Ultimate power in a somewhat portable form factor
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If traditional gaming laptops aren’t quite offering the level of extreme high performance you need, and you want to be able to max out your CPU power whilst on the go, or open lots of Chrome tabs at once, then perhaps this unconventionally designed portable workstation could be the solution you’re looking for.
Designed more like a suitcase than a slim ultraportable laptop, the Mediaworkstations a-XP Portable Threadripper Workstation is far closer to a desktop PC in size, but with a built-in screen and keyboard. The main compromises for portability are the rugged case design, and the conveniently placed carrying handle. This system measures in at 13.63″ x 16.51″x 7.26″, and will weight 23-30 lbs, depending on configuration.
There are a variety of configuration options available. The baseline CPU offered is an AMD Threadripper 3960X, but you can also upgrade to a 3970X or 3990X. You can choose between either 32GB or 64GB of RAM, and there is a wide array of SSD options available, starting at 250GB and going up to 2TB, with space for up to two drives. On the GPU front, you’ve got options all the way along Nvidia’s RTX range, with standard consumer cards like the 2060 and 2080 ti, the ridiculously powerful Titan RTX, and workstation cards Quadro and Tesla range.
This isn’t the kind of system that we’d recommend for most users, clearly being designed for very specific professional contexts, where you need workstation level performance without compromise, in a somewhat portable form factor. But it is a fun curiosity to look at, and does a great job of showcasing just how much freedom there is for different manufacturers to design computers, laptops, and components to fit different budgets, needs, and usage scenarios. This isn’t the kind of machine that anyone would reasonably purchase just to play a little Minecraft or Fortnite, but it is still an interesting system.
We’re not quite sure of the specifications of the screen, since it’s not listed on Mediaworkstations’s website, but we’d hope it has at least a decent screen.
With a starting price of $7,997, this is certainly not a mass-market machine. Configured with all the top-end parts and extras, it comes to an eye-watering $45,000, we can’t see this being particularly practical outside of very specific circumstances, but it sure would be nice to have all that computing power in a portable device.
