Our IT director has ordered a PC to my chosen specs.  This will be a
demo unit to replace my old workstation which has been flaking out
lately and potentially supplied to the rest of the department.

So their supplier (CDW) has offered a computer of the same specs and
brand (HP) except one is in their workstation line and the other is
from their performance PC line.  Being a demo, he chose the non-
workstation option and we can swap later if it's not the right
choice.  I'm not uncomfortable with this, but I know we'll use this
next round of computers for 4+ years and we need dead reliable
equipment.

Aside from a more beefy looking case and maybe better PSU and
motherboard, I'm not sure what else would elevate a PC into a
"workstation".  And I'm not certain that the PSU and mobo are even
significantly better.  The only question I have is related to
expandability for additional RAM and the wattage rating of the PSUs.

For those of you who have faced this decision, what is your opinion?

On Jan 18, 7:16=A0pm, "dgeesa...@yahooooooo.com" <dgeesa...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Our IT director has ordered a PC to my chosen specs. =A0This will be a
> demo unit to replace my old workstation which has been flaking out
> lately and potentially supplied to the rest of the department.
>
> So their supplier (CDW) has offered a computer of the same specs and
> brand (HP) except one is in their workstation line and the other is
> from their performance PC line. =A0Being a demo, he chose the non-
> workstation option and we can swap later if it's not the right
> choice. =A0I'm not uncomfortable with this, but I know we'll use this
> next round of computers for 4+ years and we need dead reliable
> equipment.
>
> Aside from a more beefy looking case and maybe better PSU and
> motherboard, I'm not sure what else would elevate a PC into a
> "workstation". =A0And I'm not certain that the PSU and mobo are even
> significantly better. =A0The only question I have is related to
> expandability for additional RAM and the wattage rating of the PSUs.
>
> For those of you who have faced this decision, what is your opinion?

An answer filtered through that explained the cost savings: the non-
workstation was not a full sized motherboard and case.  So not only
are the components of lesser quality the case was too small to fit a
quality graphics card.  And the cost savings was a few hundred bucks
which made no sense.  So if anyone else considers this option don't
bother, get the workstation platform.

There is a workstation computer in the mail now.  :)

David