HP Z800 workstation supports SLI Multi-OS, newest Xeon processors

What do you get when you mash up yesterday's Intel Xeon 5500 and NVIDIA Quadro FX announcements with a bruiser BMW DesignWorksUSA case? The HP Z800 workstation, that's what -- and while it's clearly more machine than most of us need, it's almost just as certainly the machine we deserve. Right? Right. Inside the super-configurable case beats two quadcore Nehalem Xeon 5400 CPUs that appear as 16 cores to Windows, and optional SLI Multi-OS-capable NVIDIA graphics cards that allow you to use SLI under virtualization. Pricing starts at a seemingly-reasonable $1,999 and cruises north of $14K -- anyone want to lend us some cash?

[Robert Harrold Posted Mar 31st 2009 3:52PM]

I'd be interested to see how a fully loaded one of these runs. According to the website it can run with up to 192gb of ram. There is 12 ddr3 slots which would mean that each dimm would be 16gb.

[Gordon Posted Mar 31st 2009 3:16PM]

8GB and 16GB DDR3s aren't even available yet, are they?

[Robert Harrold Posted Mar 31st 2009 3:52PM]

Nope there isn't even 4gb ddr3 DIMM's that I can find.

[Jacob1 Posted Mar 31st 2009 3:56PM]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Samsung-16GB-DDR3,7323.html

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 31st 2009 3:24PM]

Zak, Casper was mentioning the model not the company.

The company doesn't have specs and YOU look like a douche trying to catch people on apple versus mac name game and avoiding the actual specs.

You might as well check for spelling (like DAT), as this might also help you with reality and pc-envy. ( So he missed you're instead of your - that doesn't mean he's wrong in every other argument he has).

[roach Posted Mar 31st 2009 3:48PM]

I guess Mac fanbois can stop using Mac is a BMW analogy and go back to being VW bug with a welded engine trunk.

[HotBBQ Posted Mar 31st 2009 4:22PM]

Believe it or not, the software work I do could max out this machine. We are in the process of writing up a capital request to get a couple of these. The processing power per dollar is much better than the $500k Sun crap we bought a few years ago. My workstation now is an HP xw8600 and it does OK, but this would p0wn.

[Oli D Posted Mar 31st 2009 5:39PM]

You know you can set GTA IV to low settings?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 31st 2009 5:21PM]

Wait, SLI under virtualization? What virtualization? Xen, VMWare workstation, Hyper-V, or a different solution?

[johnnyLong Posted Mar 31st 2009 5:52PM]

I think It works with Parallels Workstation Extreme.

http://www.techspot.com/news/34091-Parallels-introduces-Workstation-Extreme.html

scroll to the bottom it mentions the HP Z800 being the first to use the new tech, would have loved vmware support.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 31st 2009 7:28PM]

Does this mean you can play windows games with sli using parallels running on linux? o.0

[GadgetTamer Posted Mar 31st 2009 5:11PM]

Holy crap!!!!

That's a lot of power to be in such a small case... i wonder how well the cooling holds up under high load....

Either way, i want one!!!!!!

[Marc B Posted Mar 31st 2009 5:34PM]

"Although Avid is available for Windows, most production houses in Hollywood use Macs, especially sound studios"

Most of the Avid Post Production is performed on Windows PC's. There have been stability issues with AVID on MAC's for years, so much so that AVID editors are now moving to PC Vista workstations.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 31st 2009 7:07PM]

We haven't seen specs yet, so we can't really say the machine will or will not perform better than anything Apple, Dell, or any other workstation vendor offers.

Based on my previous research of Dell and HP workstations, PC vendors might start at the low end, but they do mark up everything you add on, so a $2,000 machine, when equipped in the same manner as a basic Mac Pro model, might end up costing twice as much. Inversely speaking, Macs tend to mark up their add-ons by at least 25%. So you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't.

I do look forward to a comparo by Engadget or any other site.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 31st 2009 10:46PM]

I think i have just found myself a new workstation, finally. I love the design, not exactly 100% my style, yet very very nice especially inside, i hoped Dell or Apple would switch to new enclosure with the new Xeon processors, and yet they didn't. I'm not the one who needs 192GB of ram, i would really like to see what can i can for 3000 - 4000, I would guess i can get a nice video one of the FirePro i mention later, and a sweet CPU solution.

2 omadmnemonic: i wouldn't say that, in some sense yes, in some no, it is very important what hardware exactly you are about to put inside, new Mac Pros has one very big problem - it has no Pro graphic options, none, and if it had there would probably be only Nvidia, new HP has two very competitive cards: V5700 and ATI FirePro V7750 along with all Quadro flavor you may ever want, the funniest thing is that even if we say you don't do 3D on you Map Pro, you would probably use Adobe CS products, and how come apple doesn't even have Quadro CX available...

Alsso note HP says it is a mini tower, now that should be very nice comparing to extremely big Mac Pro.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 26th 2009 9:21AM]

from the comments I've read, some said this is supposedly "cheaper" than Mac Pro? I did a price comparison with a slightly similar configuration on both machine and end up with this:

Apple Mac Pro - $3,299.00
Two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
6GB (6x1GB) 1066MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM
640GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB
One 18x SuperDrive

HP Z800 Workstation - $4,232.00
Two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
6GB (6x1GB) 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC Unbuffered RAM
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 295 256MB Graphics
16X SATA SuperMulti LightScribe DVD+/-RW

Ok HP is a little bit more powerful having a 1333Mhz unbuffered RAM and with a quadro graphics card, but does the $1,000 price difference worth it?