The Hon Altern Task Chair is a minimalist, budget-friendly, modern ergonomic chair designed for home offices and office buildings. It's the basics, nothing flashy, and that's okay.

After testing out all the best office chairs, I didn't expect to like this model. I thought it would be too lightweight, flimsy, and not even comparable to some of the chairs I've reviewed. However, even though it is minimal, it still managed to impress me in a number of ways.

Hon Altern Task Chair: Price and Availability

The Hon Altern Task Chair retails for around $300, depending on your chosen configuration. You can grab one of these chairs from Amazon, Hon's official website, or other office furniture stores like Staples and Wayfair. The company offers a lifetime warranty on the frame and a five-year warranty on mechanical parts. For a $300 chair, that's pretty impressive.

Hon Altern Task Chair: Unboxing & first impressions

Thanks to this chair being super light, the assembly was overall quite simple. Following the directions, I could quickly assemble the pieces in about 12 minutes.

Once I assembled it all, I immediately noticed it looked pretty small compared to some of the more prominent office chairs I get. But that is why it feels so sleek, modern, and minimal- the elegant black color and mesh backing.

Hon Altern Task Chair: Design & build quality

The Altern has a simple mesh back and a sleek frame surrounding the chair. This combo is excellent for those who run a bit warm like I do, and it's for those who want actual comfort, not the feeling of leaning against a board like some chairs.

Though this chair is small, as I've noted, my team and I had no issues adjusting it to fit all of us. Features like the thigh depth help with leg comfort, especially if you are taller (or adjusting to a shorter thigh depth if you are shorter). Especially paired with a good-height backrest and adjustable armrests.

Moving on, the lumbar support can slide from time to time, though I haven't had a huge issue with this, and there is no tilt-lock to stick yourself in upright no matter how hard you press (okay, maybe you could push hard enough to break something and lean back).

Hon Altern Task Chair: In use

My team has had this chair in rotation for a while (156 days). Moving from room to room is simple and easy, even from my studio to a workspace. It's not overly complicated with dials and switches to adjust the chair like some that I test, and the cushion is comfortable for all-day work. My team member who usually works with this chair is 5'6" and probably around 190 lbs. It fits him perfectly, and he loves using the chair for long working sessions.

When I jump into this chair, I can still see his comfort level, which is great because usually, one size fits the chair better than others, but it's not bad for a nearly 8-inch difference in height.

A few things I don't love about this chair is that it can look dirty quickly with dust or even slight debris. If anything touches the black, I must immediately wipe it off, including crumbs, dust, shavings from a 3D Printer, fuzz, etc. Additionally, this chair has very simple armrests. This is super helpful for some. I go back and forth. On the one hand, I like that I can lean on these and not worry about them moving away from me (I may or may not have had issues with this in the past), but on the other hand, I do like being able to adjust my chair with 4D armrests to move anywhere I want them.

My team has loved using this chair, and it's held up without any issues. The armrests and pieces are still just as tight and work wonderfully. The chair has yet to creak or sound like it's groaning. I can see why Hon is willing to give such an extended warranty.

Hon Altern Task Chair: Final verdict

The Hon Altern Task Chair is an excellent crossroad between comfort, budget price, and minimalist style. If you're interested in a decent chair that's slim enough to fit where you want it, strong enough to hold you up, sufficient quality to last, and comfortable enough to use all day, the Hon Altern Task Chair is worth considering.

For more office essentials, we've reviewed the best standing desks for the home and office.

Bluetti is one of the more well-known power station companies. They make phenomenal offerings like the AC500, AC200L, and the Handsfree 2 backpack. The Elite 200 V2 is another offering in this quality lineup, expanding the form factor of the AC200 and AC200L with better output, smarter technology inside, and a slightly more compact design.

I've reviewed plenty of the best portable power stations, and this one has explicitly found great use in my workshop area, ensuring that all of my gear is readily charged and good to go. This charges drill batteries, vacuums, toys for the kids, etc. It got me thinking about how great of a solution this power station would be for a job site or in a utility capacity for charging tools out of your truck or van or even making sure you can top off power tools at a construction site.

