HP Unveils New Workstations

Debra Kaufman Santa Monica California USA ©2012 CreativeCOW.net. All rights reserved.

HP just unveiled the follow-up to its popular line of Z workstations: the Z820, Z620 and Z420, which come equipped with the eight-core Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 product family, offer up to 512 gigabytes of DDR3 memory and support multithreaded workstation applications.

HP just unveiled the follow-up to its popular line of Z workstations: the Z820, Z620 and Z420. All three workstations come equipped with the eight-core Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 product family, offer up to 512 gigabytes of DDR3 memory and support multithreaded workstation applications that professionals rely on. The Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 product family allows for up to 16 physical cores in a single system and lets 32 threads run at one time when using two processors, each with eight cores and Intel Hyper-Threading Technology enabled.

Inside of the Z820

Also featured is third-generation PCI Express technology for increased performance and integration of new graphics cards from NVIDIA. The HP Z420, Z620 and Z820 Workstations are expected to be available worldwide beginning in April.

"As the workstation industry leader, HP continues to invest in technology that allows our customers to push the limits of innovation," said Jim Zafarana, Vice President/General Manager, Commercial Solutions Business Unit, HP. "Our investments in R&D and technology have led to workstations that meet and exceed the needs of the world's most demanding customers."

Of strongest interest to those in the media and entertainment industry is the HP Z820 Workstation, which is designed for high-end computing and visualization. The dual-processor Z820 offers support for up to 16 processing cores and up to 512 GB of ECC memory, as well as up to 14 terabytes of high-speed storage and up to dual NVIDIA Quadro 6000 graphics. The two processors work seamlessly together based on the Xeon C600 series chipset, LSI SAS 2308 controller and dual Quick Path Interconnects between them.



HP Z820 with dual HP ZR2440w displays running Autodesk Maya. Click image to zoom.


The HP Z820 also offers a wide range of graphics cards, based on its ability to support PCIe Gen3 graphics -- which doubles the bandwidth in and out of the card -- from AMD and NVIDIA. From Pro 2D to the highest end 3D graphics on the market, the HP Z820 is an ideal choice for those in high-end visual effects and animation looking for an upgrade to their existing HP Z800 workstations. Estimated U.S. pricing for the HP Z820 starts at $2,299.

The HP Z620, in a smaller form factor, is aimed at those users with a need for powerful computing in space-constrained environments, making it a good choice for video editing, visualization and animation usage. This workstation, which has been updated to support both single- and dual-socket processors, offers the ability to support a single Intel Xeon processor E5-1600 or dual Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 series. The workstation provides up to 16 cores, up to 96 GB of ECC memory, up to 11 terabytes of high-speed storage and similar to the HP Z820, the HZ620 also supports a wide range of professional graphics from Pro 2D to Extreme 3D. That includes support for PCI express Gen3 graphics technology from AMD and NVIDIA such as NVIDIA Quadro 6000 and dual NVIDIA Quadro 5000 graphics. With 800W 90 percent efficient power supply, the HP Z620 also supports up to eight displays.



HP Z620 workstation with HP ZR 2740w displays


The HP Z620 can be customized in a variety of ways, including USB 3.0 and up to 12 memory slots that can support 96 GB of the latest-gen DDR3 memory. A wide variety of storage types are supported including SATA 7.2K/10K, SAS 10K/15K and SSD. Estimated U.S. pricing for the HP Z620 starts at $1,649.

The HP Z420 is a single-processor personal workstation in an accessible tool-free mini-tower form factor. This "smart chassis" design enables users tool-less access to the inside, which means they can swap out parts and make upgrades on their own. Optional liquid cooling is designed to deliver very quiet performance.

With support for up to 8 discrete processing cores, the HP Z420 offers a choice of Intel Xeon E5-1600 and E5-2600 series processors, with base clock frequencies of up to 3.6 GHz and the new Intel C602 chipset. The HP Z420 enables the user to customize the workstation with multiple SATA and SAS RAID configurations for a range of high-performance, high capacity storage solutions. Also featured are 8 DIMM slots in 4-channel memory architecture for up to 64GB of 1600 MHz memory. Estimated U.S. pricing starts at $1,169 for the HP Z420.

Many power users in the media and entertainment content creation community have been waiting for the next-gen Z800 workstation. The market for these high-end workstations has been growing, and stories of its use by such productions as the Bandito Brothers on hit movie Act of Valor. I predict that, as other media and entertainment professionals learn more about HP workstations, they'll be gravitating not just to the Z820 but the Z620 and Z420. We'll be keeping you abreast of the projects they'll be creating with the new workstations.

---