Nah, those days are gone... I bought the machine when working on my MSc project as it worked out to be similar in price to renting AWS machines at the time for the duration of the project and work.

I needed 20+ virtual machines to be running, for a long period of time (3-6 months), gathering and processing data, to perform various experiments during the project.

The crux of it was that as AWS would cost me the same ballpark as 6 consumer desktops or 1 professional workstation, that I might as well buy and own the hardware.

Then the choice was between 6 consumer machines all using energy and producing noise + heat, or the 1 workstation (idling most of the time). I chose the workstation as it would be more flexible in the future (now).

The workstation has lasted years and is still a superb workhorse. I'd go this route again as it's proved great value for money and still has years in it.

It's an older HP Z800, runs Linux now but used to run Windows.