This is a slightly longer posting in which I describe a tour of BOXX Technologies facility in Austin, Texas.
Late last week I had the opportunity to tour the BOXX Technologies facility and I was quite impressed. I had heard about BOXX for years in the animation industry, but I recently discovered that they specialize in building workstations for a variety of industries including CAD. They build workstations for SolidWorks as well as several other CAD packages (Pro/E, SolidEdge, AutoCAD, & Inventor). When I called to ask about a workstation, I was invited to visit their office. My tour was given by Ed Caracappa, the Director of Sales.
BOXX is a well established company, but not nearly as large as the big computer companies (Dell, HP, etc.). In one location they have sales/marketing, production, testing, development, and support. During my tour, I was walked through all of these areas. Because of the proximity of all the departments, regular interaction is very practical and apparently encouraged. Overall, I was impressed with the work environment. It has a professional layout, but is a generally casual work environment. It seemed to be designed to encourage creativity. Throughout the facility there are framed movie posters for movies that used their workstations.
BOXX isn't only a seller of workstations for use with SolidWorks. They use SolidWorks for all of their development work and they have regular interaction with some of their SolidWorks using customers. In particular, they talk with Orange County Choppers routinely. (On a side note, BOXX recently contracted OCC to design and build a BOXX chopper.)
Upon completion of the tour, I was invited to return any time I wish. In the event that I buy a workstation from them, I can bring it in for repairs, etc. any time as well. Having seen their repair and support center, I am confidant that they could diagnose any problems that might arise. The people I met seemed quite knowledgeable.
They were very familiar with all of the video cards (nVidia, ATI, etc.) , Intel vs. AMD, and new developments regarding 64-bit Windows. They sell workstations using just about any hardware you can imagine. Their workstations are largely built from off the shelf components, except for the chassis and cooling systems. Both of these are designed and tested by BOXX on site.
I should close by saying that I was very impressed with BOXX. Preliminary pricing from them is quite competitive with both Dell and Xi Computer, although Xi Computer may be slightly cheaper. Assuming their support is as good as I was led to believe, it may be worth a slight premium to buy from BOXX. I will be looking to buy some workstations from BOXX in the future.
Here's their web site: