Affordable enterprise workstations may never be the same again after HP unveiled its next-generation Z Series lineup.
The Z240 Tower and Z240 SFF come complete with the next generation Z Turbo Drive G2 plus the very latest Intel chips. Both are the newest additions to the entry-level workstation line-up currently headed by the Z230. The machines are aimed at customers in the video editing, MCAD/AEC, education, public sector and image viewing industries.
Both can be configured with a choice of future Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 v5 family chips including various Intel Core or Intel Pentium options. On the storage front there is space for two ultra-fast HP Z Turbo Drive G2s that can allow users to experience much higher productivity speeds.
What else?
There are various other handy features that HP has added including optional dust filters for up to a 47% reduction in dust, the legacy PCI slot has been removed, and the motherboard size is down 10% on the Z240 Tower. The tower also gets front and rear handle ledges to make the machines far easier to maneuver in the office.
The Z240 Tower can be packed with up to 64GB DDR4 ECC in the RAM department and features various GPU options to keep even the most demanding of image editors happy with what they see on screen.
Smaller = slightly less
HP's teeny Z240 SFF is a 57% smaller workstation that is designed to maintain workstation performance despite the lower space available. As a result it can't offer as high a graphical performance as its larger brother or anywhere near as many ports or empty drive bays.
Speaking of ports, the Z240 Tower packs as many as four USB 3.0 and six USB 2.0 ports, the latter of which includes a fast charging front port designed specifically to add juice to tired devices. In addition it also has two DisplayPort 1.2 slots, a DVI-I single link, two PS/2, an RJ-45, an audio line-in, and an audio line-out
Graphics choices on the Z240 Tower range from integrated Intel HD Graphics 430 all the way up to a high-end 3D AMD FirePro W7100 or NVIDIA Quadro M4000. The Z240 SFF, meanwhile, can only offer a mid-range NVIDIA Quadro K1200 as its top option.
Both workstations can be used with a variety of different monitors, are expected in stores in November and will be priced from $879 (around £580, or AU$1,258) depending on the configuration chosen.
