The HP xw4600 Review: Speed on a Budget

Bruce Shutan reports on how Beatles musical, Across the Universe, proved a psychedelic challenge for vfx artist Peter Crosman.

By Bryan Hoff | Friday, October 12, 2007 at 12:00 am

Posted In | Magazines: VFXWorld

The xw4600 workstation in action. Screen image courtesy of Autodesk, Inc. © 2002-2007, All rights reserved.

HP xw8400
SUM_RESULTS3DSMAXSUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 29.98

SUM_RESULTSCATIASUMMARY.TXT
catia-02 Weighted Geometric Mean = 36.45

SUM_RESULTSENSIGHTSUMMARY.TXT
ensight-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 21.83

SUM_RESULTSLIGHTSUMMARY.TXT
light-08 Weighted Geometric Mean = 34.42

SUM_RESULTSMAYASUMMARY.TXT
maya-02 Weighted Geometric Mean = 24.22

SUM_RESULTSPROESUMMARY.TXT
proe-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 28.59

SUM_RESULTSSWSUMMARY.TXT
sw-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 36.90

SUM_RESULTSUGNXSUMMARY.TXT
ugnx-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 10.86

SUM_RESULTSTCVISSUMMARY.TXT
tcvis-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 6.357

The xw8400 had two dual core Intel Xeon 5160 processors running at 3.0GHz, 4GB RAM and an NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500 video card with 256MB RAM. Considered a "high-end" video card, the Quadro FX 1700 has a definite edge over the ultra high-end Quadro FX 3500 card loaded in the xw8400 rig I tested. As you can see from the test results, it handily beat the Quadro FX 3500 equipped xw8400 system in every test. Visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_11761.html for more details.

Next, for those of you who loathe change, you'll be happy to know that I included my usual 3ds Max test renders: Displacement & DOF.max and Light Gallery.

**Displacement & DOF.max**
System	Time
HP xw4600	9:37
HP xw8400	8:53

**Light Gallery**
System	Time
HP xw4600	2:06
HP xw8400	1:53

Not bad for a system that weighs in at almost half the price of the Xeon-based xw8400 with 3.0GHz processors and twice the RAM.

Buying Recommendations
It seems that Intel and HP keep pleasantly surprising me with every new processor and system they introduce. Not to mention NVIDIA with their newest line of video cards. More power for less money -- where do I sign up? Although it includes two x16 PCI-E slots, SLI graphics is not supported, which may be a deal breaker for some. However, if you're looking for an affordable workstation with power to spare, the xw4600 is definitely worth a look. The Energy Star 4 certified power supply will appeal to users with home offices, and its modern new case design will make you want to show it off, rather than shoving it under your desk. And did I mention it's quiet?

Bryan Hoff is a multifaceted artist and writer. A web designer, digital artist and animator, his credits include movie and television effects, online games, 3D corporate animation, Flash and traditional website design. His writing credits include articles for LinuxWorld, Element K Journals and InformIT, covering topics like Photoshop effects, Linux 3D graphics applications, web and HTML design, RSS feeds and painting with a graphics tablet. Bryan has written ebooks on blogging and website creation for beginners and co-authored the book Moving from Windows to Linux.