Hewlett-Packard’s workstation-making history extends back 30 years, and on April 12, at the Microsoft MIX11 event in Las Vegas, the PC maker kept the tradition going with the introduction of three new mobile workstations, a convertible minitower and new small form-factor workstations.
The high-powered machines, for markets from animation to finance to oil and gas, count performance, durability and portability among their expected bragging points, and for the first time HP has also put a focus on design, prettying up its w-series EliteBooks with radial-brushed gunmetal finishes, backlit logos and orange accents.
The three new EliteBooks are also built on HP’s new "Forge" framework, which the company said in a statement would "embody a timeless construction, with precision-engineered durability features" designed to be reliable and environmentally sensitive. They also support migration to professional 3D applications with second-generation Intel Core i7 and i5 dual- and quad-core processors and up to 32GB of RAM.
The most powerful of these, the EliteBook 8760, features a 17.3-inch high-definition screen, a choice of Advanced Micro Devices’ FirePro or Nvidia’s Quadro professional graphics, up to 4GB of video memory and can be configured with one of three hard drives and RAID 5 support.
A smaller 8560w features a 15.6-inch HD display, either AMD FirePro graphics for 1GB of video memory or Nvidia Quadro graphics for 2GB of video memory and the option of an HP DreamColor display. The DreamColor displays enable 1 billion active color combinations, which, according to HP, is 64 times that of a traditional display. It additionally uses a 30-bit notebook LCD panel for a "level of color control exclusive to the EliteBook w-series," HP said in a statement, and can be combined with HP’s Mobile Display Assistant and Advanced Profiling Solution, for more precise color control.
Lastly, the HP EliteBook 8460w features a 14-inch HD display, an AMD FirePro 1GB video memory professional graphics card and a starting weight of 4.9 pounds.
For more, read the eWEEK article: HP Workstations Feature Intel, Nvidia, AMD Chips, PC Pricing.
