Maybe you need a 4K display & a powerful workstation. Oh, and it should not take up your entire work-space. A well-configured All-in-One workstation looks like a good choice.
Dell’s First Generation, All-in-One Workstation: The Precision 5720 AIO
Dell shipped the company’s first AIO Precision workstation, the Precision 5720 All-in-One, in 2017. The workstation has good performance for serious 3D applications, video, special effects, and visualization.
Chief among the technologies in our test system: the AMD Radeon Pro W7100 GPU and a high-performance Intel i7-7700 CPU clocked at 3.60 GHz. Our test system came with 16 GB of DDR3 system memory running at 2400 MHz and 512 GB of high-performance SSD storage. The Precision 5720 AIO can be configured as much as 64 GB of RAM and a 1 TB M.2 SSD storage. Options are available for Intel Xeon and Core i5 CPUs as well as a Radeon Pro W4150. We’ll give you our recommended configuration after the performance data below.
The 27-inch display delivers a 4K resolution. Six forward-facing speakers provide for sound that you may or may not appreciate depending on your work environment!
A power button and a USB Type A connector are on the right side of the display. An SD card reader and the audio jack are on the left.
Connectors for your network (RJ-45), HDMI output, DisplayPort 1.2 output, 4 additional USB Type A ports, 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports, and system power are on the back of the display. These are all located in the middle behind the system stand.
A Slick 4K AIO Workstation:
What we like about the Precision 5720 AIO is its compact, sleek design. For many engineering and creative professionals, the space-saving design will give you room to think while still providing excellent workstation performance. And it is packaged with a beautiful 4K display.
When the system specs are right for your level of work, then this system gives you the power you need without getting in your way.
How’s that Performance?
The question is, does it give you the performance you need? Our testing includes the SPECviewperf 12 benchmark and Adobe Premier Pro CC. The former clearly identifies the class of workstation performance delivered by the Precision 5720 AIO. The latter focuses on the application performance of the GPU, CPU, memory and storage.
SPECViewperf 12
This benchmark focuses on the workstation’s GPU performance. The CPU performance is important, but Viewperf is particularly good as classifying the workstation’s graphics performance.
These results place the Dell Precision 5720 at the upper end of an “entry-level” workstation configuration. Given its size, a SFF workstation is a good comparison with this AIO. And this AIO is often faster than the fastest small form-factor (SFF) workstation PW has tested. For those readers hungry for power in a space-saving design, this system delivers respectable results.
Using GPU-acceleration in Premier Pro, the Dell Precision 5720 AIO rendered our own video test, which includes up to four simultaneous video streams faster than real-time. The video format uses 25 FPS and this system rendered an average of 31.6 FPS. Calculated as a percentage of real-time video, the system rendered our video in 80% of the time of the video duration.
This level of Premier Pro performance is good. The Dell Precision 5720 AIO with its Radeon Pro W7100 performs just a bit faster than a well-configured mini-tower workstation with a solid high-end GPU.
Configuring the Precision 5720 AIO
The philosophy at PW on configuring workstations is simple. Our rule-of-thumb is to maximize the performance for the class of workstation in question. Why? Simple. If you don’t need the maximum performance the workstation offers, then you should save money and go down a bracket: in performance, … and in price.
Also, this All-in-One workstation gives you a beautiful 4K display. If your work requires a high-quality, high-resolution display, then your work will likely benefit from the maximum performance this system can deliver.
PW would never order this system with less than 32 GB of system memory. A maximum of 64 GB of system memory is possible. If you are demanding, if you run power hungry applications in video, special effects, visualization, and simulation, then you will push your workstation to the edge. The 64 GB of system memory is needed.
1 TB of SSD storage is the minimum for any serious professional workstation user. For PW, 2 TB of SSD storage is recommended.
The Dell AIO uses the Radeon Pro W7100 or the Radeon Pro W4150. Why would you not get the faster GPU? This system is designed to run reasonably high-end 3D modeling and visualization applications. These will benefit from the higher performance GPU. If you do video editing at a professional level, then the faster GPU means smoother interactive work and faster final-rendering times. The faster graphics is a big benefit.
And don’t even consider a lesser CPU unless you plan to drop down to a lesser workstation altogether. You only purchase a workstation like Dell's 5720 AIO because you need workstation performance. If you don’t need performance, then don’t go down-scale on the CPU. Save yourself even more money and buy a lower-class machine. Of course, if you have read this far in the article, then you clearly need the performance. Maximize your CPU performance in this workstation.
Last, but not least, this workstation allows a multiple-display configuration. It can support 3 additional 4K resolution displays. Whether-or-not you require four ultra-high resolution displays depends on your workflow and your desk space. Dual display configurations are productive for every professional environment we can imagine. Therefore, we recommend adding a second 4K display to your configuration… At least if your desk will accommodate it.
The PW Perspective:
This All-in-One workstation packs the fastest possible technology into the smallest possible package. It has a beautiful 4K display. It delivers performance at the high-end of the “entry-level” workstation segment. Readers should configure the Dell Precision 5720 AIO accordingly and benefit from the best performance this workstation offers.
