why a workstation?

workstations can handle more memory than desktops. a LOT more memory. off the top of my head, I can think of several applications for workstations:

• scientific computing
• simulations
• video editing and rendering needs to be done (use as many high-end PNY Quadro cards as possible).
• development

There are several types of applications that require multiple cores or multiple threads:

• file compression/expansion
• video encoding/decoding
• audio encoding/decoding

why so expensive?

• because they are dual-processor.
• because they have huge motherboards
• because they usually require special cases
• because they can handle massive amounts of memory (just look at the computers in the list!)
• Intel Xeon processors are spendy - they have massive cache.

why is the hard drive spec'd so small?

it is made to handle only the OS. scientific applications are typically very small. most people are going o attach a RAID box if they want fast storage.

dual-proc worstations