mahorela Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 Hi all My new workplace is looking to get some new workstations and Renderboxes. We are a max and vray studio and are currently leaning towards going for the Boxx technologies stuff as although they are a little pricey the quality and know how seems to be worth it. We are looking at the 8300 3dboxx for workstations (dual quad core xeon) and the 10100 renderfarms (quad, quad core xeon). we are looking at 4gig of ram in both workstations and renderfarms and quadro fx3500 cards (256). I was just wondering what people thought of Boxx as a service provider and what their machines are like. any advice is welcome We are getting into alot of animation work so we are going to need our workstations to become renderboxes overnight. thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkletzien Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 you know...I have looked around in the past to see if there is any dirt on Boxx because: We've bought three, all within a month of each other and each one's hard drive falied within a few weeks. They sent us new hard drives promptly - claiming that the prior failure was due to the G forces that UPS subjected the packages too (gimme a break)- then forward another year, two of the three at this stage we've just put on the scrap heap as they never worked correctly despite thousands of dollars of TLC, and another new set of hard drives, and the third we consider a dubious render slave at best, since it only works about 50% of the time. We've had much better luck with Alienware, or...building them ourself. 1 is unlucky, 2 is a coincidence, 3 is a pattern, our experience is that these things are cheaply made, and they have been incredible sources of frustration, expense, and headache. Obviously I would recommend strongly against buying them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron-cds Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 I like my Dell machines which end up being a few hundred dollars less than an equivelant Boxx. I've had a dual xeon 3.6 ghz for 2 1/2 years and a dual quad core 2.66 ghz for 6 months. One of the architect offices I worked at for 5 1/2 years had around 25 Dell workstations. In that time, they never had serious problems. I've never had serious problems with mine either. I think Boxx and Dell could go head to head on hardware, but not on tech support. From what I hear, boxx tech support is very knowledgable about our industry as opposed to the more generic Dell support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfa2 Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 I have mixed feelings about my Boxx stuff. My renderbox is great, very loud, but works rock solid all the time. My workstation is nice, but I've had issues with the $2000 video card I have in there. I can't get the Maxtreme drivers to work...and there seems to be other quirks with the video. I've ran all the tests that they've suggested and nothing helped. The Dell Core2 Duo's are very nice. I have some on my renderfarm and they really do perform well against the Boxx machines. I'd build my own in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
therealpepe Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 Never had a boxx but plenty of dell's and they never let me down. Anyone try hp line of workstations I'm thinking of getting one they're just a little cheaper in price. Pe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t0ffer Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 using an hp xw 9300 since about a year now,no problems at all rock solid even when used as rendernode.bought it as a test from a refurbished programm with full waranty for less than 2000 euros.never had any boxx hardware but they supposed to have a very good support.never used the hp support,luckily since there where no problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radii Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 We bought a Boxx at work about 2 years ago. 1 year later, the power supply failed. Tech support was good, but the whole experience left me feeling not impressed by that damn " box ". Faster then any other Workstation ? Not at all. Clever and expensive marketing though. If you don't want to build your own workstation, check out http://www.thinkmate.com. I just bought a dual quadcore from them for home use, and they were considerably cheaper then ALL the other brands ( about $ 600 less ). The case and cpu fans are kinda loud, but overall build quality is top notch and runs great otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodT Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 I pat my alienware on the head every day and say glad you share my office. I"ll be revisiting them on my next machine, no point of refference for other manufactures as my other machines are dinosaurs at this point.