Is there a cheaper Intel Xeon PC workstation? We don’t think so

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By Desire Athow
published

Brand new and straight from mainland China

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Hystou Intel Xeon mini workstation - $721.95 at AliExpress
This mini PC from Hystou might just be the cheapest Intel Xeon workstation on the market. The tiny machine also features 8GB RAM, a 128GB SSD and support for multi-socket configurations. Available for under $730, it certainly makes for an enticing bargain.

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While there are plenty of PCs with Intel Celeron and Core CPUs on sale with Chinese retailers, a workstation with a Xeon processor is, well, unheard of.

For that reason, we were surprised to discover industrial PC vendor Hystou is flogging a tiny mini PC workstation based on an Intel Xeon E-2176M CPU, with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage, for just under $722 (AU$1205, £591) with free delivery.

Note, there are coupons available at the time of writing that will drop the price even further and AliExpress, which houses Hystou’s store, operates a guaranteed delivery service (or full refund). 

As Intel’s rival to AMD’s EPYC, the Xeon comes with enterprise-ready features such as support for multi-socket configurations and registered ECC memory.

The E-2176M is a fairly recent Coffee Lake-based mobile Xeon processor, with a maximum speed of 4.4GHz, six cores (12 threads), a base frequency of 2.7GHz, 12MB cache and a very capable Intel UHD Graphics P630 video subsystem.

The diminutive PC also features a mini Displayport, an HDMI 2.0, external antennas, a Gigabit Ethernet port, four USB 3.0 ports, a separate USB Type-C connector and an audio input.

Thanks to a VESA mount, you can tuck the mini PC away behind a monitor, and the internal components are cooled with what looks like a massive low speed heat sink fan.

Bear in mind...

If this product comes from mainland China, it will take at least a month to reach either the US or the UK (and potentially more). You may be levied a tax either directly or through the courier. 

Have you managed to get hold of a cheaper product with equivalent specifications, in stock and brand new? Let us know and we'll tip our hat to you.

Hystou provides an OEM version of Windows 10 Pro and DDR4 memory, but it's also possible to buy a barebones version with the same configuration, without memory or storage.

Desire Athow
Desire Athow
Managing Editor, TechRadar Pro

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.