Alternatively, perhaps you’re not in that line of work; this would also be a good pick for a cabin, a shed, a camper van, or something similar, especially if it's paired with an all-season solar panel to keep you off the grid entirely.

Bluetti Elite 200 V2: Price and Availability

The Elite 200 V2 is frequently discounted to under $1,000 from its regular MSRP of $1,999. That’s a pretty good deal, and if you’re even considering being in the market for a portable power station. You can buy these from Bluetti's website, Amazon, and a handful of other retailers.

Bluetti Elite 200 V2: Unboxing & first impressions

The Elite 200 V2 comes in a simple box with only bare essentials. It has the power station itself, an AC Charging cable, solar cable attachments, a grounding screw, and a manual—nothing out of the ordinary there. The casing and handles help build into this power station's rigidity factor, which, paired with the overall heft, feels quite premium.

It doesn’t have as much casing as some of the more “all-season” units that Bluetti has (review coming soon on a more weather-resistant model), but it still feels like you can knock it around, and it will be fine. The two integrated handles on either side of the top of this unit make moving the power station something I can do on my own, though it’s not something that most would enjoy doing.

If there were one handle, this unit would be flat-out inaccessible to many, if not most, and that’s not to say I’m even some sort of professional lifter of heavy things. My wife and a few co-workers struggled immensely trying to lift this unit into position, even with the two handles. If this is you, the two handles are positioned so you can easily buddy-carry and share the load with a friend (or stranger).

Bluetti Elite 200 V2: Design & build quality

As I alluded to in an earlier statement, I am also testing the IP-rated variant of this power station. So, in comparison, this unit is much less rugged, but not in a bad way. I’d consider this a professional-looking power station, ready for the board room just as much as it’s prepared to live in the back of a work truck.

All the ports are on the front of the unit, other than the power inputs (AC and Solar) and the grounding wire, which are all on the right side. The output ports are all on the front, beautifully surrounding the display without encouraging covering the screen.

Bluetti Elite 200 V2: In use

I briefly mentioned above that I've found this machine useful in a workshop area, simultaneously charging up some of my gear. I have also taken this outside (when it wasn't raining) to help keep drills recharged while working on building a giant playset in my backyard. I brought this to a job site where I was helping run conduit, power, and CAT-6 Ethernet in a workspace at a company I work with. When the power was cut, I used this power station to shop lights and keep drills recharged for the team, throwing up a half-wall and drywall.

During this testing, I was impressed with the output capacity of this hefty yet mighty power station. Sometimes, I wish it had more than four ports, but in all of my testing, ID 3. So, while more feels better, I don't usually find myself needing more on the go. And, if I did, I could throw a power strip on there pretty straightforwardly, like what I am doing with a work cart powered by my EcoFlow River 3. This power station only has one AC port with a ground and just a two-prong AC port. Still, I run a robust cart with a dozen outlets mounted all around for ease of use, a Thunderbolt Dock, a monitor, a charging station, and a charger for a few radios. So, if I can run all of that off of a smaller unit, with only one and a half AC ports, you can run plenty with four full three-prong AC ports.

Another excellent use case for this power station would be for emergency backup. It could power a fridge (the time it could run would depend a lot on the type of fridge) for hours, a router, a server, phones, computers, medical equipment, security equipment, and so on.

Bluetti Elite 200 V2: Final verdict

The Bluetti Elite 200 V2 is a fantastic portable power station for most individuals. It is a tremendous all-around Swiss army-knife power station that is great at many things. It's hefty, doesn't have waterproofing, does not come with solar panels, doesn't have wheels, and some features are only accessible with the app.

Still, outside of those few minor inconveniences, not even problems, this power station is excellent. It's dependable, durable, robust, purposefully designed, and all less than $1000. If you're looking to get into portable power stations, need a solid one to add to your fleet, or anywhere in between, this power station is worth considering, especially if it's on one of its sales.

Duracell has been around for as long as I can remember. I've got countless memories of grabbing some Duracell batteries to throw in toys, remotes, and other tools growing up, all the way up to toys for my kids. Duracell is a well-known, highly-reputable company that people recognize and trust.

