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XI-MACHINES
Why XI-MACHINES?

We at XI MACHINES know - from personal experience - how important equipment can be for the creative success. We are striving to build high-performance, latest technology systems based on the best components to support your creative process and increase your productivity. We do not compromise in terms of quality and performance and focus on our core competence:

High-quality workstations for maximum performance - whisper-quiet.

Workstations for professionals -
by professionals

Members of our staff bring years of experience in the field of digital content creation (DCC) and therefore know exactly what is important in high-end workstations. 3D animation, compositing, and surround sound are not mere words for us, but a daily part of our dialogue with customers. This know-how is also evident from our technical support. Our support goes beyond standard answers from a database, but offers you expert support and detailed options, so you can use your XI-MACHINES workstation efficiently.

Quality made in Germany

Made in Germany means that all XI-MACHINES Workstations are designed and manufactured in Germany (our ROHS-compliant manufactory for Silent Workstations is located in Hamburg). The same applies to our excellent service. Your projects are individual, why should you use a standardized, off the shelf workstation? Therefore, we are happy to advise you on the choice of the optimal configuration for your desired system. XI-MACHINES workstations are always evolving, and constantly improved in regard to the productivity of new technologies. Reliability and the smooth interaction of all high-quality components are our top priority - to ensure a creative workflow without any limits or restrictions. Made in Germany at it's best.

Service and support

Individual workstations require individual service. We follow this philosophy from early development stages to manufacturing process, quality control and worldwide transport. Each and every XI-MACHINES Workstation is manufactured by one of our specialists and configured/optimized for the respective application. Our quality control verifies reliability and performance of the assembly in an extensive, 36 hours stability test. Hardware and software tools are used for synthetic stress testing that goes beyond every day usage - even in tough production environments. The system is released for shipping only if it passes all tests.

If youhave any questions about extensibility or functionality, please contact our professional support. We will help and advice you competently and tailored to your needs. Quality and support striving for the best to maximize your productivity: XI-MACHINES.

WHY SILENT DOES NOT EQUAL WHISPER-QUIET...

Almost every current computer system on the market decorates itself with the term "Silent". We wonder whether "silent" is really appropriate as many of these systems are pretty audible or even disturbingly loud at moderate cpu utilization.

The questions arises: why? To achieve lower noise levels, many of these so-called "silent" PCs try to achieve lower noise levels using only a single fan and/or low rotational speeds. Although the fan noise is reduced the components suffer from higher temperatures and the lack of airflow. We have seen "silent" systems throttling their CPU or graphics card frequency/speed to keep temperatures below their operational limits (mostly around 100°C). Operating components at their tolerance boundaries on one hand lowers their life-span and on the other might limit their performance (throttling).

Furthermore, the quality of the components is often inferior to reduce cost. For example, a very simple CPU cooler cannot achieve the goal to cool quietly AND efficiently. Basic fans are cheap but often suffer from noise and vibration, some right from the beginning, some after a few months of operation. If you ever experienced low fan quality or rattling bearings - you know what we are talking about.

That's why we do not compromise - neither in terms of quality (we use high-end fans with ball bearings among the best on the market) nor in terms of quantity (number of fans). We will still surprise you with an excellent price/performance-ratio.

Choose the highest quality and performance of XI MACHINES. Whisper-quiet without compromise!

CPUs/processors

XI-MACHINES uses premium, so-called "Boxed-CPUs" (whenever available for the respective CPU model). These are supplied in official Intel retail packaging with certificate/label and offer a direct three-year warranty from Intel. So-called "Tray CPUs" are delivered individually or "loose" and have only a limited one-year warranty with no official Intel certificate and label. Tray CPUs are usually used in standard PC systems.

Manufacturer's warranty boxed CPUs: 3 years! *

CPU cooling

Current CPU generations reach impressive performance levels due to modern multi-core technology. However, this produces additonal heat on a relatively small area that has to be cooled efficiently.

To optimize CPU cooling, we use only the highest quality multi-heatpipe coolers, which absorb the heat optimally and utilize low-noise, decoupled special fans with high air flow at low speed.

As such cooling systems often weigh more than 800 gramms (1.76 lb) they cannot safely be attached with plastic/push-pin solutions (especially considering transport/movement of the case). Therefore, we use server-class fastening techniques with stable, screwed in backplates behind the mainboard.

