The FINANCIAL — HP on September 29 announced the HP Z240 Tower and Z240 SFF Workstations with next generation Intel processors and HP Z Turbo Drive options, raising the bar for entry-level workstations, while providing the reliability of a workstation at the price point of a desktop PC.
The Z240 is the latest update to the world’s No. 1 ranked entry-level workstation, the HP Z230. As HP’s most affordable workstation, the Z240 is ideal for customers in the video editing, MCAD/AEC, education, public sector and image viewing industries, according to HP.
“In anticipation of a customer demand for smaller yet powerful workstations, HP created the world’s first small form factor workstation, the HP Z200 SFF,” said Jim Zafarana, vice president and general manager, Workstations and Thin Clients, HP. “The latest in that line, the HP Z240, not only continues to provide customers a compact, affordable solution packed with the power of a traditional workstation, but it ups the ante for entry-level workstations with increased performance and new innovations.”
As the market share-leading workstation vendor, HP has integrated seven new innovations on the HP Z240 Workstations.
An integrated M.2 slot (for expansion cards and connectors on both the SFF and tower) frees up a PCIe slot and provides customers more flexibility and expandability to use HP Z Turbo Drives without having to make a tradeoff on additional graphics cards, an additional HP Z Turbo Drive, or other devices like Thunderbolt.
Optional dust filters can be added to both the HP Z240 Tower and Z240 SFF to help reduce the ingress of dust in the system. With up to 47 percent reduction in dust(2), this option provides customers in all work environments where dust is an issue – from under the desk to dusty manufacturing floors — with added reliability and longevity.
Removed the legacy PCI slot, which is used by less than 2 percent of customers today, from the motherboard and designed a plug-in card for effortless installation for customers that still use the legacy slot. Removing the slot from the motherboard allowed HP to reinvest in other product innovations (M.2 slot, dust filter).
Despite adding new features to the motherboard, HP engineering was able to reduce the size of the motherboard on the Z240 Tower by 10 percent and simplified the cable layouts inside the systems, continuing to push for more efficient product designs.
The Z240 Tower now features integrated front and rear handle ledges to enable every customer to easily move and position their system around the office.
HP re-engineered the hard drive cage for the Z240 SFF and engineered a custom air duct around the processor, allowing more efficient air flow, enhanced acoustics and a cleaner layout of internal cables.
HP integrated ambient temperature sensors on the motherboard of both systems, and increased control of the system fans to include the power supply, giving even better management of system thermals and acoustics, including the power supply (as compared to previous generations).
Leveraging innovations originally created for the higher-end HP Z Workstations, the HP Z240 offers more performance, greater storage capacity, more IO and greater flexibility of the previous generations while retaining the same form factor. At 57 percent smaller than the tower, the HP Z240 SFF conserves space and maintains workstation performance.
The Z240 features up to 64 GB DDR4 ECC memory – a 100 percent increase in memory capacity compared to previous generations — for no compromise capacity, performance and reliability. The expanded memory options allow customers to push the limits of design to create larger, more complex models/designs that require larger memory footprints. It also provides customers with more expandability options.
The HP Z240 Tower and Z240 SFF offer a choice of future Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 v5 product families, Intel Core, or Intel Pentium processors and two ultra-fast HP Z Turbo Drive G2. The HP Z Turbo Drive allows workstation users to super-charge productivity and creativity of workflows. The Z240 offers a choice of Windows 7, Windows 10 or Linux operating systems.
Pricing and Availability
The HP Z240 SFF and HP Z240 and are expected to be available in November. Estimated U.S. pricing starts at $879 for either workstation.
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