Having reviewed the best portable power stations, I can confidently say this one is meant for everyday use, has excellent ports, and is a simple backup for essentials. However, what sets this power station apart is not the bold design, port offering, power output, or capacity.

What sets this apart is that you can recharge it with a standard AC extension cord. There is no fancy proprietary charger or IEC cable that swears on the cable that you can only use for that power station. Any AC extension cable will do.

Duracell G800: Price and Availability

The Duracell G800 is available through Duracell's official website for only $699 but be warned that it frequently sells out. They offer a smaller variant, but if you're going with this company, I'd choose this larger one for portable power stations.

Duracell G800: Unboxing & first impressions

When I first found the Duracell G800, I thought it was a gimmick. A power station resembling a famous battery wouldn't work well. But, once I got it, I was proven wrong. The build quality is excellent, the packaging is professional and straightforward, the handle is comfortable to carry, the port offering is fantastic, and then I noticed the way to charge, and I realized this is working hard to compete right out of the gate.

Duracell G800: Design & build quality

The Duracell G800 is a unique look. It's got a bronze top half to resemble the famous battery, but what's great is that Duracell chose to make the line between the black and copper a ring light, helping light whatever you may be trying to plug in, in the dark, without power, thus the need for a power station.

Further, the handle is solid and firm, and there is some integrated storage on the backside of the power station to help carry the power cable or any USB-C/USB-A cables.

Thankfully, all the main ports are on the front, which I appreciate. It makes for a portable power station that is easy to use, allowing for this to be set down and forgotten about while charging whatever you may be keeping charged.

Duracell G800: In use

Admittedly, I've had this G800 for around 160 days. However, in that time, I've had my team put this thing to the test in real-life scenarios. I've had this power station help out when charging cameras on the go out of the back of my Jeep, charging iPads and computers on a long trip, and being a light source and emergency power in a power outage. I've had this power station help out my family in Florida during the crazy hurricanes this last year. In all the scenarios, this power station functioned great. The handle makes it easy to maneuver in all of these environments, and the forward-facing ports mean that all ports are accessible simultaneously.

Throughout my time testing, the most standout feature is that this unit recharges with a standard AC extension cord outlet. One thing that makes a power station less usable is when it has a proprietary charger or a unique charger that works only for that unit. It makes recharging more cumbersome, more challenging in many ways, and more expensive if you ever damage or misplace your charger. With Duracell, they chose to go the opposite route of an Apple with the (late) Lightning cable, and they decided to go with a cable option that is nearly everywhere (in the US). This may be an intentional move, or it's beginner's luck; regardless, I am a fan.

While testing, I got this power station recharged to an impressive 80 percent in about an hour, just as Duracell suggests. I got my 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro fully recharged about 8.5 times, depending on just how heavily I ran it when plugged in (I run my computers hard with all that I do in a day).

Duracell promotes being able to run a Wi-Fi router for around 26 hours, a TV (very generic) for 5 hours, a mini cooler for 22 hours, a drone for 26 charges, and lights for 6.7 hours.

If you want to extend your off-grid power, plug in a G-Solar Panel to recharge the power station directly from the sun.

Duracell G800: Final verdict

Overall, the Duracell Power 800 is a quality power station, especially for the price, making it a great travel, camping, and home backup for smaller items that need to be charged. Sadly, it does not have app control, but it does have nice features such as a built-in light ring and that handy ability to recharge with a simple standard AC extension cord.

Last I checked (and surprisingly, I check pretty often), Dell is still the top monitor brand in the world. They dominate the display game primarily due to their professional monitor line-ups. In 2025, they will continue to put out spectacular panels for their business customers, offering what the people need and will need in the foreseeable future. The UltraSharp line-up has led this charge of premium office monitors for quite some time, with the U3225QE as the newest release.

Unless you have a super simple setup and you can get away with plugging your laptop directly into your monitor over HDMI, and then your setup is complete, most people benefit from a dock in one way or another. It may not be used heavily every single moment, but having a dock where you can plug in other cables, plug-in drives, or accessories and access your computer can be super handy. Another thing that not many setups have, but many would benefit from, is a KVM dock.