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 I continue to fail to see the point of these high-priced workstation PCs. PC hardware is standardized. These guys happen to use the best parts on the market, but there are a bunch of manufacturers who do that. Boxx has a good support department, but so what, so do Apple and Dell. The marginal gain from it isn't worth the cost anyway, because the expensive machines still have the same critical points of failure. User error, shipping problems and other external concerns, plus the fact that as far as anybody's ever been able to demonstrate, all the hards drives on the market have similar failure rates, and a hard drive failure is the hardest thing to recover from. The most reliable PC is anything with a good power supply and a RAID 1, 0+1 or 5. With the current CPUs, the best way to optimize power per dollar is to overclock. The easiest way to guarantee you have the best possible configuration is to build it yourself. Boxx is too expensive, geeks win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 We are looking at the 8300 3dboxx for workstations (dual quad core xeon) I just bought one of those. I put in 8GB and the Quadro 4600. As many here know, I'm quite fond of Boxx and am happy to recommend them. I have NOT had the sort of experiences that StudioAMD has had. If I had, I might be taking a different position. This new workstation is great, though I did have one odd problem with it right away. Despite the purchase order calling for XP-64, they put XP-32 on it. Considering how well they test each machine, you would think someone would question why a customer would buy 64bit CPUs and 8GB RAM and then want XP-32. Boxx overnighted me a new OS install disc, of course. But I lost a few days in getting the machine working for me. Not a big deal, but an odd mistake for them to make. In the end, I like the responsiveness of Boxx. I think it was Tim Nelson who said you are really buying insurance with Boxx. I agree, and that's why I buy their machines when I can. I should also mention that last year I bought a high-end Toshiba laptop, and they have been great with support when I called, even though the issue was actually not really with their product, it was a Microsoft forced update that locked me out of the machine. They still helped me out at 2AM when I was sleepless and without brain function. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianKitts Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 Boxx used to reign because of their ability to put the right hardware combinations together to make systems that were configured to work hard and work well. But the fact is that most hardware is a lot better at playing well with others and it doesn't require so much vigorous testing to get a good system. That being said Boxx isn't as impressive as it used to be. Specially when you take in price as a factor. Our IT dept has purchased some dual, dual-core's (similar specs to our Boxx systems) that keep right on par with the boxx workstations. We have about 18 dual, duals, and now they've switched over to buying dual, quads, all from dell... I think we are up to about 16 of those. Our boxx's still run fine but when we render at night we mostly just send everything to the dual, quad Dells. And in a year or so when our boxx's turn three years old and we get new systems, I would highly doubt we buy another boxx system, I would assume just keep our great video cards and buy new dell's whatever is the top of the line when the time comes. I don't really want to smear boxx, it's a great system but we did have our downside with them... there's a thread on the forum's here that a coworker started archiving our troubles with their service department. The cliff notes version is that they don't cross ship with you if you have a problem, their service has standard business hours (not 24/7 which dell or otherwise would have) and they kept my system on their test bench for a week wondering why it kept crashing before sending it back still crashing, finally after being without my new machine for two weeks while my coworkers sped away on their new systems, boxx replaced my system completely (which dell would have done in the first place) and I've been running solid ever since. chronicle of a search for a new system through the purchase and trouble with service with boxx. (happy reading)....http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/13310-dual-processor-dual-core.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radii Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 Considering how well they test each machine, ... How come the FireGL card that THEY recommended was very flaky right out of the " boxx " Again, clever and relentless marketing. Build it yourself. Read up on it online. It is not that hard once you understand the basics. I just had to rebuild the PC portion of our CNC controller from scratch ( due to a faulty power supply that fried the motherboard, while I was watching ! ). No magic involved, just compatible components and sticking the right wires in the right places Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 Again, clever and relentless marketing. I guess I'm drinking KoolAde out of my Boxx coffee mug. Oh, and they sent me an XL T-shirt. Dang! I'm not XL, especially XL-32bit. Build it yourself. No thanks. I'll stick to what I do best. Building machines is fun, and money-saving, but best left to the professionals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radii Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 Yes, I still wear my $ 3500.