Bret Bullough Posted April 21, 2003 Share Posted April 21, 2003 Is the Boxx Workstatation worth the money? If there are any users out there that can give me some testimonoals good or bad that would really help. I use form-z VIZ and photoshop frequently. There is alot of buzz out there about Boxx system. Is it true or just hype. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted April 21, 2003 Share Posted April 21, 2003 Though I'm slightly biased... The Boxx system is the one of the best systems I've ever worked with. Its almost silent, its unbelievably fast, and hasn't even had a hiccup stability wise in over a month of near constant rendering. Worth every last cent. Boxx makes workstations. Dell makes desktops, throws in more ram and a professional video card, and "calls" them workstations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwright Posted April 21, 2003 Share Posted April 21, 2003 I disagree. Dell's are the really good machines, if not the best out there. Their workstations series are the most stable machines ever. I have not used Boxx, so will not give my opinion on that. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted April 21, 2003 Share Posted April 21, 2003 The only way I've gotten our dell workstations stable, is through... 1) One motherboard replacement. (Dell) 2) Two dimm replacements. (Kept getting bad replacements) 3) Cooling system overhaul. (Artic Silver + Higher RPM fans) Maybe I've just had horribly bad luck again and again. Maybe the University's Dell rep's are just aholes. Feel free to check the other thread in this forum... which discussing some issues more in detail. Feel free to comment on them as well David. http://www.cgarchitect.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000143;p=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Nichols Posted April 21, 2003 Share Posted April 21, 2003 I'm with David on this one... During my stay at Gensler (from 1998 to 2002), I have had nothing but Dell workstations. During rotations (lease plus upgrade) I must have used 10 different workstations. The only one we had problems with was the one that we had to rig to work with our video editor... not Dells fault, but DPS's fault. The workstations were stable fast a quiet. Custumer service was amazing... something like 24 hours on WS, and 4 hours on servers (if needed). Probably because Gensler leasted over 2000 computer from them. Not to say that Boxx MAY be a better computer. They are made by 3D people FOR 3D people... sorta like that tampon commercial. I just think that your experience with Dell is based on bad luck Greg... I hate that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted April 21, 2003 Share Posted April 21, 2003 Could be Christopher. Thats why its good that everyone comments . I should take some pictures of some of the old burnt out Dells. Hehe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted April 21, 2003 Share Posted April 21, 2003 My Dell laptop has been great except for the typical laptop issue of not being able to upgrade the CPU and video chip to better models as they appeared. I even got them to put W2K on it. I did just recently buy a Boxx box and it has been working hard constantly (CPU pinned at 100% for days at a time) doing light calc and raytracing frames. It has been doing just fine. It does have a problem with writing to the ZIP drive, but I called Boxx and they over-nighted me a replacement. They also delivered the machine in a big hurry so i could get a big job rendered. I REALLY appreciated that. Lightscape is having a stability problem with regard to texture handling so I know its a driver issue--of which there will be more and more as LS gets older and older. To sum up, I can say I am very happy with the Boxx machine, and the Boxx company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawyer Posted April 21, 2003 Share Posted April 21, 2003 I have had issues woth Dells (mostly hard drives crashing) but I have had great support through them. The hard drives were both western digital which I have been told is THE company for quality hard drives. Go figure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richie Posted April 22, 2003 Share Posted April 22, 2003 Hello Well, I saw many workstation here the most of them was from DEC, Compaq and HP. Mostly if a system crashing, there was a user failure/caused (Yes, Greg)! And the differences between the speed are not relevant, since there is only a couple of percents (that the boxx is much faster than dell is a bulls...). One thing maybe you should really consider: The NOISE it's coming from the system. We selled many systems, and not ONE is comed back bacause of some defect. Also not one their are coming from DEC, Compaq or HP. Richie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siliconbauhaus Posted April 22, 2003 Share Posted April 22, 2003 I've always had dell's, but by a stroke of luck I managed to get my hands on a Boxx r2s. Super stable, quiet, and bulletproof. For normal stuff I'll stick with dell.....but for anything 3d I'll never leave my Boxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Nichols Posted April 22, 2003 Share Posted April 22, 2003 Originally posted by Ernest Burden: I did just recently buy a Boxx box and it has been working hard constantly (CPU pinned at 100% for days at a time) doing light calc and raytracing frames. You should use Vray, then it won't have to work so hard all the time.... just kicking... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted April 22, 2003 Share Posted April 22, 2003 You should use Vray, then it won't have to work so hard all the time....That is a distinct possibility. I see the fairly near future holding for me a migration to either MAX/Vray (based mostly on your ravings, Chris) or Cinema4D. As much as I love using Lightscape, it is going to become increasingly hard to do 'modern' work with it. Although I am curious about how fast the Vray raytracer is vs. the command-line raytracer in LS. Any thoughts on that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindseye Posted April 22, 2003 Share Posted April 22, 2003 Hi all... I use Boxx systems at my studio. So far we have purchased 2 of them... one more soon. I looked over a number of places before buying (including Dell). When I spec'd out machines at Boxx vs. machines at Dell with as close as possible spec's Boxx had the price advantage.(at that time anyway). When I called Boxx I got the same rep everytime..he new his stuff, and returned my calls. I had some very technical questions for him because I use Newtek's Toaster 2. He knew exactly what I was talking about and we configured the machine..it came without a single glitch. I would recomend them to anyone looking for a new workstation. I see alot of people getting stuck on brandnames or "safe" or "it's what everybody else is using" solutions (software and hardware). It's one of those things that you don't know what your missing unless you step outside of the current mindset. Just my little 2 cents worth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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