Review
Fujitsu Celsius W530power workstation
500W power supply instead of the 300W on offer in the standard Celsius W530. Our test machine’s Nvidia Quadro K2000 with 2GB of onboard memory is pretty much a perfect fit for mainstream users of BIM software. With three outputs (2 x DisplayPort and 1 x DVI-I) it can also drive multiple disFujitsu’s new Intel ‘Haswell’ Product spec plays, which is great when you workstation offers impresare juggling lots of windows or sive serviceability in an ■ Quad Core Intel Core i5-4570 applications. entry-level machine ‘Haswell’ CPU Considering this is an entry(3.2GHz) level machine the Celsius When it comes to worksta■ 8GB (2 x 4GB) 1,600MHz DDR3 W530 has some serious potentions, Fujitsu likes to do things Non-ECC memory tial when it comes to storage. differently. At a time when ■ Nvidia Quadro While the standard Celsius most major manufacturers are K200 (2GB GDDR5) GPU (311.15 driver) W530 supports up to three expanding their entry-level ■ 1TB Western Digital drives (1 x 2.5-inch and range with desktop, miniWD1003FBYX hard drive 2 x 2.5/3.5-inch), the Celsius tower and Small Form Factor ■ Fujitsu W530power edition takes this (SFF) machines, Fujitsu is motherboard (Intel up to five (1 x 2.5-inch and consolidating. C226 chipset) 4 x 2.5/3.5-inch). That adds up The Celsius W530 is the ■ Microsoft Windows 8 Professional 64-bit to an incredible 17TB of storage company’s new entry-level (Windows 7 also if you go for 4 x 4TB 3.5-inch workstation, a jack-of-allavailable) HDDs and a 1TB 2.5-inch HDD. trades that combines many of ■ 3 year on site warranty With such large capacities the features of the previous ■ £959 available, our test machine’s generation Celsius W420 and fujitsu.com 1TB Western Digital Celsius W520. WD1003FBYX HDD does feel It offers plenty of choice for a little anaemic, but it should processor, graphics and (parbe noted that this is 1TB of ticularly) storage, but does so in a mini-tower chassis that comes in enterprise quality storage, commonly at a relatively compact 175 x 419 x 395mm found in read / write-intensive servers and backed up with a five-year warranty for (W x D x H). The driving force for this new machine is piece of mind against failure. Standard HDDs are also available, which Intel’s fourth generation core processor, commonly known as ‘Haswell’. There is a should save a bit of cash and, for those who huge choice of processors on offer, from the place a higher value on performance, there high-end Intel Xeon processor E3 v3 series, are plenty of SSDs to choose from in 128GB, taking in Core i7 and Core i5 all the way 256GB or 512GB capacities. One of the best things about the Celsius down to Core i3. Our test machine’s Intel Core i5-4570 is W530 is that it is incredibly easy to add or very much at the sweet spot for main- replace drives. Spare drive bays, which sit perpendicustream users of CAD or BIM software. Running at 3.2GHz, going up to 3.6GHz lar to the motherboard, are kitted out with with Intel Turbo Boost, it provides the all- two of Fujitsu’s excellent Easyrails. When important raw performance required for fitting a new drive, remove these from the 3D design. But, with no support for Intel bay and use them to grip the drive on both Hyper-Threading, those who ray trace sides so it can be guided into the bay. No render in applications like Revit, 3ds Max screws are needed. Unlike the Celsius M720, which uses or ArchiCAD will miss out. Here, an upgrade to a Core i7 or Xeon E3 v3 will be blind mate connectors, power and data money well spent as GHz for GHz, these cables still need to be attached. However, higher end processors should reduce ren- in our test machine these were already clipped next to each drive bay and attached der times by 10%-15%. The Celsius W530 offers a big choice for to the SATA 3.0 ports on the motherboard graphics, which should pretty much cater so there is no fiddling around. This is a for all but the most demanding of 3D really nice touch as it means new drives really can be added in less than a minute. users. Our test machine was primed and ready This includes the entry-level Nvidia Quadro K600 or AMD FirePro V3900, for 4 x 3.5-inch drives, but not a 2.5-inch right up to the powerful Nvidia Quadro SSD drive. However, if you are planning to add one later, Easyrails and cables can K4000 or AMD FirePro W7000. However, in order to support these last be bought as extras or configured during two GPUs you will need the Celsius a build to order. Alternatively, many W530power edition, which boasts a SSDs, including Samsung’s excellent SSD 34
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840 EVO (see page 30), offer desktop migrations kits, which include an adapter so the 2.5-inch drive can be securely housed in a 3.5-inch bay. There are some other neat features of the chassis, which is tool-less throughout. This includes the side panel, which can be pulled off with one hand, and the PCIExpress cards, which clip in and out of place. There are four USB ports on the front for easy access, though only two of these are USB 3.0. It should also be noted that the Celsius W530 is incredibly quiet in operation. In fact, we hammered both CPU and GPU with rendering and 3D graphics tests, and fan noise was barely noticeable. Like most modern workstations, this is down to low duty fans which efficiently move air from front to back. The top fan is dedicated to cooling the CPU, memory and hard drives 4 & 5, while the bottom fan takes care of the GPU and hard drives 1, 2, & 3 thanks to a metal plate that re-routes some of the air. The W530 is an impressive addition to Fujitsu’s Celsius workstation family and its engineers must be applauded for making maintenance so easy, particularly in an entry-level machine. At £959 our Celsius W530power edition review machine is also competitively priced, but you can shave £60 off this straight away by opting for the standard Celsius W530. Unless you think you might upgrade your graphics card or kit your machine out with four or more hard drives, you will not ever benefit from the premium model. Greg Corke
www.AECmag.com
8/9/13 18:23:10
