Name: Z840
Brand: HP

TechRadar Verdict

The HP Z840 workstation is a high-powered business class tower that is a one-stop shop for all aspects of your company. The HP Z840 is powerful enough to handle the work of a CAD, multimedia, or video designer as well as being able to be a rack-mounted server solution. HP Z840 has so many customizable options available that this product is the epitome of agility.

Pros

+
Powerful
+
Fully-customizable
+
3-year support

Cons

-
Can get pricey
-
No WiFi adapter/card installed

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Introduction

If your organization is looking to invest in high-powered workstations, HP has built something with you in mind.

The HP Z840 Workstation is a decent contender that competes in the same arena as the Boxx Apexx 2 Workstation, the Boston Venom 2401-12T, and the Overclockers RENDA PW-E7F. All of these machines are expensive at more than $2000 each (about £1289.17, AU$2692.08). But what they lack in affordability, they more than make up for in performance.

So, if you are looking for a mid-level business machine, or even a entry-level workstation, then the HP Z840 is not going to be the machine for you. But if what you need is top-of-the-line output from a solidly-built, customizable unit, then keep reading.

Design

In the past five years the aesthetic of the business workstation has changed dramatically from the lackluster copy-paste machine to something more appealing to the eye. The HP Z840 has the look of a modern, simple, and sleek tower.

The sides feature a gorgeous brushed aluminum with HP printed into the metal. This is surrounded by an incognito black bezel frame. On top, the HP Z840 has two handles for carrying, which you will need because the machine can get heavy depending on customization.

Covering the front of the HP Z840 is a slotted front with a DVD RW drive in the middle. Below that exists a memory card reader. Just offset on the side of the front panel are four USB 3.0 ports with a power and reset button, and auxiliary in and out ports.

The right side of the tower has a handle, which releases the door. Once opened, the HP Z840 holds everything in a very nice and smooth tool-less plastic cover. This feature will appeal to any IT professional's heart. I took the Z840 apart for testing and it was so easy to dissemble and reassemble. You can tell that HP was thinking of the most streamlined way to make the Z840 accessible to work on.

Specs

The Boxx Apexx promotes a build-to-order computer model, but HP really goes out and beyond in terms of what you can and cannot put into the HP Z840. I mean, it's almost unreal what you can configure to have in this machine if you can afford the upgrades.

The HP Z840 workstation features the latest generation of Intel Xeon processors, supporting a range of chips, from the Intel Xeon E5-2603 v3 to Intel Xeon E5-2699 v3 processor. Not only can the HP Z840 be configured to take the Xeon E5-2699 v3 18 core 2.30 GHz processor, but it can be configured for two of them. To put this into perspective, when adding on the Xeon E5-2699 into the HP Z840, the price difference from the base processor to add another $6,990 (£4474.60, AU$9490.71).

RAM can also be customized from anywhere between 4GB DDR4-2133 RAM to the max that the HP Z840 can hold which is 512GB DDR4-2133 RAM.

The HP Z840 comes packed with a NVIDIA Quadro K2200 graphics card. The model given to TechRadar had a 1TB Hard drive and a 256GB SSD drive. Now, remember, this is customizable, so you can change processor, add more hard drives, and even a secondary GPU.