Sandboxx

At Sandboxx, their daily addiction is to create immersive experiences; breathe life into stories that grip, environments that enchant and characters who are worth knowing. They achieve this by using the latest realtime technology, dramatically reducing the technical construction process of animation, so that they can spend that precious time exploring the worlds and stories they create. We spoke to Sam Beavis, a Director at Sandboxx to find out his thoughts on BOXX workstations:

Q: What software do you currently use?

SAM: Primarily – Unity 3D, Blender, Allegorithmic Substance Suite, Affinity Designer.

Q: What was your previous hardware? What problems were you finding with that system?

SAM: We used to be mac only studio however we were finding that the latest macs were slipping further and further behind what we knew were cutting-edge capabilities. When we took the decision to go fully real-time as a studio the hardware switch to PC was an equally easy decision to make. We needed top of the line, customisable GPUs and a system that could be tailored around our needs both now and in the future.

Q: How has your workflow improved since using BOXX workstations and Rendering machines?

SAM: I must admit, I was a little dubious about switching to PC initially. My previous experiences hadn’t always been great and had found windows to be quite finicky and unpredictable, requiring a lot of maintenance… Having gotten used to the reliability of Macs I was nervous that our workflows would be impacted negatively and we would be spending a lot more time fixing glitches… However, I’ve been really pleasantly surprised by the new Windows 10 and how it works with the BOXX hardware. We’ve had practically zero problems and certainly tested it to the max over the past year. As a result, our workflows have actually improved. The extra power and speed over our old systems has made a huge difference.

Q: How would you describe BOXX customer service? Why?

SAM: Really good. The buying process was well handled and the staff were very helpful and attentive to our needs. We haven’t needed any specific after-sales support as of yet (which is a good thing!) but I’m confident that there will be a capable team ready and waiting if we do.

Q: Will you be buying BOXX in the future?

SAM: We will be gradually replacing our macs with PCs over the coming 12-24 months and I’ve no doubt BOXX will be at the top of our list for suppliers to make that happen.

Q: Do you have any other comments?

SAM: I feel bad for Macs? Nah, I don’t really! From a pro-user perspective, they had their chance and sort of blew it in my opinion. I always recommend people to go PC these days and then I give them BOXX’s website.