Industrial PC vs. Commercial PC: Choose the right one for your use case
We are at a day and age where humans spend more time with their personal computing devices rather than with fellow humans. Whether it is their Mobile phone or tablet or laptop, these ‘lifestyle’ devices have completely taken over our lives and made us dependent on them. The same goes for office environment where laptops and servers pretty much drive everything that we do there.
Though at the core of it, all the devices – whether at home or office – have the same function and features, there is a strong distinction that needs to be made between the two. The Commercial grade PCs are the ones that we use as lifestyle products while the Industrial grade PCs are the ones that do the heavy lifting at offices, manufacturing plants, data centres, toll plazas, etc. Choosing the right type of PC for the right use is extremely critical else it will lead to costly downtimes and waste of investments.
Broad definition of Commercial-Grade PCs
The Commercial Grade PCs are the desktops, laptops, tablets and all-in-one computers that we use at our offices. They are designed with a balance of functionality and aesthetics. The Commercial Grade PCs are used for general tasks such as creating/editing documents, presentations, accessing emails, browsing internet and running business applications such as HRMs, CRM etc.
Characteristics of Commercial-Grade PCs:
- · Design: Designed with lighter material and made to look aesthetically good, sleek and easy to carry around.
- · Purchase consideration: Bought based on cost v/s warranty offered v/s looks
- · Components: Components used are not the best-in-class as they are built for a limited lifespan.
- · Environment: built for usage in a controlled indoor environments with stable temperatures, no vibration or humidity and relatively clean air
- · Durability: Built for day-to-day office use, they are not designed for rugged conditions.
- · Economic lifetime: Designed and built to have an economic lifetime of 2-5 years post which refresh has to happen.
Broad definition of Industrial PCs
The Industrial PCs (IPC) are the rugged, vibration-proof, wide-temperature, IP Rated, purpose built compute devices – motherboards, embedded box PCs, Panel PCs, Edge AI boxes, rugged laptops and tablets. In general, they are built for continuous operations and rugged/harsh environments such as Motherboards for Railway signalling, IOT boxes for Industry 4.0, Rackmount systems for driving machinery, Industrial Kiosks among others.
Characteristics of Industrial PCs:
- · Design: Focus of the design is not the aesthetic but for the functionality, performance and purpose.
- · Purchase consideration: Purchase is based on compliance to requirements which includes all aspects of performance, durability, longevity.
- · Components: Industrial grade and specialized components are used to ensure adherence to the purpose of the product.
- · Environment: Designed to withstand extreme temperatures (often a wide range, like -20°C to 70°C), high humidity, dust, vibrations, shocks, and electromagnetic interference.
- · Durability: Built for highly rugged conditions with different degrees of durability parameters
- · Economic lifetime: Typical economic lifetime of these products ranges from 7 to 10 years or longer in other cases.
Comparative between Industrial PC and Commercial Grade PC
Characteristics | Industrial PC | Commercial Grade PC |
Deployment Environment | Harsh industrial, outdoor | Controlled indoor environments |
Build Quality | Ruggedized, industrial grade components and material | Standard-grade components |
Temperature | Wide operating temperature ranges -40 to +70 degrees Celcius | 10 degrees to 45 degrees usually |
Dust & Water Resistance | IP-rated, M12 connectors, fanless designs | Not IP-rated, fan-based cooling |
Vibration & Shock Resistance | High vibration/shock tolerance for the full system | Lower tolerance to vibration and shock |
IO Connectivity | Extensive IO interfaces are available usually | Standard ports of USB, Display ports |
Expansion slots | Available | Limited expansion capabilities |
Cost | Higher initial investment | Lower initial investment |
General use cases of Industrial PC and Consumer-grade PC
Industrial Grade PC | Consumer-grade PC |
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Summary
Ultimately, the choice boils down to the severity and criticality of the use case. One can force fit a commercial grade PC in an industrial environment, but that would prove lethal to the business in a long term. Meanwhile, just because one can afford a high-end server, buying that for accessing emails and browsing does not make any commercial sense and it is an overkill. So, both the industrial grade and commercial grade systems have their own usage and audience. Choosing the right one is a judicious call that the person/company has to take keeping in mind all the above factors.
