Opinion Anyone use VRLA Tech computers?

[DL Signs]

They're more noted for their gaming rigs, but their workstations are spec'd like a boss, plenty of cooling, lots of expansion capabilities, a 1,600w power supply to power it all and then some. 2.5 and 10g ethernet, able to bump up ram, add more drives, some good GPU options when ordering. Want to stick with intel based, and at 3 grand base price it seems like a killer setup, but... Is it? Thinking on pulling the trigger on one before the end of the year, after bumping up the base to 64g, a 4060ti, adding a 2nd 1tb scratch drive, Win 11pro it's comparable price wise to the usual brands that have much less.

Has anyone had any experience with this company or brand?

VRLA Tech Intel Core Ultra Workstation - VRLA Tech

The VRLA Tech Intel Core Ultra Workstation is a creator’s and editors command system built around one of the world’s most advanced CPUS. Shop now!

vrlatech.com

 

[njkreger]

What's your use-case for it?

Also, given the specs, warranty, and all that, I think it's a pretty decent price. Parts would be about $2,600 to DIY, so $400 more for someone else to do it plus warranty is pretty good IMO, but again, depends on use-case.

 

[weyandsign]

No, it's not a "killer setup". It's roughly a grand more expensive than if you assemble these parts yourself. An Arrow lake 265K CPU for a 3 grand desktop is very...underwhelming? You're choosing a $500 motherboard... why? $120 air cooler instead of an AIO liquid cooler. Choosing a 1600W PSU for a system that draws 500W is beyond overkill. Never herd of VRLA Tech in my entire life. You could just go on Dell's website and configure something, or buy a pre-built desktop from NewEgg or Amazon.

 

[danno]

I guess I have just been spoiled over the years. I call Casey at Sginburst. I tell him what I want and he builds it. Great guy with superb support.

 

[njkreger]

Casey would be close at around $2,900, and probably a better bet. I agree though that the VRLA is overspec'd with MB and PSU. Changing those in a DIY setup would be a few hundred cheaper.

Now, personally, I generally don't like workstations from Amazon because you have a lot of third-party resellers buying name brand computers on sale and then putting the cheapest components in as possible to upgrade - usually no-name brands - and in my experience, they do fail faster, don't have very long warranties if at all, and end up costing more in the long run because of it.

I DIY builds for myself and clients, so I know what's going in, what the warranties are, and have had one or two hardware failures in 10+ years, covered by the manufacturer warranty. I can't say the same for some of the computers clients have purchased from Amazon.

Newegg is different though, depending on the manufacturer, and often has more variety. Depending on how close to Chicago you are, Microcenter often has some decent machines as well.

 

[DL Signs]

What's your use-case for it?

It's for graphic design, cad & renderings, nothing super major, but... Currently on an iMac that the last guy had to have, upgraded it as far as it can be, and hate it. Not going down the Mac rabbit hole again! Ever!

No, it's not a "killer setup". It's roughly a grand more expensive than if you assemble these parts yourself. An Arrow lake 265K CPU for a 3 grand desktop is very...underwhelming? You're choosing a $500 motherboard... why? $120 air cooler instead of an AIO liquid cooler. Choosing a 1600W PSU for a system that draws 500W is beyond overkill. Never herd of VRLA Tech in my entire life. You could just go on Dell's website and configure something, or buy a pre-built desktop from NewEgg or Amazon.

Compared to what I'm making work now, it is. It's plenty, and has future upgrade potential. Might end up with the 285K processor, but still just thinkin', even looking at the Ryzen workstation options and playing with configurations, trying to not impusively hit "buy".

I know that power supply is a bit over the top, I wouldn't spec one that large, but that's what this system comes with for this series/ case. They sell to govt agencies, maybe that's what they stock for them?

I configured an almost identical one straight from Dell, and they were considerably more money. In fact we ordered a bunch of Dell's yesterday to upgrade some of the more basic machines, and one to replace the RIP computer. Not so concerned without the liquid cooling, case on this one is well ventilated, plus has multiple front and rear fans. I can always add that if it's an issue. I did see a benchmark test on one of these, a little higher up the food chain than how I'd probably spec one, and no real heat issues under load with this cooler, so that's not a concern.

Casey would be close at around $2,900, and probably a better bet. I agree though that the VRLA is overspec'd with MB and PSU. Changing those in a DIY setup would be a few hundred cheaper.

Now, personally, I generally don't like workstations from Amazon because you have a lot of third-party resellers buying name brand computers on sale and then putting the cheapest components in as possible to upgrade - usually no-name brands - and in my experience, they do fail faster, don't have very long warranties if at all, and end up costing more in the long run because of it.

I DIY builds for myself and clients, so I know what's going in, what the warranties are, and have had one or two hardware failures in 10+ years, covered by the manufacturer warranty. I can't say the same for some of the computers clients have purchased from Amazon.

Newegg is different though, depending on the manufacturer, and often has more variety. Depending on how close to Chicago you are, Microcenter often has some decent machines as well.

With the upgrades to match how I'm considering spec'ing this, Casey would be almost identical in price, maybe a tad more. Still considering that.

They do sell to government agencies, the overkill of the PS seems like how they'd spec stuff, so maybe it's stock parts for them...??? There are no other options with this series or case, but better to have more and not need it than not enough if I pull the trigger..

I'd be going right to them for this, not a 3rd party or Amazon seller where you have to jump through hoops for customer service. Has a 3yr warranty, which is pretty solid.