Dell's U3225QE continues the legacy Dell has set forth with a gorgeous panel, the world's most comfortable display, an integrated Thunderbolt Dock, and a KVM switch.

This is easily one of the best business monitors for those working on multiple devices in the professional space.

Dell U3225QE: Price and Availability

The Dell UltraSharp 32 4K Thunderbolt Hub is priced at $949.99 and is available at Dell and other business monitor resellers. It is backed by a 3-year Advanced Exchange Warranty, which includes access to the premium panel exchange. One thing to note is that only a mere fraction of Dell monitors are purchased through Dell, and most are purchased through a third party.

Dell U3225QE: Unboxing & first impressions

The box for this Dell Monitor was a little different than the standard brown box I've expected from most monitor manufacturers. This one was in a black box with a photo of the monitor on the front and prominent Dell branding. Once unboxing, though, everything felt familiar.

Within the contents are the monitor, a stand, a Thunderbolt 4 Cable, a DisplayPort Cable, a USB-C to USB-A cable, and the IEC power cable. The monitor stand and base are the same as those used by Dell for years. It works well, has integrated cable routing, and is height-adjustable.

However, it also takes up a lot of space. So, I usually opt for a monitor arm. Thankfully, as most monitors are these days, this monitor has a VESA mounting capacity, so I could put this display on the Mount-It monitor arm I had set up already.

Once I got the monitor arm mounted, the other things I noticed immediately included the pop-out ports, the plethora of ports on the back, the fantastic display, and my appreciation for IEC monitors in general.

Dell U3225QE: Design & build quality

Dell's monitors all look like they belong together. This one is no different. It's a black panel front with minimal bezels, a light grey plastic backing, and ports at the bottom middle of the back of the display. Another thing that I appreciate about Dell is that there is minimalist branding all around. That makes it an easy choice to toss this monitor on my testing desk and be able to leave it there without it looking like a branding piece or a gaudy flashy display.

Dell also made sure to include some front-facing ports since this is a Thunderbolt dock as well. There is a pop-out grouping of ports on the left-hand bottom bezel, allowing for ease of access when needed, and then it can be clicked back in place when not in use.

Dell U3225QE: In use

I'll speak quickly to a few different use cases for this monitor. This display is fantastic for people who need an all-in-one display in an office or workspace, especially if you have multiple devices. This monitor is also great for the home office and can be used for work and play, all on the same display. Another use case would be for videographers looking for a significant multi-use display.

For my use case, I have the Dell UltraSharp 32 4K Thunderbolt Hub Monitor on my secondary desk, which is directly behind my main desk. I have it on my Flexispot E7 Plus desk, with a Grovemade desk shelf, a Mount-It Monitor arm, and a Grovemade desk pad. I added a nice BenQ lightbar to the top and a few other gadgets around the desk to finish it.

For the last few weeks, I've had this monitor as my computer and peripheral testing area, making it super easy to plug in any laptop to the USB-C cable to charge and run data and video, all to the built-in hub on the back of the monitor. I can also run any HDMI or DisplayPort to the monitor, making it easy to plug in any desktop I am testing, any gaming system for after-hours fun, an Apple TV (for the screensavers and aesthetic vibes), and just about anything else. All of this without a dock since the monitor has it all built-in.

Translating this to the business world, this could be your all-in-one display. It's got super rich IPS Black colors, even though it's not running an OLED Panel, so it will look great with your content, no matter what you're doing on it. It's a 120Hz refresh rate, making the display buttery smooth, especially when you pair it with the 4K resolution and great colors. All around, the picture is brilliant. I'd suggest this as your only monitor if it fits the specs and price you're looking for.

