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For anyone looking for a fast workstation PC that’s also portable and relatively affordable, the Nucbox K1 Mini PC is it. At the time of writing (and as of June 4, 2023), you can buy it from Amazon For $519.99 after the $80 instant coupon. I love the fact that all this power and storage is neatly packed into a metal box that’s barely bigger than a DVD boxset.
(Ed: it’s definitely a candidate for both our best workstation PCs and our best mini PC buying guide)
As would be expected from a workstation worthy of the label, it runs Windows 11 Pro: it’s got a powerful processor, an 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 6800H, plenty of memory (two 16GB DDR5-4800 modules dual-channel mode) and a larger 1TB SSD (albeit PCIe 3.0 instead of 4.0).
You should also be able to add an additional 2.5-inch SSD. There’s no dedicated graphics card, only an AMD Radeon 680M onboard GPU, so any workloads that involve 3D rendering or GPU hardware acceleration are likely to be slow on the K1; The lack of a Thunderbolt port means you won’t be able to plug in an external GPU to compensate.
In terms of ports, you can connect up to three monitors and there’s also a 2.5GbE LAN connector; Also note the presence of a VESA mount, great if you want to turn the monitor into a pseudo-all-in-one PC. The K1 comes with a two-year warranty but no next business day support. We haven’t reviewed it yet but we’re getting our hands on it soon.
How to choose the right workstation for you?
It’s not always about the best, but it’s always about the right fit for your applications. With this in mind, answering the following three questions will help you narrow down the options available to you.
Are you brand agnostic? Being brand agnostic means you can explore the entirety of the market, rather than just a subset of it. There’s no real reason to be brand agnostic these days (unless you’re an Apple user, in which case, you’ll probably need to stick to your Mac workstation). Conversely, larger brands tend to be more conservative than others when it comes to ingredient choices; Which explains why some smaller vendors have adopted AMD’s Epyc server CPUs.
what is your budget? Knowing how much you can afford will inform what you can choose. In theory, any PC can be a workstation, but some of their features (such as Windows 11 Pro, after-sales support, increased expansion capabilities, beefy components) mean that desktop workstations are generally more expensive, although deals are available. Can be You can get good all-rounder workstations for around $500, but you’ll have to pay much more (several orders of magnitude) for something like AI development.
What Kind of Support Do You Need? In most cases the standard warranty won’t cover it for professionals and businesses who answer for work at their workstations. This is where the big brands, with their extensive after sales networks, have the upper hand and can offer contingency coverage, next business day support and more.
What applications are you planning to run? Different applications require different types of workstations. 3D rendering requires a powerful GPU, while machine learning and data science require as much memory as they can get. Your toolbox will determine what type of workstation fits the bill.
That’s why we have four questions to ask yourself when choosing the right workstation for the job. Just keep in mind that there is no fixed rule as to which question comes first.
