HP today introduced a trio of entry-level workstations, promising that they're the world's most powerful in their respective classes. The Z2 Tower G4, SFF G4, and Mini G4 include the new Xeon E-2100 family of CPUs that Intel announced last week.
One thing that puts HP's commercial PCs above and beyond the rest of the pack is its security features. For example, Sure Start protects the BIOS by checking it against a master copy and replacing it if it's corrupted. There's also Sure Run, which keeps apps running when malware tries to stop them.
“The number one thing we hear from creative professionals and other power users is the need for higherperformance [sic] PCs built to meet their needs. Our new HP Z workstation portfolio addresses this by delivering the world’s most powerful entry workstations,” said Xavier Garcia, Vice President and General Manager, HP Z Workstations, HP Inc. “By combining superb graphics performance, flexible configuration options, integrated software experiences in the world’s most secure desktop workstations, the new HP Z lineup has been thoughtfully designed to unleash creativity, maximize productivity and reinvent future workflows.”
The HP Z2 Mini G4 promises to be the world's most powerful mini-workstation, in a form factor of just 2.7 liters. It comes with up to Nvidia Quadro P1000 graphics, or you can have it configured with an AMD Pro WX4150. Given that it's so small, you can mount it right under your desk, even with the power of a hexa-core Xeon CPU.
The Z2 SFF (Small Form Factor) G4 has 50% more processing power than the previous generation with the new six-core CPU. HP says that it's the most expandable SFF workstation with four PCIe slots and two M.2 storage slots, and it's flexible enough to offer users the ability to customize networking, I/O, or display needs without using a PCIe slot.
Obviously, the Z2 Tower G4 is the real powerhouse of the family. You can configure it with up to an Nvidia Quadro P5000 GPU with 16GB GDDR5X memory. With up to 64GB RAM, it's made for the toughest workloads.
All of the new workstations will be available later this month. The Z2 Mini G4 will start at $799, the SFF will start at $749, and the Tower will start at $769. HP is also introducing the EliteDesk 800 G4 Workstation Edition with Core CPUs and Nvidia graphics, starting at $642.