Manufacturer's warranty CPU Cooler: 6 years! *

Mainboard

Performance, data processing and storage are inextricably linked with the features of the motherboard. Not only for this reason the mainboards we use are one of the main factors for the performance of XI-MACHINES workstations. Again, we do not compromise and use only highest quality, premium brand mainboards with passive chipset cooling**. Thanks to our optimized airflow we are able to cool the motherboard silently and still efficiently.

Manufacturer's warranty mainboard: 2-4 years! (depends on the selected model)*

Hard Disk Drives (HDD), Solid-State-Drives (SSD)

XI -MACHINES workstations offer very high data transfer rates due to performant SSDs/HDDs and RAID-systems. This can be realized by joining multiple Enterprise / RAID disks into one array. The built-in hard disks use a very high storage density and (depending on the model) high rotational speeds up to 15,000 rpm allowing ultra-short access times and high data transfer rates. The resulting heat, noise and vibration are often underestimated. In case of defective or non-existent cooling the drives may wear out faster, causing premature failure up to a total loss of data. For this reason, all built disks are actively and silently cooled. This guarantees a constantly low operation temperature as well as high system stability, long life and quiet operation.

Explanation of the different Raid modes: RAID-0/1/5/10 erklärt

The SSDs we use in our workstations are professional/enterprise-class models featuring extremely high data rate and reliability. For our internal shoot-out tests for performance, reliability and long-term stability we compare up to 15 pre-selected manufacturers/models to compete against each other - we use our respective winners.

Manufacturer's warranty HDD/SSD: 2-5 years (depends on selected models)*

Graphics cards/Graphics Accelerators

Depending on the application, XI-MACHINES high-performance workstations are equipped with high quality workstation graphics accelerators by NVIDIA or AMD. These provide by fast GPUs, large amount of video memory and specialized driver support for a variety of professional programs. In addition, a growing amount of applications is able to utilize the GPUs for additional performance (e.g. Video-Encoding, accelerated effects, GPU rendering, simulation). Special multi-display solutions are also part of our portfolio.

Manufacturer's warranty GPU: 3 years!*

Fans

All XI-MACHINES workstations come with selected fans with magnetically centered, self-stabilizing oil-pressure sliding bearings or high-performance liquid bearings for continuous operation. This is the way to guarantee optimal and quiet cooling for all relevant components - and over years.

But that's not all. Another feature is the custom, special temperature-control (incl. custom firmwares and custom fan electronics) which measures temperatures in real time to optimally adjust fan rotational speeds. Quiet operation thanks to controlled cooling.

Your advantage: Thanks to the barely audible cooling technology, all components of your XI-MACHINES workstation work within the specified tolerances (and an additional safety margin) to ensure a trouble-free, long-life operation.

MTBF Fans: over 150.000 hours! (MTBF=Mean Time Between Failures)

Manufacturer's warranty fans: 5-6 years!*

Power Supply Unit (PSU)

Here, at XI-MACHINES, "Maximum Power" not only stands for high processing power, but also for optimized energy efficiency. While conventional computer systems are often equipped with standard power supplies, we only use high quality and energy-efficient power supplies certificatied 80Plus Gold (Workstation X1) and 80Plus Platinum (Workstations X2 and X3).

These internationally recognized standards define efficiencies under different load levels with at least 87% at 80Plus Gold and at least 89% with 80Plus Platinum.

The power supplies used in XI-MACHINES Workstations offer an extremely high efficiency of up to 89% with 80Plus Gold certifed power supplies, and an efficiency well over 90% for 80Plus Platinum certified power supplies! In addition to a stable, continuous operation this helps to improve the energy-/performance-ratio and thus helps reduce the actual power consumption.

Manufacturer's warranty PSU: 80Plus Gold: 5 years*, 80Plus Platinum: 7 years*

Chassis/Case

We choose cases carefully with a special focus on stability, design, expandability and potential for noise reduction. Light-weight standard cases made ​​of plastic and simple sheet are therefore unsuitable - they lack the ability to dampen vibration and noise coming from drives and fans to a really low-noise level. And to be honest - have you ever seen a case made of plastic? The cases we use are made to impress with high quality materials, extensibility, optimum interior design and a stylish, minimalistic look.

 

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* according to original manufacturer guidelines ** Some systems (e.g. Quad-CPU) are only available with active chipset cooling.
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