Six things to look for in a workstation

Content creation – which includes 3D animation, media production, CAD and engineering – is one of the most intensive areas of desktop computing. Workstations aimed at these kinds of tasks require the most powerful components. That means the fastest CPUs with as many cores as possible, as much RAM as you can afford, potent professional graphics acceleration, and plenty of rapid storage. But tight budgets mean you probably can’t afford the best in every area, so here are the factors to consider when specifying a content creation workstation.

1. Processor

The processor is the heart of any computer, but until a few years ago you had to decide whether you wanted faster clock frequencies or more cores. Fortunately, the latest processors can give you both.

AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper was the king in this area, until the Ryzen 9 5900X and 5950X took over for 16 cores or fewer. But Intel’s 12th generation architecture,