Reviewing the HP Z210 Small Form Factor (SFF) workstation

Posted by Alex Herrera on December 11th 2011 | Permalink
Categories: Hardware Review
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HP’s first foray into integrated-graphics for workstations was over a year ago, when the company launched the Z200 workstation with Intel’s 32 nm Westmere parts. That archicture coupled the GPU and CPU with two die in a package. Now, we think HP offered integrated graphics on the Z200 not because it expected many workstation buyers to be clamoring for it, but because it allowed HP to push down that always very marketable “starting at” price. Without the cost of an incremental discrete GPU, the build cost for the Z200 was (on the order of) $100 less than it otherwise would have…

Benchmarking the FirePro V7900, V5900 and V4900 / The V4900 shined on SPECapc Lightwave

Posted by Alex Herrera on December 11th 2011 | Permalink
Categories: Hardware Review
Tags: nvidia amd market graphics intel firepro

The FirePro V7900 and V5900 boards, based on AMD’s Caymen GPUs, now occupy the mid-range and high-end positions in AMD’s workstation graphics portfolio. The V4900 workstation AIB is the latest addition to the line. It’s built with the Turks Northern Island’s GPU, and targeted at the entry level. AMD provided us with all three new models to assess their competitive positioning. To get a sense of the performance the new trio can deliver, we employed some of the same basic tools we have in the past, including one relatively new (and very welcome) addition. We benchmarked the three boards shortly after…

Nvidia Quadro 5000 review

Posted by Alex Herrera on October 13th 2010 | Permalink
Categories: Hardware Review
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Benchmarking the Quadro FX 5000 with (for the first time) Viewperf 11 The Quadro 5000 is based on Fermi, Nvidia’s ambitious new architecture covered in detail in the pages of JPR’s Tech Watch and Workstation Report. But the 5000 doesn’t include the maximum number of processing cores the architecture touts. Where Fermi (for now) maxes out a theoretical 512 cores, the Quadro 6000 exploits the most, tapping 448 (similar to the GeForce GTX 470). Nvidia has likely chosen a reduced number to maximize yield and reliability for workstation applications. With its 352 processing cores and 2.5 GB memory, the Quadro 5000…

Lenovo’s heavy-duty W701 mobile workstation Review

Posted by Alex Herrera on September 13th 2010 | Permalink
Categories: Hardware Review
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A first-hand look at Lenovo's heavy-duty W701 mobile workstation Ever since the release of the Calpella-based mobile workstations, we wanted to get our hands on one, and when Lenovo loaned us its latest, top-end W701, we got our wish. Lenovo introduced its latest ThinkPad W510 (January, 2010) and ThinkPad W701 (February) models around the same time Intel was unveiling its 32 nm Westmere generation, showcasing the Arrandale mobile processor, which combines a CPU and GPU in a single package. But while more conventional corporate and consumer class Lenovo notebooks leverage Arrandale’s integrated GPU, the new models demand a being introduced as…

Reviewing the HP Z400 workstation and Fermi-generation Nvidia Quadro 5000

Posted by Alex Herrera on August 4th 2010 | Permalink
Categories: Hardware Review
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Our first look at 6-core Westmere (Gulftown) and professional-grade Fermi Two major advancements in workstation platform technology have appeared over recent months, and JPR has had the good fortune to review both, and at the same time no less. Intel’s 32 nm Westmere processor generation made its first splash in early Q1, appearing as both mobile Arrandale and desktop Clarkdale, two dual-core CPUs with in-package 45 nm graphics controllers. The two were the first processors to market to encapsulate both CPU and GPU in a single package (though not a single die). A more recent member of the Westmere family is…

Reviewing the Boxx 4850 Extreme workstation

Posted by Alex Herrera on April 2nd 2010 | Permalink
Categories: Hardware Review
Tags: amd review firepro

... and another look at the AMD FirePro 8750 At JPR, we get several opportunities over the course of a year to check out OEMs’ new workstation models. And while we always see or learn one or two new things, by and large, the differences are usually relatively minor. After all, they’re all built from similar IHV-based components from Intel, Nvidia and AMD, so companies designing workstations with similar goals of price and price/performance are going to more often than not end up with similar results. And that’s precisely why we were eager to review the 4850 Extreme workstation from Boxx.…

Reviewing the Lenovo D20, Quadro FX 4800 and AMD FirePro 7850

Posted by Alex Herrera on November 9th 2009 | Permalink
Categories: Hardware Review
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Lenovo loaned us a new workstation to take a look at, the company’s recent top-end Nehalem-class, dual-socket ThinkStation D20. The D20 came equipped with both sockets filled, as well as 12 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 memory. Two of the machine’s five 3.5-inch drive bays were filled, each with one 500 GB SATA drive, connected via a Marvell VD 0 SCSI adapter that presented them as one 1 TB RAID 0 drive (RAID 0 offers no redundancy). For graphics, Lenovo supplied us with one Quadro FX 4800 card, with 1.5 GB GDDR3 memory. And, we also tried it with an AMD…

Graphics performance is a matter of definition

Posted by Alex Herrera on June 12th 2009 | Permalink
Categories: Hardware Review
Tags: gpu amd ati gaming firepro graphics chip

FirePro 2450. (Source: AMD) To each his own. The fastest rendering 3D cards tend to grab most of the attention in the hardware graphics business, but just because they hog the spotlight doesn’t mean they’re the ideal solution for everyone. A lot of us don’t need to render complex 3D scenes at lightning speed, yet we still demand a lot from our system’s graphics. We just demand different things. As analysts at JPR, we’re not at a loss for the hottest new graphics hardware to evaluate and use. But my problem is this: I’m not a gamer, and since I spend…

Taking a new workstation and two professional graphics cards out for a test-drive

Posted by Alex Herrera on June 2nd 2008 | Permalink
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Lenovo’s new ThinkStation S10 workstation.(Source: Jon Peddie Research) Table 1: ThinkStation D10 specification.(Source: Jon Peddie Research) A look: inside the S10’s tool-less chassis.(Source: Jon Peddie Research) The S10’s: front panel.(Source: Jon Peddie Research) The S10’s: rear panel.(Source: Jon Peddie Research) Table 2: Evaluation system configuration. (Source: Jon Peddie Research) Figure 1: Cinebench benchmark results.(Source: Jon Peddie Research) Figure 2: Viewperf 10.0 results for FireGL V7600 and Quadro FX 4600(Source: Jon Peddie Research) Cadalyst ‘08: benchmark results.(Source: Jon Peddie Research) Lifting the curtain on its ThinkStation S10 and D10 models back in November of ‘07, Lenovo became the first major vendor to…

Lenovo’s Thinkpad”-P” Mobile Workstration testing Labs

Posted by Alex Herrera on October 25th 2007 | Permalink
Categories: Hardware Review
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When you think work-stations, the name Lenovo probably isn't the first to jump to mind. But thanks to Lenovo's purchase of IBM's PC line back in '05, Lenovo has by intention or not become the number three provider of workstations worldwide, with sales today dwarfing industry pioneers such as Sun, SGI and IBM. Lenovo didn't make its entry with a conventional desk-side workstation that has been the foundation of the industry since the early days. IBM excluded its long-time Intellistation (Pro and POWER) workstation lines from the sale to Lenovo, retaining those deskside models, which the company still de-velops within its…