HP's take on the pricing for these machines is "full speed ahead." While it's true that HP is aware that a lot of us are hurting, they do make a good point in that, if you have a fast, stable machine that uses less power to do more work, you are working smarter and you get more work done in less time. In terms of man-hours and the value of your time, the machine pays for itself quickly. HP notes that, in terms of the value of time alone, the typical Z series workstation will pay for itself in about a month.

It's certainly true that not all of us can afford to pay what most people pay for a used car to get a new computer. In that case, you can get a pretty comparable - yet still very powerful - HP workstation in the Z400. You can configure one for $2788 that includes a 475W 85% efficiency power supply, an Intel Xeon W3520 2.66GHz quad-core processor, an NVIDIA Quadro FX1800 video card, 6GB of ECC RAM, a 160GB 7200 rpm SATA boot drive and a 500GB 7200 rpm SATA data drive, a tray-loading 16x DVD burner, a FireWire card, an eSATA bulkhead connector, USB keyboard and mouse. But considering the very reasonable base prices for these machines, you should be able to easily find a configuration that does what you need it to do for an agreeable price point. (Besides, if you wait a little while, the Xeon W5580 will probably drop in price by a few hundred bucks.)

OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Business, 64-bit; Windows XP Pro 64-bit ("downgrade")
RAM: 12GB, DDR3-1333, ECC, triple-channel
Processor: 2x Intel Xeon W5580 (3.2GHz)
Chipset: 2x Intel 5520
Number of Physical Processors: 2
Video Card: NVIDIA Quadro FX4800
Hard Drives: Fujitsu MBA3147RC, 147GB, 15,000 rpm; Seagate ST3146356SS, 146GB, 15,000 rpm; Seagate ST31000340AS, 1TB, 7200 rpm
Video Editing Software Included: Windows Movie Maker
Analog Video Capture Card Included: None
Disc Burners: Toshiba/Samsung TS-T633A
Disc Authoring Software Included: Windows DVD Maker (Vista)
Multiple Monitor Connections: Yes, 2 DisplayPort, 1 DVI

• Well-designed chassis
• Extremely stable

• Expensive as configured, but there are a lot of configuration options available
• Adding a second processor not worth it

Another great performer from HP provides some major steps forward in the world of workstations.

Charles Fulton is Videomaker's Technical Editor.

Hewlett-Packard Company
3404 E. Harmony Road
Fort Collins, CO 80528
www.hp.com
Price: $1999 base; $10,787 as configured