The not-so-hidden cost for architects of owning workstations
Do you really know how much you’re paying for CAD workstations? Our analysis shows their true cost means you’re probably paying more than twice the upfront ticket price.
Just like cars, the real costs of CAD workstations can be DOUBLE the ticket price
Do you really know how much you’re paying for CAD workstations? Our analysis shows their true cost means you’re probably paying more than twice the upfront ticket price.
Every three to four years, architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) firms shell out thousands of dollars on new CAD or BIM workstations. These machines get used heavily and, in a few short years, they start to slow down. To ensure your designers can keep doing their jobs, you need to buy replacement computers.
At many AEC firms, this capital expenditure is generally perceived as an unavoidable cost of doing business. It’s seen as perfectly normal to spend $5,000 or more per machine.
That’s already expensive. But what if I told you the real cost of CAD workstations is more than twice the price of the machine itself?
Read on to learn:
- Why CAD workstation costs are like the cost of cars
- The real cost of a CAD workstation
Analogy: The cost of a CAD workstation is like the cost of a car
If you’ve ever bought a car, you’ll know that the ticket price of your vehicle is just one part of the total cost of ownership (TCO).
Say you’re buying a used car in the US. Using the Edmunds TCO calculator with a 2018 Cadillac ATS as an example, the upfront ticket price might be $16,000. But to run that vehicle for a year, you could easily spend almost $10,000 on general running costs in the first year alone:
- Full cover insurance: $907
- Maintenance: $763
- Repairs: $995
- Vehicle taxes and fees: $886
- Financing: $1,105
- Fuel: $2,268
- Depreciation: $2,283
You could also add on several other annual costs. Americans pay around $85 to park each year. A speeding ticket might set you back perhaps $150. Toll roads or bridges could set you back a couple of hundred dollars too.
In this example, the annual TCO for owning the vehicle would be almost $25,000 (over five years, Edmunds estimates the true cost to own the car is almost $43,000).
The bottom line is that if you really want to know what a car will cost - and if it’s actually a good investment - you have to add up all these additional expenses.
The exact same principle applies to buying a CAD workstation for an AEC firm too.
What is the real cost of a CAD workstation for AEC companies?
Calculating the TCO of a CAD workstation is very similar to calculating the true cost of buying a car.
For most professional uses, you will need a high powered, high spec machine. It needs lots of RAM, a multi-core CPU, a high quality graphics card and tons of storage. To run popular 3D CAD software like Revit, you can easily spend north of $5,000 per machine.
But, just like cars, the real TCO of your CAD computer will be much higher than this ticket price. So, what are these costs? We’ve identified 7 key factors that will influence your TCO, and by how much.
Here's how we came up with these numbers.
1. Initial purchase price
For a mid-range machine, you can expect to pay around $4,500. At the very least, you’ll want a machine with 32GB RAM and 4GB GPU from NVIDIA or AMD. Dell provides several machines with these kinds of specs, and charges in the range of $4,000-$5,000.
Key Takeaway
Initial purchase price (Per Workstation): $4,500.
2. Financing
The cost of capital is the "hidden cost" of using your company's money to finance workstations. When you buy something, you’re not just spending cash — you’re giving up the chance to use that money for other purposes that could benefit your business (hiring staff, investing in marketing, or saving for unexpected expenses).
For example, if your money could earn a 10% return elsewhere, but you spend it on a workstation, the real cost of that workstation is its price plus the 10% you could have earned.
The true cost of capital varies depending on the size of your firm (bigger businesses tend to have larger reserves and access to cheaper credit). But as a rule of thumb, CoC is typically around 10%.
Key Takeaway
Cost of capital: $1,350 over 3 years (assuming initial workstation purchase price of $4,500).
3. Initial Setup and Configuration
The time involved in setting up a workstation can be considerable. Tasks include:
- Procurement & Preparation (15-30 mins)
- Initial Setup (10-20 mins)
- Operating System Setup (1-2 hours)
- Software Installation (2-3 hours)
- Network & Storage Setup (30 mins to 1 hour)
- Security Configuration (30 mins to 1 hour)
- Performance Optimization (1 hour)
- User Customizations (1-2 hours)
- Final Testing & Documentation (30 mins)
Total Estimated Time: 6-10 hours.
The hourly rate for this work will vary. But $100 would be fairly typical for an external IT consultant.
Key Takeaway
Total cost of setup and configuration: $600 per machine minimum.
4. Backup and storage
Next are the cost standard for a storage and backup solution for 16 workstations over a 3-year period, without cloud backup:
The cost of this shared backup and storage solution per workstation is $350 over 3 years.
5. IT maintenance and support
Maintaining your CAD workstation and providing support also entails significant costs.
Key Takeaway:
Total Cost per Workstation: at least $1400 per workstation, per year, which totals to $4200 over three years.
6. Security costs
You’re working with highly sensitive information and IP. Keeping your data secure is therefore essential.
Key Takeaway
Total Annual Cost (Per Workstation): $152.50 (excludes network monitoring, MFA, password management, training, and audits), which adds up to $457.50 over 3 years.
7. Power
To calculate the annual power cost of a workstation, we account for realistic working conditions, including reduced daily usage, public holidays, vacations, and sick leave. There are approximately 225 active working days per year after deducting 10 public holidays, 20 vacation days, and 5 sick leave days. For each of these working days, the workstation operates for 6 hours daily.
The power consumption of a workstation is estimated to be 450 W (0.45 kW) when active, with the GPU contributing 200 W (0.2 kW) of this total. Using an average US electricity rate of $0.15 per kWh, the adjusted annual usage hours for the workstation amount to 1,350 hours per year.
Using the formula: Power Cost=Power Consumption (kW)×Usage Hours (h/year)×Electricity Rate (per kWh)
The power cost for the entire workstation is approximately $91.13 annually, while the GPU alone accounts for $40.50 annually. This cost reflects energy usage during active hours and does not account for idle power-saving modes, which could further reduce expenses.
Key Takeaway
Annual Power Cost (Per Workstation): $91.13, or
Adding up the true costs of a CAD workstation
The summary table below sums up our estimates for the TCO of a CAD or BIM workstation over three years.
The real cost of CAD workstations
If you’re currently planning to replace your CAD workstations, it’s essential to calculate the true, total cost of ownership of these machines. As we’ve seen, the upfront CapEx for CAD and BIM computers is typically in the region of $4000 - $5000. However, the ongoing OpEx - from maintenance to cybersecurity to backup to electricity - means that the true TCO of these workstations can easily be double the cost of the hardware itself.
By considering all the additional costs of a CAD workstation, you can make clear-eyed decisions about your company’s spending.
Appendix - CAD workstation TCO alternative calculations
Our CAD workstation TCO is based on the assumption that you will replace the machine after three years (a fairly standard replacement rate). But what if you use yours for longer? Or purchase a cheaper machine? What if your IT Support is significantly less? The following table helps you estimate TCO for these different scenarios.
To reflect this, here's a table with different scenario's:
- We included a lifetime of 3 years, and 4 years
- We keep the Cost of Capital constant for each scenario to 10%
- We varied the purchase price between $2500 and 10,000
- We reduced the IT Support from $4200 to $1800 for 3-years
- For the longer life, we adjusted the costs for finance, IT support, security, storage and power for 4 years.
