The focus of computing may have shifted from PCs to notebooks but some people still need power, sometimes seemingly ridiculous amounts of it. Whether you are rendering 3D graphics or editing video or you just have a lot to do at once, the workstation is far from dead for you. With this in mind, as well as the ongoing commoditization of processing power, HP put a lot of effort into producing their new series of Z series workstations.
With so much of the computer simply being decided by what processor you are running and what graphics card(s) you have, companies like HP, Dell, and Lenovo are constantly searching for ways to compete. The obvious play for this is the price, but with slim margins and expensive components other battlegrounds must be found.
For this latest generation HP rolled out the Z series as the most attractive product in its class largely thanks to a new case design not available from the competition. Dell and Lenovo both released Nehalem-powered systems on the same day, powered by the same impossibly powerful Nvidia graphics cards but the Z series also had a custom case designed by BMW Designworks. In addition to being excellent eye candy, this case was designed to be easy to work on, completely tool-less, practically wireless, easy to carry, quieter, and cooler running than previous generations. A quick look at it (inside or out) will reveal how HP wanted to leave those other plain black boxes in the dust.
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The Z600 is the mid-range model in HP’s lineup, between the entry-level Z400 and the high-end Z800. Each model can vary wildly in price based on the processor(s), video card(s), storage, and–mainly–the amount of memory used, so there is a lot of bleed over from one model to the other, especially once you factor in their relatively low starting prices of $929, $1589, and $1839 respectively. They have significant differences between them, but to simplify, the Z400 is the only model with a single processor and is very much like a high-end desktop, the Z600 has a slim design but can be quite capable, and the Z800 is the top-of-the-line. Both the Z600 and Z800 have one of the Z series’ best new features: a swappable power supply that can be pulled right out of the system with no tools or playing with wiring. (So if your workstation isn’t starting you can check and see if the power supply is the problem in under a minute.)
The build quality of the new chassis is as good as we expected. That is to say that is doesn’t just look nice, it’s put together well. It’s built strongly enough to hold up, including frequent moves, say from office to office, thanks to the built-in handles. The interior layout is optimized for quiet performance and great cooling. Also, it’s downright sturdy–our test unit arrived with a sizable dent on the front-left edge. This happened during shipping and it caused the aluminum panel on the side to bend in about a half inch (it must have been quite a collision–the aluminum is about 2mm thick). The rest of the case was not damaged and the hard drive that sits inches away was in perfect shape, as was its tool-less removable mechanism. The system fired up and ran perfectly.
Our test system came outfitted with two quad-core Intel Xeon L5520 processors (2.27GHz), 6GB ECC RAM, Nvidia Quadro FX 1800 graphics card, and Windows Vista 64-bit. It’s a serious setup, but the Z600 (not to mention the Z800, or even the Z400) can scale way past this point if you get better graphics and more RAM. If you want or need more power, you can upgrade the processor to dual 5570s, graphics to Nvidia’s Quadro CX or 3800, up to 24GB RAM, dual 1TB drives, Blu-ray, a RAID controller, and more. You can break that $13,000 mark if you want to max the Z600 out, but our system came out to about $4000.
So what does one do with a system like the Z600? The applications are practically limitless and almost anything that requires a lot of power and multi-core performance is going to be a good fit. Some software that would be at home on it could include:
Fluent
Solidworks
Autodesk (AutoCAD)
Adobe (CS4)
Bibble Labs
Toxic
Bunkspeed (Hypershot)
Catia v5
Elysium
3D via
So it’s well suited for digital media creation, engineering tasks, financial data work, 3D rendering, and so on. Just for reference, the Z800 is generally considered better suited for 2K and 4K video work as well as high-end media production and geological data work (think oil drilling) while the Z400 is great for your entry level tasks, like SD and HD video and digital media. The Elitebook 8730w is part of the matrix as well–it can handle on-location tasks like mobile video editing.
Working with the Z600’s case is a pleasure. The process is completely tool-less and generally can be done without even considering the wiring. Hard drives, cooling elements, and even the PSU can be removed without any tools which makes operating on the system painless. The ability to pull the PSU and test it and/or swap it in under 60 seconds is fantastic and it will be a major time saver for any IT staff member.
Now I didn’t have the need to calculate any geo-spatial solutions or chart data volumes of seismic activity, but I did run a few workstation tests to put the Z600 through its paces. These were mainly standard benchmarks (like Cinebench) and real-life tasks that I generally perform on my normal work computer (audio/video conversions, video rendering, etc.), the Z600 should just be able to handle them faster, and while doing other tasks more efficiently. (Readers should keep in mind that benchmarks are not completely representative because the Z600 can scale between $1600 and over $13,000. For some applications our test machine would be considered relatively modest, especially the graphics.) Here how it performed in two benchmarks:
Cinebench R10 64-bit
OpenGL: 5447
CPU Test, single processor: 3312
CPU Test multiprocessor: 20709
Multiprocessor speedup: 6.25x
Geekbench
Overall: 10205
Processor integer: 11637
Processor floating point: 14410
Memory performance: 3363
Memory bandwidth: 4161
Other tests I tried included Adobe CS4 tasks like a Soundbooth podcast render and a Media Encoder video conversion as well as DriverHeaven’s Photostop benchmark (the score was 325.7 seconds). These tests didn’t go particularly well, even though they should be the Z600’s strong suit. Now we know that the Z600 can perform well and other sites have(though that system costs twice as much as ours), but performance never seemed to reach the level that we expected from the system. I’m working with HP on this at the moment and we’ll update as soon as possible, but so far the system is workable, but not mindblowingly quick.
Conclusion
HP’s Z600 is in many ways a workstation for 2009. That is to say that it’s power-packed but also easy to use, with an incredible new chassis design and features to spare. The options can range from pedestrian (like our 250GB main disk) to downright impressive (like 24GB of RAM and dual video cards) depending on your needs. It can take advantage of technologies like SSD drives and Nvidia’s CUDA in order to maximize performance in ways that are more interesting (and often cost effective) than just getting more expensive processors. There are enterprise options available as well, like 15K SAS drives and RAID controllers.
At about $4000 (as tested) the Z600 is a formidable machine, but its much lower starting price means that the foundation is actually rather affordable… it’s really just the parts you need to concern yourself with. Being easy to work with and to upgrade, this could be an interesting proposal to some buyers. For professional users and corporations, it’s a different story–for them it’s about return on investment. The expensive asset to them is not the computer, it’s the operator. That means that a faster computer means a more efficient worker which then translates into a workstation that can often pay for itself in just a matter of weeks.
With the new Z series products HP wanted to differentiate their workstations from products from Lenovo and Dell that feature the same processors, video cards, and so on. The case was the primary recipient of the design upgrades and it shows. And, smartly, the components themselves were definitely considered as the move to the BMW Designworks case coincided with the upgrade to Intel’s Nehalem processors, which have made quite a splash as well. The only rub with our Z600 was the performance, which didn’t seem like it was getting everything it could out of the eight cores, 6GB of RAM, and the FX 1800. We’re working on that and there were moments of excellence when all that power shined through, making it clear why someone would still need a workstation.
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