While an entry-level workstation may command a slightly higher price point than a top-of-the-line desktop, the few hundred-dollar difference is more than offset by productivity increases that experts estimate can be as high as 30% for common engineering tasks like CAD design and simulation. To avoid being penny wise and pound foolish, experts suggest answering the following five questions before determining that a workstation is cost prohibitive. The answer to that question boils down to whether the work you do is essential to the actual design of a product. If you are doing full-blown CAD design or running simulation, a workstation is the better choice not only due to increased performance, but because a workstation is tested, optimized, and even certified to run critical engineering applications. For example, most workstation configurations include ECC (Error Correcting Code) memory, which detects and corrects the most common kinds of internal data corruption, ensuring that critical design work and intellectual property is properly protected.
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