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At first glance, the X20a-64 looks the same as Armari’s Gravistar XR – which is hardly surprising considering that they both use very similar Supermicro Chassis – but Xworks workstation has slightly better-chosen components that help push it into first place in our tests.

The two dual-core Opteron 280 processors aren’t as fast as the 285 chips used in the Gravistar XR, but the difference in our LightWave test rendering and graphics-processing test was less than you’d think. AMD’s top-notch processor boosted Armari’s workstation by less than 10 percent over the X20a-63, which isn’t much considering the X20a-64’s better graphics card and drive arrangement.

The FireGL 7300 is the most powerful graphics card included by any of the of system builders in our tests. It’s essentially the same card as the 7200, but with 512MB of RAM instead of 256MB. This is why, although the X20a-64’s Cinebench results were nothing to shout about, its results in SPECviewperf were the best by far.

Traditional workstations feature a single system drive and a RAID-configured media array, but the X20a-64 features two fast (10,000rpm) system drives in a RAID 0 set-up and a single large media drive. This is ideal for 3D Work as it provides fast access to your projects, with a 400GB on which to store your output renders. The X20a-64 lacks Firewire, but few animators will miss it (n.b. Firewire is optional on X20a-64). The case isn’t the best looking around, but it’s small and quiet, and it’s the power delivered to your creative applications that make it a winner.

DIGIT ‘Best Buy Winner’

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Xworks Interactive Wins Again

Previously recognised by Deloitte as one of the fastest rising technology stars in the UK tech sector, Xworks Interactive has triumphed yet again with its new workstation. In the latest 3D World Magazine test (to be published August 2006) the Xworks X20a-64 came out on top.

The workstation scores highly across all categories and left the judges seriously impressed with its ability.

James Morris writing for 3D World Magazine said “We expected to find a finely honed machine and weren’t disappointed. From the SuperMicro motherboard and chassis to the high end core components this unit smacks of real professionalism.”

Xworks’ wider product range encompasses a broad range of certified, high performance systems tailored for specific application areas; from award winning dual and single processor CAD workstations through to multiple processor rackmount solutions for render farms and compact application servers. Xworks, partnership with ATI delivers trusted graphic solutions that deliver value for money through faster performance when it comes to high-end CAD and visualisation packages. Richard Bardwell, Technical Manager at Sharc, developers of Harpoon, the world leading Extreme Mesher, commented, “On a Price vs Performance basis Xworks machines are second to none and coupled with the first rate support they provide these machines are superb value.”

Xworks’ mix of high speed processors and top of the range graphics cards means that the performance of these workstations is ideal for rendering and visualisation, key applications in the fields of automotive, aerospace, animation. Companies and top design studios in UK and Europe are now turning to Xworks for their expertise in bespoke built, award winning, high performance workstations.

« 3D World - Issue 80 - August 2006 - 9/10 'Group Winner' »


Xworks focuses specifically on the workstation market, so we expected to find a finely honed machine and weren’t disappointed.

From the Supermicro motherboard and chassis to the high-end core components, this unit smacks of professionalism. The X20a is based around a pair of 2.4GHz dual-core Opteron 280s, second only in  processing power to the Boxx’s 285s.

Graphics are taken care of by ATI’s FireGL V7300 with 512MB of GDDR3 memory. This incorporates 16 Pixel Shader pipelines, Shader Model 3 support, and both HD component and stereoscopic output. The two Dual-Link DVI connections support resolutions up to 3,840x2,400 apiece with compatible displays. The V7300 includes ATI’s Avivo technology, which enables HDR rendering up to 16-bit per RGB colour channel on a 10-bit precision pipeline.

The X20a came as a dual-boot system, with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP installed. Xworks has supplied a trio of hard disks: two 10,000rpm Western Digital Raptor 150s and a 500GB Western Digital Caviar SE16. However, no RAID confi guration is employed, with the two Raptors used separately to host the two different  operating systems, while the 500GB drive takes care of general data storage.

But since SATA RAID is available on the motherboard, other configurations are possible if you don’t need dual-boot. The Xworks put in a very respectable performance in our benchmarks. Cinebench rendering was a particular highlight, with the X20a coming second only to the Boxx.

However, the FireGL graphics card provided different strengths to the Nvidia Quadro FX-based workstations.

Hardware OpenGL lighting with Cinebench wasn’t among them, but ATI is particularly adept at 3ds Max, Lightscape and Maya, as evidenced by the SPECviewperf scores. The ensight-01 score was also quite reasonable.

This is clearly a system well-suited to 3D animation, unless you’re using Cinema 4D. Although the Boxx was faster, it’s the overall balance of components that counted in Xworks’ favour. The X20a was almost as fast for rendering, and the upgrade to 285s will cost just £250.

There’s extra performance to be had from running this system in full 64-bit mode, too.

Considering that this is also the cheapest workstation on test, the X20a managed to surpass Boxx’s top performance to win our primary affections. This is a great all-round workstation, equally suited to modelling or rendering.

VERDICT

PROS
• Second-fastest processors
• Fast ATI FireGL graphics
• Good value

CONS
• No fault-tolerance
• Short basic warranty

RANGE OF FEATURES      8
VALUE FOR MONEY        9
OVERALL                           9


How Xworks stole the pie

At the risk of sounding wishy-washy, we have to say that the level of systems submitted was reassuringly high. All vendors supplied basically similar specifi cations centred around different models from the same dual-core AMD Opteron family. All but one included 4GB of RAM, so the only other major differentiation in core components was whether ATI or Nvidia high-end graphics were chosen.

Nevertheless, we got a good spread of results. What became clear from our testing was that, although it’s hard to call between Nvidia’s and ATI’s top-of-the-range options, both have their strengths. To illustrate this, we ran a large suite of tests. Most important among these was the industry-standard SPECviewperf 8.1. This graphics-oriented test runs eight separate benchmarks based on real-world
CONCLUSION | How Xworks stole the pie
FireGL’s strengths lie more in 3D animation, with the best results in the 3ds Max and Maya tests, though the Quadro FX cards weren’t far behind with the latter. It’s worth noting that SPECviewperf is a pure performance benchmark intended to be run without presets for specific applications.

We also ran Maxon’s Cinebench. As well as testing OpenGL performance, giving us another perspective on graphics power, this also executes a render in both single and multithreaded modes, giving a good indication of how fast the workstations will be when called upon to play a part in your render farm.