Regarding features, the monitor has a built-in KVM on top of the Thunderbolt Dock, which I have already discussed. What's great about a built-in KVM is that you can switch displays for multiple computers/devices and swap around your inputs and peripherals simultaneously. Picture this: the Dell UltraSharp 32-inch 4K is your only monitor. You work from home. You can easily have your work machine plugged in, whether it is a laptop or a desktop. During the day, you can quickly finish your work on this brilliant panel, knocking out multitasking or project management, coding, writing, or virtual meetings. Then, when you're on lunch, you can press a button and swap your mouse, keyboard, webcam, mic, and any other accessories you want over to your personal laptop to check on the game, check your personal emails, work on your side project, video call a family member, or whatever else. Then, you can swap right back to your work machine with another simple press. No more needing multiple keyboards or having all your gear spread across a desk in a cluttered mess. Better yet, thanks to the great inputs, you can even have your gaming system plugged in, so after the workday, you can swap into an evening of gaming if you so choose.

Further, if one monitor is insufficient, Dell allows for daisy chaining these monitors, meaning you can still run a one-cable setup. Still, you can have several of these monitors side by side or stacked to give you even more digital real estate.

Sadly, there is no speaker built into this display. I say sadly, but at the same time, I only ever use monitor speakers for the occasional internal Google Meet, where I don't need brilliant audio; I need to be able to hear my teams. So, while it's a loss, I'd be frustrated at the quality if there was a speaker. And, if I wanted a good speaker, I could get the web conferencing variant like the Dell P3424WEB, but then I wouldn't need one of the best business webcams, which have great features in and of themselves.

Dell U3225QE: Final verdict

The Dell UltraSharp U3225QE is a gorgeous monitor that would be a perfect productivity companion for almost everyone. It's got impressive connectivity options, excellent pictures, 120Hz buttery smooth motion, and one of the best-rated eye-friendly screens on the market. It's not perfect, but for the vast majority, it's precisely what you'd want and need.

For more essentials, we've reviewed the best business computers and the best business laptops.

The HP LaserJet M209dw is an affordable and remarkably compact mono laser printer aimed at small business and the micro office. It’s a simple print-only device, but it comes with key features such as auto-duplex printing, dual-band Wi-Fi, Wolf Security and fax functionality that add up to something that would do well in shared office.

HP reckons it can handle a duty cycle of up to 2,000 pages per month. Being a LaserJet, rather than an inkjet, I already know it’ll always be ready to print without fear of blocked nozzles, and the total cost of ownership looks very competitive.

However, I was curious how it would compare to the best home printers and the best small business printers I've reviewed. After all, with only one paper input, however, and not much inbox toner, it still needs to justify its $149 price tag, so let’s delve deeper.

HP LaserJet M209dw: Design and build

HP often leads the way when it comes to printer design and innovation and the LaserJet M209dw is a good example. It’s significantly smaller than the similarly priced Brother HL-L2865DW in every dimension and with its paper tray folded away, it fits into my desk drawer. In operation, though, you’ll need to keep the paper cassette in place so it takes up a bit more desk space than those dimensions suggest.

There’s no scanner, no touchscreen display and just one paper input, so it’s a minimal and clean aesthetic. The buttons are on top while a stripe of vivid LED light across the front panel lets you know when the printer is on and connected to the Wi-Fi. It changes from violet to blue when it’s online.

The paper input tray feels rather insubstantial and comes unclipped a bit too easily. On the plus side, this forward-facing flap makes it easy to load 150 sheets of paper and switch paper stock quickly. It’ll take any paper size from 4x6 photo paper to A4 or legal. With no additional multi-purpose input tray it’s something I had to do a lot during the test.

HP LaserJet M209dw: Features & specifications

Being a budget print-only device, the HP LaserJet M209dw isn't likely to top my round-up of best HP printers any time soon. It has few features to mention. You do have, what I consider the essentials for a business printer; auto-duplex, dual-band Wi-Fi, Ethernet and USB ports and some security software to prevent attacks over the network. But it also has Bluetooth to make the setup procedure easier, and if you use the HP Smart software, you add a fax facility and the ability to print remotely via the cloud.

It’s a pity there’s no multi-purpose tray for those one-off jobs such as printing on headed paper and a display of some sort would have been nice. For such a small printer that’s regularly discounted to below the one hundred dollar price point, I can’t complain too much.