I just don't know yet... Just can't wait to get away from this POS Mac before I go see how well it fares playing with the skid steer

 

[njkreger]

What are you using for CAD? I'd check supported GPUs for your specific software, as usually for CAD it'd be the ADA cards and not GeForce, particularly if you want support from the vendor.

 

[SignBoi]

Just recently I saw that AMD CPUs are slightly better for Photoshop/Illustrator than the newest Intel CPUs. Ryzen 7 7800x3D and the Ryzen 7 9800x3D (currently the fastest) are the best CPUs of the year.
We got this for our second RIP computer from Bestbuy for $1900 Including a 3 year geeksquad warranty.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberpowerpc-gamer-supreme-gaming-desktop-amd-ryzen-7-7800x3d-32gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-4070-super-12gb-2tb-ssd-white/6575113.p?skuId=6575113

I was going to build a similar setup but that price is really hard to beat. I also prefer Windows 10 (debloated) so I'll keep using it for as long as I can.
As far as I can tell a RIP software barely uses the graphics card at all. Illustrator and Photoshop also don't fully utilize a GPU unless your doing 3d rendering (which doesn't happen at my shop.)
As for CAD, Yeah the better graphics card will be important. My Mac Studio (M1max) is very disappointing with blender or when working with point clouds.
Mac is Wack these days. Intel hasn't had anything revolutionary in a while and AMD is closing the gap between NVIDIAs AI.
I've invested in NVIDIA and AMD because I believe they have a lot more gains to make.
Last note Newegg has really been disappointing the last couple of years. I purchased two pre-built PCs and both times they had either a slower CPU or really cheap RAM and PSU. Microcenter is legit and has great deals from time to time.
Good luck - Let us know what you decide.

 

[JBurton]

3 year geeksquad warranty.

Good luck with that. At best they'll reinstall windows. At worst they'll tell you to leave the pc with them while they wait for parts to never ever show up.
And you're correct, no gpu is utilized by the rip. You're better off with pair of nvme drives in a raid array than having a 5090 or whatever.
But really, I thought this M series of chips from apple were supposed to be the tits?

 

[victor bogdanov]

only 32gigs ram? Only one HD and it is only 1TB?

I have 128 gigs and it frequently uses 100+ gigs ram with photoshop/illustrator running. 64 would be minimum I would by for graphics work in 2024

You can do better than that build and cheaper IMO

That build is overkill on MB, GPU and PSU, save some on those components and get more RAM and better CPU

 

[Ryze Signs]

I build all my own rigs and servers. My daily driver is a used dell workstation I bought for $60 added 64 gb ram an SSD, and a AMD workstation card. All in was around $400. Everyone's stuff is saved to a TrueNAS server I built from a barbones supermicro server off eBay. It backs up nightly to another one at my house.

 

[visual800]

i use dell xps systems and tey are reasonbly priced and do a fine job. I buy used computers off ebay and have had no problem. no windows updates and my computer will last about 10 years. Aint no sense in spending thousand of bucks on something that has the same components (basically) to get the job done. I think the key to a computer lasting long term is cutting updates off. Same thing goes for iphones.

Updates are the killers to everything, just my 2 cents. You start updating crap and cables stop working, devices stop working Ive had sign software not work with updates, just a vicious cycle

 

[DL Signs]

IF we order one of these, it'll be configured with the Ultra 9 285K processor, 128gb (or 192gb) of ram, depending on whether they'll work a little better on pricing. It'll have a 1tb ssd program drive, a 2tb ssd scratch drive. I have a 6tb hdd for customer files that gets backed up daily off-site that'll take up one of the bays, and still have extra empty bays. Gpu will be the 4070 Ti super 16gb. Case, mb, and ps would stay the default. Yes the ps is overkill, but that's what comes with this series. Still well under 4k, lots of expansion options.

Still up in the air...

It'll be running the usual graphic software, Adobe, Serif, etc, for graphic design and illustrations. For cad drawings & renderings I use ActCad, Blender... Everything is slightly more than my home system, where I run the same stuff with a three monitor array and a drawing tablet. Home system keeps up pretty good.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I tend to like true workstation rigs (server grade components), those are the ones that I recommend. In some ways overkill, but in others not so much. It just depends on workflow.

...Blender...

I tend to be using this program more and more from 2D vector work, hand drawn animation (gotta love the GP tool) to even VSE and compositing as well. As far as CAD renderings and the like, are you doing any really high poly work (I tend to do more so for articulating toys)? That's where getting beefier really does help. If nothing is really high poly sculpting rather low poly (or close to that), have plenty of wiggle room there.

 

[DL Signs]

I tend to be using this program more and more from 2D vector work, hand drawn animation (gotta love the GP tool) to even VSE and compositing as well. As far as CAD renderings and the like, are you doing any really high poly work (I tend to do more so for articulating toys)? That's where getting beefier really does help. If nothing is really high poly sculpting rather low poly (or close to that), have plenty of wiggle room there.

Nothing like you're doing with articulation & animation. I'm too old and cranky to have that kind of patience.

Mine is mostly construction, engineer, and electrical drawings, assembly sheets, etc.... Plus the graphic design. Most demanding will be 3d renderings for some customers, but that's not an every day thing, only for major presentations on large jobs, and I think it'll handle it. When I have taxing things to do, I do em' at home on a lesser configured workststion without any issues. Every other builder was around the same price, this one did a little better, so went ahead and pulled the trigger.