EUROCOM TORNADO F7W: The most configurable and scalable Mobile Workstation ever without planned obsolescence. How to keep your workstation costs low, as your operations grow?
Eurocom calls its latest system, the Tornado F7W, “the most reconfigurable and scalable mobile workstation ever.” This reasoning is based on the current technological trend of “planned obsolescence” in which many laptop manufacturers are creating fixed and non-reconfigurable systems that have soldered-in, or sometimes even glued-on, hardware components. These fixed or BGA embedded components can include a laptops’ CPU, GPU, or battery, to name a few, and as a result, these systems also have fixed or limited capabilities.
Major computer hardware companies including GPU and CPU vendors expect users to simply follow their "technological leadership" accept this trend and jump onto a, “Buy New and Replace Old,” cycle on an almost annual basis. For the firms and organizations that follow this cycle, it is not uncommon to hear a single engineer amassing multiple laptop computers over the course of only a few years. Simply from a productivity and financial standpoint, most can agree that is practice is highly impractical and extremely inefficient.
Disappointingly, however, most laptop vendors seem to have accepted this trend as reality and continue to settle creating products with planned obsolescence at the core of its designs.
For instance, Apple’s flagship laptop- the Macbook Pro 2018- has its battery glued down, meaning that it is nearly impossible to replace. Other vital parts of the Macbook Pro, like the CPU, GPU and RAM, are all soldered in and embedded into the motherboard. This means that unless you are an expert micro-soldering, it would be extremely difficult to replace and/or reconfigure what’s under the hood. As technology advances over time, applications/processes require become more complex and require computing power and storage capabilities. Ultimately, for laptops with fixed and embedded components- like Apple’s Macbook Pro- it becomes a challenge to maintain an adequate level of performance and keep up with technological advancements after only a year of rigorous use.
Going against this ideology, Eurocom Corporation constantly pushes the envelope of innovation when it comes to GPU, CPU and user- upgradeability, along with its capabilities of scalability and long lifespan. Last but not least, Eurocom aims to provide power users the ability to reconfigure a laptop form factor that boasts workstation-level performance in an all-in-one, single-computer platform.
In addition, Eurocom not only allows users to fully customize and configure their systems when initially ordering their laptops, but also designs their laptops to be user-reconfigurable even after years of use. Doing this can greatly extend the lifespan of a laptop because the CPU, GPU, memory and storage space do not need to be replaced all at once and can be upgraded and/or replaced for higher performance, more efficient parts over time.
The user is able to continue this cycle of replacing and reconfiguring critical key components piece by piece over many years of heavy usage. This adds new capabilities and improves a system’s overall performance to easily meet specific user and application-based requirements. In turn, users can individually extend lifespan of their equipment resulting in increased productivity and reduced cost of purchasing new replacement equipment.
GPU Reconfigurability
Tornado F7 features modular MXM 3.1 slot based GPU allowing easy re- reconfiguration of GPU capabilities. The GPU’s offered are ISV- certified, workstation-class Quadro P5200, P4200 and P3200 cards, which are perfect for CAD/CAE/CAM/GIS Mapping software such as Adobe, Agisoft Photoscan, Artec 3D, AutoCAD, CATIA and SOLIDWORKS, to name a few . Over time, a user can choose to swap out the Quadro-based GPU and reconfigure the system to run a different MXM 3.1-compatible GPU (GTX-based cards, for example). Eurocom tends to support multiple generations of CPUs and GPUs in the same system as they become available.
This freedom for users to independently reconfigure their systems’ GPUs can result in many advantages like limiting the need to allocate extra man hours and budgets that is necessary to train users on how to use this new equipment, seamlessly migrate critical data, and get a brand new system up and running as fast as possible. In turn, the constraints and disadvantages that come with a lack of configurability can have adverse effects to a user or a firm’s operations which often leads to inflated expenses, increased downtime and reduced productivity.
