but the lack of ECC is nearly as bad.This looks like something someone who lives near a Microcenter would sell on Craigslist (for probably the same egregious amount of money).