HP Z210 CMT: A Powerful Workstation With Room to Grow

At a Glance

Skillful's Rating

Pros

• Readily expandable
• First-class software

Cons

• Mussy internal wiring

Our Verdict

Workstations aren't for everyone. But if you need a powerful PC to go through heavy nontextual matter and 3D tasks, and are willing to pay up a bit extra for optimized ironware, the HP Z210 CMT stands out as a business enterprise desktop worthy considering.

The H.P. Z210 CMT is an entry-level auto, serving as an founding to the public of workstations. Clad in business-appropriate dress up (read: drab), this midtower machine is one of the pricier members of our Clientele Desktops chart, but stands head and shoulders above the contest we've seen up to now. The regular business desktop caveats apply: A quick glance at the Mainstream Desktop category wish reveal machines that offer up more raw magnate, for little. But this workstation is geared toward a professional environment, crowded with premium, server-ground level components optimized for hefty workloads.

The HP Z210 we reviewed came equipped with a 3.3GHz Intel Xeon E3-1240–a low-index, quad-core central processing unit typically found in servers and workstations. Information technology offers 8GB of of RAM (you can install upbound to 32GB of Aries), and sports an Nvidia Quadro 2000 graphics card. The HP Z210 CMT line of descent starts as first gear arsenic $659, and the model we reviewed sits at $2312 (as of 5/18/2011).

We'll deal with the raw performance numbers first. On our Worldbench test suite, the HP Z210 earned a score of 150. For comparison's sake, that puts it on a par with the Dell Vostro 460 (score: 156), a lin PC equipped with Intel's Core i7-2600 processor.

If performance is penny-pinching-isotropous, why choose a Xeon processor? To start with, Xeon processors are generally well-meant for utilization in servers. They run ice chest and at lower voltages than consumer-oriented Core i7 CPUs, being studied for continous habituate–24 hours a mean solar day, 7 years a hebdomad.

The Xeon E3 processor also includes a number of business-friendly features, such as keep for Intel's vPro surety technology, atomic number 3 well as Error-Correcting Inscribe (ECC) memory. Both features add a cost premium to the Xeon processor, simply when you're working with important, sensitive information, professionals will agree that IT's money well spent.

The unchanged is true of the Nvidia Quadro 2000 graphics card. Assembled on the same Fermi architecture we've seen in the GeForce GTX assembly line, Nvidia's professional Quadro cards are explicitly designed to bring up reliably under demanding, always-on conditions. Professional applications like 3ds Goop and AutoCAD are besides optimized to work with professional cards like Nvidia's Quadro and AMD's FirePro lines, delivering some accelerated performance and technical support not matched away consumer models.

The Horsepower Z210 will likely fit rightfield into most do work environments. Information technology's par for the trend for the business category–oil production black shell, with a firm revolve about functionality ended form. The face offers three USB ports, a FireWire interface, a multiformat notice reader (with one more USB left), and the requisite headphone and microphone jacks. The simple machine is also equipped with a DVD burner; all these trimmings are pretty much accepted in both the mainstream and lin desktop categories, merely accessibility is always apprehended.

The hind end of the machine offers dormy series black eye and keyboard ports–liberation up a pair of USB ports, and useful for offices with legacy computer hardware. A DisplayPort and a DVI connector are provided by the motherboard. You'll find six more USB ports, gigabit ethernet, and 2.1-channel audio. The Nvidia Quadro 2000 offers HDMI, DisplayPort, and DVI connectors. A bit basic olibanum far, but one add-in bill offers a pair of USB 3.0 ports, and another offers a pair of FireWire ports. Advanced connectivity is always appreciated, and while these optional add-in cards might sacrifice some internal upgrade space, the added flexibility they cater is welcome.

A lever connected the side of the case offers warm and easy access to the HP Z210's fairly cavernous entrails. You'll find three 5.25-column inch drive bays, one of them occupied by the DVD burner, and another by the card reviewer, plus three hard-drive bays, one occupied by the 1TB hard-fought drive.

The Quadro 2000 occupies one of two PCI x16 slots, and the pair of PCI x1 slots house the aforementioned plug-in cards. That leaves a PCI x8 slot and a pair of PCI slots for future expansion. The entire chassis offers tool-free access, which is great–and peculiarly useful in an office environs, where you (or your IT staff) will require to urinate intrinsical repairs and upgrades as scuffle-free as come-at-able. To a lesser extent impressive is the wiring job–it's untidy, with cables attached and arranged without much care. The wiring doesn't impede airflow and won't enter upon the way of your work, simply if you do ever need to pry open the case, keep a few cable ties handy.

The bundled keyboard and pussyfoot are taxon HP wares–non much we can say about those. The documentation is refreshingly thorough, albeit generic. They offer instructions on setting up and configuring all aspect of the the machine, including detailed diagrams.

The most evidential added-value chemical element here is the software package. We've seen the HP Performance Advisor and Powerfulness Assistant applications in the by, simply their latest iterations continue to instill. Power Supporter is simple: fire up the application, and you'll get a gauge of how much power the PC is using, along with a calculator that estimates your daily, monthly, and yearly operating costs, as well as calculating your carbon footprint. With that knowledge in hand, you can set an operative schedule for your PC, setting it to sopor when you make love you'Re stepping away from your desk for tiffin or a group meeting, for exemplar.

Performance Advisor should be bundled with all of HP's machines–business- or consumer-minded–as IT offers a staggering amount of utilitarian information and tools in a simple, concise package. The app provides a thorough report along your hardware, listing any factor changes and serving up details on the driver versions, CPU and memory utilization–the works.

Machine impression a little sluggish? The Performance Advisor can track an coating's resource employment, so you can speck exactly where your performance bottleneck is, and plan your following upgrade accordingly. You can certainly do this all yourself with a bite of legwork, but having a dedicated cortege of tools bundled reactionist onto the machine makes the entire process, oh, so convenient.

The Mainstream Desktop charts are full of consumer-familiarized alternatives to the HP Z210 CMT–overclocked, gaming-oriented machines that will handle number-crunching with aplomb, likewise as packing enough graphical horsepower to rigging picture editing and the like. But workstations are masters of specialization, and the HP Z210 CMT stands out as an excellent, cost-effective business machine. Consumer models like the Maingear F131 Super Breed Oregon the Origin Genesis Midtower may have it flummox in footing of raw power. But HP's workstations are peculiarly engineered to meeting a workplace's demands, whether it's done mitigating power consumption and offering tame operation, or packing hardware that's optimized for the software that professionals use.

Simply beryllium sure you're using the right tool for the lin–if video editing or 3D design isn't division of your workflow, you'd had best to attend for a machine that's a minute much cost-efficient. The HP Compaq 6000 Pro stands out as a speedy option in a lissom, all-in-one box. For an option in a more traditional pattern, discipline out the cost-effective Acer Veriton X498G.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/491628/hp_z210_cmt.html

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