Modular and Upgradeable Memory
Eurocom systems are also highly reconfigurable in terms of their memory (RAM). For example, the Tornado F7W has up to 4 x SODIMM sockets and can be reconfigured in many different combinations to support as much as 128GB of DDR4 RAM (4 x 32GB RAM). Reconfiguring and increasing a laptop’s RAM is one of the fastest ways to improve a computer’s performance. In turn, this increases the laptop’s life span as it allow the system to perform at a high level for years into the future- unlike laptops with fixed memory. The Tornado F7W is capable of supporting both ECC and non-ECC memory in the same physical model, making this a rare system design.
STORAGE Capabilities
Additional storage can be added at any time as need arises. Tornado F7W comes with 5 physical drives bays (3 x M.2 NVMe and 2 x 2.5” SATA3) capable of supporting up to 22TB of storage. It also supports multiple RAID options including RAID 0/1/5/10. Each 2.5” bay is capable of handling up to 8TB of SSD per bay and each M.2 slot supports up to 2TB SSD. This feature is also uncommon in most high-end laptops and is another reason why Eurocom laptops offer unprecedented capabilities such as being able to modify the systems hardware components without having to replace the system as a whole.
Display Customization / Re-configuration
Eurocom offers multiple choices of internal LCD displays and provides LCD upgrade kits to these looking at re-configuring their initial LCD panels. Tornado F7W provides users the ability to customize and reconfigure their LCD panels as they require. For example, if a user has a system with a 17.3 inch, 120Hz FHD, 1920x1080 LCD panel, the user actually has the ability to swap in a 60Hz UHD (4K) 3840 x 2160 pixels LCD panel at any point in the future. It may take an experienced and confident user to perform such a task, but the option is there- which is a stark contrast to the majority of laptop manufacturers today who do not offer this feature.
Scalable Socket-based CPU Technology
Eurocom offers LGA 1151 socket-based processors, which includes both 8th and 9th generation processors including the Intel i9 9900K (8 cores/ 16 threads) and the Intel Xeon E-2816G CPU’s (6 cores/12 threads). This socket-based technology is crucial in allowing power users great scalability into the future. Tornado F7W users can easily swap out different processors in order to better suit their operational needs. As companies’ workloads increase or decrease, Eurocom systems like the Tornado F7W can be reconfigured and modified to go along with these requirements without sacrificing performance and efficiency.
Intelligent, Long Lifespan, User-Upgradeable design
The majority of laptop manufacturers today seem to be moving towards the trend of providing users less and less customizability while giving almost no possibility for future reconfigurations. In contrast, the very core of the Tornado F7W’s design is to provide power users the option to reconfigure their systems as their applications and operational needs change.
There are various components in a Eurocom laptop system that can be reconfigured when a user desires to. This includes the ability to change the laptop’s CPU, GPU, memory and storage space.
It can even extend to reconfiguration of core applications being run in the system, which can include mission-critical applications such as Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) and many other types of CAD/CAE/CAM software such as Agisoft Photoscan, AutoCAD, Adobe, CATIA and SOLIDWORKS, just to name a few.
No planned obsolescence, just re-configure instead
Choosing a highly-configurable laptop solution can produce many advantages over buying new and replacing complete systems every several years. As highlighted above, these advantages and benefits include reduced downtime, reduced training costs, improved user experience, increased productivity and an increased overall lifespan of a laptop system.
Eurocom’s goal is to not only provide users high quality and long-lasting pieces of technology, but also to give users a sense of long-term consistency, limit overall downtime and ultimately increase user productivity. All while maintaining a high-level of computing performance. Combining raw power and portability, Eurocom delivers unprecedented ability to create uncompromised, on-the-go solutions.
EUROCOM Tornado F7W – Resources
Configuration Options: Configure Your Own System
Specifications: Check Detailed Specifications
Images: Pics and Images
Benchmarks: Check benchmark results
Reviews: Reviews
About Eurocom:
Eurocom is the leading developer of long lifespan, fully upgradable notebooks, as well as, high-performance mobile workstations and servers since 1989. Eurocom prides itself as an Industry leader in providing ground-breaking technology and continues to engineer innovative solutions that inspire individuals and companies to new growth and development. For more information on Eurocom please visit us at www.eurocom.com
