Approaching Crunch Time - HP Z420 Workstation Review

24Frames said:

If you're in Design, Architecture, Graphics Design, or anything else where aesthetics matter then if you don't care what your workstation looks like maybe you should consider another line of business.

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I do just fine in my line of work thank you very much 🙂

To most pros I know, they honestly couldn't care less about what a workstation looks like, its a tool. Its not something I look at very much, its a tool. Ever see a sexy looking impact gun? I haven't. Its a tool. Built to do a job.

My work station could be neon pink with my Pretty Pony stickers all over it, as long as its a fast, reliable, flexible and good workstation. Im happy with it. I don't care how it looks, its not in my house lol.

G51989 said:

I do just fine in my line of work thank you very much 🙂

To most pros I know, they honestly couldn't care less about what a workstation looks like, its a tool. Its not something I look at very much, its a tool. Ever see a sexy looking impact gun? I haven't. Its a tool. Built to do a job.

My work station could be neon pink with my Pretty Pony stickers all over it, as long as its a fast, reliable, flexible and good workstation. Im happy with it. I don't care how it looks, its not in my house lol.

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I agree 100%!

I'm impressed with the look and power of the ProMAX systems, particularly the ProMAX ONE systems:

http://www.promax.com/s-149-promax-one.aspx

I've no idea what they charge for these though. But they did superbly in some benchmarks carried out by barefeats:

http://barefeats.com/sandy01.html

Of course I'd much rather a new Mac Pro, but our business will be looking at these. If Apple abandon the Mac Pro then I'll have to abandon Apple. Be a shame after 27 years.

phpmaven said:

HP might as well stand for Heaping Pile. Their computers are junk. I wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pole. Not that I have an opinion 😀

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You seem to be confusing their consumer computers with their enterprise/workstation computers. Which most make the mistake of doing. I completely agree, their consumer line is complete junk. However, their enterprise machines are not. This goes for most companies. Consumer machines and business workstations are two completely different animals, with different teams working on them, and completely different in support. Do NOT compare the two.

I need to buy a workstation for a new project and if I don't buy it before June 15 (fiscal year deadline) I'll probably have to wait several months to get it approved rather than getting it right away. I'm very close to getting an HP Z620 and just giving up on the Mac Pro; even if it's announced on June 11 at the WWDC that's really cutting it close. I can run MySQL, R, and STATA on any platform but would really prefer OS X 🙁

The HP workstation series are pretty frumpy looking, but they offer serious bang for the buck. Not to mention the dual-processor models allow you to max out the RAM using 8GB sticks (12 slots) rather than having to use 16GB OWC sticks in the Mac Pro.

I'll still keep my existing Macs but for serious computational modeling work there are currently much better choices that have been out since April. I think if Apple doesn't update the Mac Pro soon they may as well abandon the computational workstation market. A shame, but whatever they do I'm sure will be in their best interest.

Bill.the.Cat said:

I need to buy a workstation for a new project and if I don't buy it before June 15 (fiscal year deadline) I'll probably have to wait several months

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I know the feeling. I'm on the verge of buying a Dell t7600. The online sales people were very keen to sell me one (surprise, surprise). I probably would have spent some serious $ if their website hadn't hung on me.

I am happy with my 2008 8 core MP but it's not got the speed for the latest project. Pity as I am (or was) a Mac convert.