HP rolls out high-end, quad Xeon/Opteron workstations
updated 08:15 am EDT, Mon April 14, 2008
HP xw8600 and xw9400
HP this morning has marked the launch of NAB with two systems targeted at AV editors or most anyone who depends on very high end performance. A new version of the xw8600 uses Intel's latest 3.2GHz quad-core Xeon to handle very processor-intensive tasks such as media encoding; up to two each can fit in a single system to make it the most individually powerful desktop at HP, the company says. Systems built on the new chip vary in price but lift the price by about $2,460 both through the faster design as well as the requirement of using 4GB of 800MHz memory.
Those who prefer AMD also see an upgrade to the xw9400. Although not listing clock speeds, HP says the system can be configured with three speed variants of the brand-new Opteron 2300 series, whose clock speeds range up to 2.5GHz on a 1GHz HyperTransport bus. Pricing for the xw9400 upgrade isn't yet available, though the line is priced higher at the baseline than its Intel counterparts.
