What makes a part "professional"?

[Cored]

I'm just wondering.
I see some parts that would be considered for "professional" use. Like this graphics card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133325

$1800 for 2.5GB of GDDR5. You can get a 4GB card for $1000 less, with more stream-processors, a higher memory interface, and dual fans.

There's also the Intel Xeon processors(yes they have a more threads and cache, but what for?)......and I'm sure there are other parts like coolers, power supplies, monitors, etc. that are made for "professional use" and therefore cost more.

I know some people get down and dirty with their work with like Adobe and stuff like that... but what situation would you need to be in to really need a Quadro card or a Xeon processor? By "professional" do they mean for Hollywood productions? Because I know people who edit films, for a living....& they have their own editing rigs and yeah they costed like $6,000-$10,000, but the 6GB Quadro card alone costs $7k alone. because it's a professional graphics card. So are these professional supplies for the people that edit Transformers? If so, would they really be buying them off Newegg and Amazon?

 

[sosofm]

Maybe they buy from Newegg or Amazon, but probably form local retailers.

 

[k1114]

Professional parts are server/workstation parts. They have extra features not found on consumer hardware and are specifically made for specific software as well as direct tech support so less crashes/bugs/etc to not delay deadlines. They're really for big businesses as the cost justifies time saving when issues occur. I know plenty or places that will be fine with consumer cpus but will still opt for a workstation card just because they handle the software better. Most will likely not buy from newegg/amazon as most people do not build their own computers and just buy prebuilt workstations from dell/hp/mac/etc.