- T-shirt that came with a free computer Has not needed tech support. Very reliable ... Building it yourself was more directed towards Bob, who started this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffc Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 When I priced out my Boxx 8300 last summer, dual-dual xeons, I called dell first. I knew more than their workstation salesman about the latest xeon releases AND the boxx system priced less (!!) than the comarable Dell. Needless to say, the boxx salesman was completely on top of the hardware releases, my 64 bit requirements and actually talked me down into a less expensive vid card, showing that I would get virtually the same speed with my graphic needs. Yes, I was quite happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chasteen Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 Bob, Regardless of what brand workstation you buy, you might want to re-think the fx3500's. XP64, Vista, and Max 8 and above work better with Direct 3D. The fx3500's will run D3D, but probably not much better than a gaming card. It wouldn't be a good idea to sink a lot of money in an OpenGL card especially with Max 2008 on the horizon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfa2 Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 Bob, Regardless of what brand workstation you buy, you might want to re-think the fx3500's. XP64, Vista, and Max 8 and above work better with Direct 3D. The fx3500's will run D3D, but probably not much better than a gaming card. It wouldn't be a good idea to sink a lot of money in an OpenGL card especially with Max 2008 on the horizon. I agree. My fx4500 doesn't like D3D...that card was pretty pricey too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralopez Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 Great discussion. I just bought one a couple of month ago. It came with the wrong configuration and it was noisy. But overall I am happy with the suport, they got all questions resolved, and I am using it for renders with Maxwell.o I let it sit. Dells are great systems to, I have (2) two workstation, (OLD) but still working, and never had a problem with them. Check performance and price. Dell is pretty good, but I could say you can built a system for lot less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 Agreed - I used to like workstation cards and my FireGL is about as good as they get for C4D, but at work we've got new versions of Viz and Autocad, and my 8800GTS is extremely good at running those. I think I saw something about Boxx having their own CAD edition of an 8800 card from XFX, but of course it was overpriced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawyer Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 I have been very happy with my boxx but part of that is because I was so unhappy with my dell purchases. The boxx support I got was great and I had such a hard time with dells tech support. Every part I need I got next day. With dell I was finding it would take a day just to "trouble shoot" the problem before I could talk with tech support. I do know that some people have gotten great dells and bad boxxes. So I can't recommend them as much as I used to because not everyone I know has been happy with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bytor Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 I have had a love/hate experience with BOXX over the past 2+ years co-existence with a BMF laptop/workstation. Heat fried my motherboard and video card (just after the warranty was up) but it was sent away and replaced in a couple of days with new ones. Now it is dying a slow death on the tech's bench - overheated and fried something or another. They don't sell laptops anymore - which is probably good since this one earned the nickname of "hot lead brick" around here. I put a lot of modeling and rendering miles on this puppy - but I don't know if I could say I miss it. I have since lost my noticable limp I used to have carrying that thing home and back. I am looking at a new mobile workstation - but for the time being I am using a new HP xw9400 and would highly reccomend them to anyone. Fast (dual-core 2.6 Ghz. 4gb Ram) and well built with quality parts. Price was decent as the company I work for bought 20 at a time. Dean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mahorela Posted September 6, 2007 Author Share Posted September 6, 2007 Thank you all very much for the excellent response. It has been most helpful. I guess were looking for prebuilt boxes basically because I just don't have time to be building them or repairing them if something goes wrong. I am now steering away from the Boxx stuff and looking very seriously at the Alienware boxes and the Dell machines. We like the idea of the Dell workstations as we know that the service will be very good. What Dell model is an ideal renderbox? thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 A Workstation needs CPU, RAM, good had drive performance (consider RAID 0+1 or RAID 5) and good video card. A render box (a box you farm renders to - not somebody's desk machine) needs CPU, RAM and the least expensive video card and ard drive options available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Hunt Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 As much as I dont like Dell, I'd go Dell over Boxx or Alienware, as they have local dealerships, which makes shipping and physical support easier. If you are looking to self build take a look at altech.com, good price and fair build and nice a quiet and they stock the full range of products from consumer level to Pro. JHV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visual3d Posted September 9, 2007 Share Posted September 9, 2007 I have never been interested in buying dell or any othe branded machine for 1 reason only...pricing..... i built a dual 5355 machine with 8gb ram and the works for less than USD 3500. Dell same spec will be USD4900.. Best to go with Intel Mobo S5000XVN and build up from there. Just make sure you use 600watt and above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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