WE TACKLE TOUGH READER QUESTIONS ON...

> Workstations, please!

> High scores

> OLED fears

Next-gen number crunchers

I’m the guy who suggested building the 'number crunching monster' rig that appeared in your October 2020 issue. You went with the AMD Threadripper 3970X for that build, which was awesome! Now that several years have passed, I was wondering whether you’d be interested in building an updated kick-ass business workstation, but with Team Blue (Intel) this time?

In particular, I’d love to see a build using one of Intel’s Sapphire Rapids-WS Xeon W processors. Although the Xeon W-3400 product line is quite impressive, maybe something from the Xeon W-2400 product line would be a more reasonable choice budgetwise. Anyhow, I sure hope lightning does strike twice so I can see another non-gaming build in your pages!

–V. Thompson

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GUY COCKER, RESPONDS: Thanks so much for your letter, which makes a fair point that we haven’t done a high-end workstation build in a while. First of all, that’s a great idea— these kind of PCs have evolved massively over the last few years, as working from home has become a priority for many. But the main driver has been AI making its way into every facet of work, from commerce and education to scientific research. As such, more and more organizations are equipping themselves with workstations than ever before, while those who have been using them for decades have seen their power demands increase.