The MediaWorkstations a-X2P has been upgraded with support for AMD's Epyc Genoa processors, but that's not the story. One look at this system, and I nearly spat my coffee out all over my desk.
Why? Well, I think portable workstations like this monster need to chill out a little bit. I don't know whether I'm going to do work or hack into the Matrix on this thing!
Not to say this monster with top-tier professional processors, up to 3TB of DDR5 RAM and six 4K displays doesn’t have its uses. But with chipsets improving in performance while decreasing in manufacturing size, and the capabilities thanks to AI and cloud computing growing massively, when will we get to a point where some poor production expert has to cart this beast around just to do their job?
Monstrous performance and size
First, let’s tackle what this thing has and what it can do. Inside, you’ve got a dual AMD Zen 2 EPYC 9004 (Genoa) processors, tallying up to a whopping 192 cores with twice the threads.
There are four PCIe 4.0 SSD slots connected directly to each CPU (so eight of them), and while the current configuration sports 3TB of RAM, you can actually upgrade that to 6TB.
You can also upgrade this to pack two GPUs too, which you may need given you can configure the a-X2P to sport up to six 24-inch displays at either 1080p or 4K resolution — each
To contain all of this, you need a beefy chassis, and I’m not talking about something like the chunky MSI Titan GT77 HX. In fact, at 16.35 x 24.6 x 10.6 inches with a maximum weight of 55 pounds. This is more than eight times thicker and seven times heavier than the biggest laptop I’ve ever used. It’s basically a PC tower with a display bolted onto the front!
Outlook
When is a spec sheet “too much?” Portable workstations seem to keep trying to answer this question, and oh my word, MediaWorkstations has gone overkill.
Don’t get me wrong, the a-X2P has its benefits in high profile movie production and live broadcasting, or even as a portable server. But let’s be honest, you can already do a lot of what is required of this system in something that is actually portable — thanks to the increasing power of components and miniaturization of them.
Pricing is unclear, as it will only be disclosed when you enquire about getting one — given that each one needs to be purpose built and the processor cost needs to be factored in. However, it’s fair to assume that a top tier model may come with a hefty price tag of over $50,000!