The quoted maximum print speed of 29ppm (pages per minute) in simplex draft mode is not too shabby, and there’s room for 150 sheets of paper in the input tray. The output tray can hold 100 sheets. There’s no USB Host port at the front, but you do have Ethernet and USB ports at the rear. Print quality is given as the standard 600x600dpi and there’s 64GB of inbuilt memory, which is less than most new printers, but it didn’t prove to be a problem during the test.

HP LaserJet M209dw: Setup and operation

With Bluetooth built in and a good companion app called HP Smart, the HP LaserJet M209dw is especially easy to set up. The starter cartridge is already installed, so all you need to do is load some plain paper, turn on and follow the instructions on your smartphone. You’ll see your new printer appear on the app because it can make a Bluetooth connection right away and then help you to join your local Wi-Fi network.

OK, so it didn’t actually work first time for me, but after turning things off and on again, I managed to get the printer online eventually. I’m sure this had more to do with the capricious nature of Wi-Fi than HP’s streamlined setup procedure.

A touchscreen interface would have made the HP LaserJet M209dw easier to operate, but a simple print-only device like this doesn’t really need one. The forward-facing paper tray is conveniently located for switching media and the button controls are intuitive enough.

HP LaserJet M209dw: Performance

The HP LaserJet M209dw printed clearly and reliably throughout the test, with no misprints or paper jams. It did especially well with black text on plain paper, which appeared consistently crisp and legible down to the smallest point size. Printing in draft mode produced only slightly paler print that would be fine for most circumstances.

This isn’t the fastest laser printer on the block. Its top speed of 29ppm is slower than that of the Brother HL-L2865DW, but it’ll still beat any inkjet and it flips the paper in auto-duplex mode quite quickly. The first page out time is given as 7.6 seconds, but this depends on so many factors as to make it a not very useful parameter. More significant is the 30-second warm up time, which is rather slow.

The HP LaserJet M209dw is not so good at printing graphics and photos. Both appear too dark and with poor contrast, as you can see in the photo comparison where a Xerox printer shows how the lion should look.

HP LaserJet M209dw: Consumables

The HP LaserJet M209dw will take a high yield black toner cartridge (135X) costing around US$130 (£83), which gives a reasonable page rate, that’s just a little higher than the aforementioned Brother HL-L2460DW.

It’s significantly more expensive to run than an ink tank inkjet like the Epson EcoTank ET-M2140, but much cheaper than any cartridge inkjet. I should warn you that there’s not much toner in the starter cartridge that comes with this printer. Barely enough for 700 pages.

HP LaserJet M209dw: Maintenance

Usually, the only component of any of the best laser printers that you need to replace is the imaging drum, but in this case the drum is integrated into the cartridge, so you’re replacing it every time you change cartridges. Unlike inkjets, which need to run a maintenance cycle every so often, the only thing to think about here is stopping an excess of dust from penetrating the printer.

HP LaserJet M209dw: Final verdict

The HP LaserJet M209dw is so small and effective and reasonably priced that it’s hard not to like.

Home users will appreciate the prompt and precise pages of text that this black and white printer can turn out and the Bluetooth-enabled setup procedure, while business users in a small shared office will welcome HP’s Wolf Security protection and dual-band Wi-Fi.

I would like to have seen an additional multi-purpose input tray, as the solitary 150-sheet input is limiting. And while text looks sharp, graphics generally appear too dark and lacking in contrast. The amount of toner in the setup cartridge (enough for 700 pages) is also a bit stingy, but those niggles are all explained by the low price and conveniently compact size of this neat laser printer.

For more budget models, I've reviewed the best cheap printers around.

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Scan opts for the Intel route with its lower-priced system, as the 3XS GWP-ME A132C packs the best Intel CPU available in this class. Where other manufacturers chose the Core i9-13900K, Scan steps things up with the i9-13900KS. This incorporates eight P-cores with Hyper-Threading and 16 E-cores without, but the P-cores have a base frequency of 3.2GHz and 6GHz maximum boost, while the E-cores start at 2.4GHz and go up to 4.3GHz (although the latter is the same as the K variant).

