Hey folks! I'm a university student trying to get my hands on a workstation for around 800€. I need it mainly for 3D modeling and rendering, along with some light gaming like Euro Truck Simulator 2 or Football Manager 24. A friend is selling a modified HP Z800 with these specs: double Xeon X5690, Nvidia Quadro 2000 (1GB), but he also has a 1060 with 6GB that I could swap in, plus it has 96GB of DDR3 RAM. He's asking for 550€, which is below my budget. Should I go for the Z800 or check out other options?
3 Answers
If you're searching for a budget workstation with plenty of cores and RAM, consider a second-hand Dell Precision T5810, Lenovo P500, or HP Z440. These are more up-to-date and can handle Windows 11, plus DDR4 RAM prices aren’t too bad right now.
It really depends on what you're planning to do with it. That setup is quite old and not really worth 550€—I mean, those components are over 14 years old! You might want to consider if you need that much power for your tasks.
Honestly, that workstation isn't the best value considering all the parts are ancient. For the 600-700€ range, you could snag a prebuilt that would outperform it, and you wouldn’t have to deal with outdated tech. Plus, unless you really need the 96GB RAM, it's tough to recommend this one.
That's a good point, I was tempted by the RAM since I can't find options above 16GB for a decent price. Should I definitely look into other setups?
I'm mostly going to use Fusion 360 and some CAD/simulation software, but I also want to do a bit of light gaming on the side.