HP, Dell Roll Out New Mobile and Desktop Workstations

The new HP Z240 entry-level workstation, shown here in small form factor and regular desktop editions (image courtesy of HP).

As September drew to an end and October began, HP and Dell both unveiled new products targeting the professional design and engineering markets.

HP’s announcement came on September 29. The company is offering the HP Z240 entry-level workstation in small form factor (SFF) and tower editions. As an upgrade to the previous model Z230, the HP Z240 is “HP’s most affordable workstation ... ideal for customers in the video editing, MCAD/AEC, education, public sector, and image viewing industries,” according to HP.

The spec sheet indicates the SFF and tower versions will be available with “Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 v5 product families, Intel Core, or Intel Pentium processors(3) and two ultrafast HP Z Turbo Drive G2.” According to Intel, the Xeon E3-1200 V5 chip sets are “manufactured on the latest 14 nm technology” and “offer dramatically higher CPU and graphics performance as compared to the previous generation, a broad range of power options, and new advanced features to boost edge-to-cloud Internet of Things (IoT) designs.” Buyers can choose from Windows 7, Windows 10, or Linux OS.

HP removed the legacy PCI slot, which the company estimated is “used by less than 2% of customers.” The design change leaves room for an integrated M.2 slot for expansion cards and connectors. The Z240 also offers optional dust filters, which HP says can reduce up to 47% dust ingress. The company revealed it has “reengineered 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.”

U.S. pricing for the Z240 begins at $879. It’s expected to be available by the end of November.

Dell Precision M3510 mobile workstation with new improvements (image courtesy of Dell).

On October 1, Dell announced its new lineup, featuring thin and light workstations and power workstations from the mobile series; and entry-level SFF and tower workstations, rack-mountable workstations (for 1:1 remote setup), and data-center workstations (for one-to-many setup). The new thin and light mobile units are Precision M3510 and M5510. The new high-performance mobile machines are Precision M7510 and M7710. They’re all available with Intel Skylake processors, the 6th generation chips.

In Precision M3510, the use of Polymer battery, carbon fiber chassis, and other enhancements resulted in a mobile machine that’s 27% thinner and 11% lighter, according to Dell’s spec sheet. The M3510 features DDR4 memory with error correction, PCIe M.2 SSD, and SATA M.2 SSD. Precision M5510, M7510, and M7710 from the thin and light series also benefit from the use of carbon fiber materials. The memory improvements published by Dell for its mobile workstations range from 33% (in M3510) to 43% (in M5000 and M7000 models).

The new tower units T3420 (SFF) and T3620 (regular tower) make their debut this month. The T3420 is 7% smaller than is predecessor T1700 SFF. They come with discrete GPUs from AMD and NVIDIA; they also benefit from the new Intel CPUs’ integrated graphics.

The 15-inch mobile workstation M3510 is priced beginning at $999. The 15-inch thin and light M5000 is priced beginning $1,399. The M7510 and M7710 power workstations are priced beginning $1,199 and $1,699 respectively. The desktop SFF T3420 and tower T3620 are priced beginning $679 and $729 respectively. They’re expected to become available in Q4 2015.