Scan also takes advantage of the processor’s support for DDR5 memory by supplying 64GB of 5,600MHz RAM in the form of two 32GB DIMMs. This leaves two slots free for upgrade. The graphics choice is dependable, too: you can’t go wrong with Nvidia’s RTX A5000 handling 3D acceleration. Sporting 8,192 CUDA cores and 24GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus providing 768GB/sec of bandwidth, the A5000 is a potent GPU.

The components of this workstation are built into a capacious Fractal Design Meshify 2 chassis, which offers lots of space for storage upgrades. Scan supplies only a single drive, but it’s a good one – a 2TB Corsair MP700 NVMe M.2 SSD, which supports PCI Express 5. According to testing with CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4, this drive provides sustained reading of 10,074MB/sec and writing at 10,190MB/sec, nearly 50% faster than the best PCI Express 4 NVMe SSDs. Only the Crucial T700 used by Armari this month is faster.

Despite its Core i9-13900KS CPU, the A132C came second to systems equipped with the K variant in the PC Pro benchmarks, although a score of 827 is still superb. Its Maxon Cinebench R23 CPU rendering result of 37,442 was also beaten by the Chillblast Apex Core i9 and Armari’s AMD Ryzen 9 7950X. However, the Blender CPU rendering time of 296 seconds beat other Intel-equipped workstations.

The RTX A5000 graphics delivered as expected with SPECviewperf 2020 v3.1 viewsets, showing competent scores for 3D animation, engineering and CAD. The excellent OpenCL result in LuxMark 3.1 of 15,287 was mirrored by a Blender GPU render time of just 143 seconds, although Armari’s AMD Radeon W7800 was faster, and the PCSpecialist Onyx Pro’s Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 was in a different league entirely.

This is an excellent workstation for £4,500, and superb value when you consider its components, but it’s pipped to the top spot by Armari’s entry this month.

We also ranked the best digital art and drawing software.

PCSpecialist has thrown everything at its £10,000 workstation. Not only does it incorporate AMD’s range-topping 64-core Threadripper Pro 5995WX, but it also includes AMD’s latest professional graphics.

The CPU supports multithreading so offers 128 threads. The base clock is 2.7GHz with a boost to 4.5GHz. While there’s no DDR5 support yet for the Threadripper Pro, the eight-channel memory configuration improves bandwidth. PCSpecialist includes a whopping 256GB of 3,200MHz RAM in the form of eight 32GB modules, taking advantage of the extra throughput.

PCSpecialist opts for the brand new AMD Radeon Pro W7800 for graphics acceleration. This combines 4,480 RDNA 3 unified shaders with 32GB of GDDR6 frame buffer operating with 576GB/sec bandwidth.

Two storage devices are supplied with the Ultra. The 2TB Samsung 990 Pro NVMe M.2 drive operates at PCI-E 4 speeds. It achieved sustained reading at 7,404MB/sec and writing at 6,818MB/sec. The other storage device is a capacious 10TB Seagate IronWolf Pro 7,200rpm mechanical hard disk, delivering 261MB/sec reading and 253MB/sec writing.

The Onyx Ultra managed a score of 794 in the PC Pro benchmarks, beaten only by the systems using Intel’s Core i9. Its main weakness 231 in image editing, which is a single-core task. The Cinebench R23 multicore rendering score of 71,519 is phenomenal, although Armari went further with the same processor. The Blender Gooseberry CPU render time of 134 seconds was also behind Armari.

Although the AMD Radeon Pro W7800 is a fantastic new graphics accelerator, it benefits from being paired with fast single-core CPU speeds, which the Threadripper Pro can’t offer. With SPECviewperf 2020 v3.1, the scores of 194 in 3dsmax-07 and 792 in maya-06 are superb, but Armari did better by partnering the GPU with a Ryzen 9 7950X. Similarly, engineering and CAD viewsets were behind. However, a number of these scores were ahead of the Nvidia RTX A5000 and A6000. The LuxMark 3.1 score of 12,317 and Blender GPU time of 153 seconds were more mediocre.

This is a fantastically powerful workstation, although PCSpecialist hasn’t squeezed as much rendering performance out of the CPU or modelling ability from the GPU as Armari. It’s well worth considering, though, with great all-round abilities and lots of storage for media assets.

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