AI Workstation Buyers Guide

Powered by NVIDIA GPU-accelerators, AI workstations, sometimes referred to as dev boxes, built by 3XS Systems are designed for the first stage of AI projects, enabling data scientists to develop and debug models and create a minimum viable product (MVP) with their data sets. The Scan AI team has designed and developed a range of AI dev boxes to meet all requirements and budgets - this page will guide you through what to consider when choosing a workstation for machine learning, deep learning and AI.

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Scan AI Dev Boxes can be evaluated online via a Proof of Concept

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What makes Scan 3XS Systems dev boxes special?

3XS Systems has been hand crafting PCs, workstations and servers for more than 30 years. We pioneered the AI dev box back in 2016, so we have a huge amount of experience in building highly reliable systems that deliver the most performance for your budget. Here are the key reasons to buy a 3XS Systems AI workstation.

NVIDIA Elite Partner

Scan has been an accredited NVIDIA Elite Partner since 2017, awarded for our expertise in the areas of deep learning and AI.

AI Optimised

Our in-house team includes data scientists who optimise the configuration and software stack of each system for AI workloads.

Whisper Quiet

Only hear what matters – select configurations are watercooled and so are much quieter than air-cooled PCs.

Trusted by you

Scan 3XS Systems AI dev boxes are trusted by organisations including the NHS, University of Liverpool and University of Strathclyde.

7 Days Support

Our technical support engineers are available seven days a week to help with any queries.

3 Years Warranty

3XS Systems include a three-year warranty, so if anything goes faulty we’ll repair or replace it.

GPU Accelerator

The GPU accelerator is the most important component in an AI dev box as it the main driver for rapid processing and accuracy in your model development and training. We recommend NVIDIA Professional GPUs for maximum performance and consumer-grade NVIDIA GeForce GPUs for value for money. All NVIDIA GPUs include Tensor cores which are specifically design to accelerate deep learning workloads. The following table highlights the key specifications of the NVIDIA GPUs we recommend in our AI workstations.

3XS Systems AI workstations can be configured with up to six GPU cards, for further information on the full range of NVIDIA GPUs and specifications, please read our NVIDIA WORKSTATION GPU BUYERS GUIDE or our NVIDIA GEFORCE GPU BUYERS GUIDE.

	RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell	RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q	RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell	RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell	RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell	A800	RTX 5000 Ada	RTX 4500 Ada	RTX 4000 ADA	GeForce RTX 5090	GeForce RTX 5080
Architecture	Blackwell	Blackwell	Blackwell	Blackwell	Blackwell	Ampere	Ada Lovelace	Ada Lovelace	Ada Lovelace	Blackwell	Blackwell
CUDA Cores	24,064	24,064	12,800	10,496	8960	6,912	12,800	7,680	6,144	21,760	10,752
Tensor Cores	752 5th gen	752 5th gen	400 5th gen	328 5th gen	280 5th gen	432 3rd gen	400 4th gen	240 4th gen	192 4th gen	680 5th gen	336 5th gen
RT Cores	188 4th gen	188 4th gen	100 4th gen	82 4th gen	70 4th gen	0	100 3rd gen	60 3rd gen	48 3rd gen	170 4th gen	84 4th gen
Memory	96GB GDDR7	96GB GDDR7	48GB GDDR7	32GB GDDR7	24GB GDDR7	40GB HBM2	36GB GDDR6	24GB GDDR6	20GB GDDR6	32GB GDDR7	16GB GDDR7
ECC Memory	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✖	✖
Memory Controller	512-bit	512-bit	384-bit	256-bit	192-bit	5,120-bit	256-bit	192-bit	160-bit	512-bit	256-bit
NVLink	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	400GB/sec	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖
TDP	600W	300W	300W	200W	140W	240W	250W	192W	130W	575W	360W

Host Processor

The processor or CPU is the second most important component in an AI workstation as it plays a key role alongside the graphics card in determining overall system performance, especially during data preparation. Most AI workstations are equipped with either AMD Ryzen or Intel Core Ultra processors, and for the ultimate in performance we also offer Ryzen Threadripper and Intel Xeon-W configurations. Consideration should be given to the number of cores, memory capabilities and expandability in the form of PCIe lanes as this determines how many GPUs, SSDs and network cards can be used in the system.

You can learn more about AMD and Intel CPUs by reading our AMD DESKTOP CPU BUYERS GUIDE or our INTEL DESKTOP CPU BUYERS GUIDE

Memory

While having sufficient memory on the graphics card is important, system performance will be crippled without adequate system memory. We recommend configuring systems with the same or greater amount of system RAM as VRAM.

You can learn more about RAM requirements by reading our MEMORY BUYERS GUIDE.

Custom Software Stack

We recommend and pre-install the latest Linux Ubuntu operating system plus a custom software stack built on NVIDIA CUDA-X. This includes Docker-CE, NVIDIA-Docker2 and NVIDIA-optimised libraries such as RAPIDS, TensorFlow, PyTorch, Caffe and other leading data science software, providing you with accelerated workflows for faster data preparation, model training and data visualisation.

We can also install Microsoft Windows 11 Pro on request.

Additional Features

3XS AI workstations can be configured with a range of storage, connectivity and power options.

Storage

There’s no point in having the fastest GPU accelerators, CPUs and system memory if they are starved for data. We install high performance NVMe SSDs in our AI workstations with a typical read speed of at least 4TB/s, offering performance uplifts of up to 1,200% over a SATA SSD and 2,500% over than a traditional HDD.

Connectivity

Moving data between different systems can be a time-consuming process, so to make the most of the fast data processing capabilities of our AI workstations where possible we use motherboards with integrated 10GbE NICs. Where faster speeds are needed we can install NVIDIA Networking ConnectX SmartNICs for speeds up to 400Gb/s.

Cooling and Power

GPU accelerators consume a lot of power so all our AI workstations are equipped with high-quality 80PLUS rated power supplies, ensuring a reliable and efficient power source for the system. In addition, the cooling system of each workstation is optimised to ensure consistent results each and every time.

Ready to buy?

Click the links below to view the range of Scan 3XS Systems AI dev boxes. If you still have questions on how to select the perfect system, don't hesitate to contact one of our friendly advisors on 01204 474210 or at [email protected].

Pre-configured AI dev boxes Configure an AI dev box