Editor’s Pick: BOXX Unveils New Flagship Workstation

Dear DE Reader:

BOXX Technologies has released its new APEXX S3 workstation. They were showing it off at Autodesk University, running things like Inventor and 3ds Max a few weeks back where it was well received. It’s obvious to see why. It sounds pretty cool. Here's a quick look.

BOXX has specialized in highly configurable workstations for CAD, modeling and creative content professionals for over 20 years. That makes it important for you to understand why they call the APEXX S3 their next-generation workstation as well as their new flagship workstation.

BOXX says that its new APEXX S3 replaces its current flagship system. This compact workstation is powered by the latest Intel Core i7 “Coffee Lake” processor overclocked to a sustained 4.8GHz. Image courtesy of BOXX Technologies.

Why they say that begins with BOXX's new chassis. Key here is that the chassis has more room in part because BOXX nixed once popular but now obsolete technology. This gives you more room to configure the APEXX S3 with neat stuff that you can leverage. For example, you can kit out the APEXX S3 with two high-end, dual-slot graphic cards plus one more single-slot graphics card. The chassis also accommodates a 650W power supply and all sorts of solid-state and hard drive options.

The APEXX S3 is a compact tower unit. It measures just 6.84x15.28x17.80 in. (WxHxD). On the front and rear of its industrial-grade aluminum enclosure are a slew of USB, networking and other connections.

At the heart of the APEXX S3 is an 8^th-generation Intel Core i7 8700K processor. That's the six-core “Coffee Lake” CPU you've heard about. It provides 12MB of cache, 12 threads, a 3.7GHz base speed and a 4.7GHz maximum turbo frequency.

But recall that BOXX also has specialized in professionally overclocking CPUs for years. What they've done here is overclocked the Core i7 8700K CPU to 4.8GHz, and the liquid-cooled by BOXX chip maintains that 4.8GHz clock rate across all six cores, according to BOXX.

For you that means applications like CAD and rendering should scream. To give you an idea, in today's main write-up, you’ll find data on some performance tests that BOXX shared with DE. The tests compared the APEXX S3 and its predecessor. The data show that the APEXX S3 provides increased performance for some typical SOLIDWORKS jobs like rendering and simulation as well as an overall performance improvement.

You can learn more about the APEXX S3 from today's Editor's Pick of the Week write-up. Make sure to watch the video for some good shots of the inside of the APEXX S3's new chassis.

Thanks, Pal. – Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood

Editor at Large, DE