HP xw9400 Workstation Review: Achieving Higher Benchmarks

In this month’s “Career Coach,” Pamela Kleibrink Thompson makes an impression on the reader about business cards.

By Bryan Hoff | Monday, October 23, 2006 at 12:00 am

Posted In | Magazines: VFXWorld

You may recall my recent review of HP’s xw8400 workstation computer for VFXWorld. While the xw8400 was an Intel Xeon-based system, the xw9400 is AMD Opteron-based. So instead of comparing the xw9400 solely with the xw8400, I’ll compare the xw9400 with its predecessor, the xw9300. After that I’ll look at what the xw9400 can do, and see how the LP2465 display complements and rounds out the system.

The xw9400 picks up where the xw9300 left off, bringing DDR2 memory, dual LAN, 6 SATA ports and extra USB 2 ports to the table. Virtually everything is improved, from case acoustics to memory capacity and processor handling. The system is much quieter, can handle double the amount of RAM (64GB - up from 32) and supports the latest Opteron 2000 series of processors. The newest generation NForce 3000 chipset with improved memory handling means more bandwidth and less latency.

Pricing and Configuration
As I mentioned previously, the new HP workstations are provided in four tiers, rather than the usual three. Those are entry level, mid level, high level AMD and high level Intel, with Legacy PA-RISC and mobile workstation options also available. The xw9400 system has a starting price of $1,778 and $9,032 as currently configured ($7,241 with a single Quadro FX 4500 card).

A Few Torture Tests
This time I’ll be performing more of an apples to apples comparison, using an older generation system and its successor. I also added SOFTIMAGE | XSI and NVIDIA’s Gelato renderer to the testing mix.

xw9300 and xw9400 SpecViewPerf 9 Test Results
The xw9300 is the xw9400’s predecessor, and the particular 9300 tested here has two dual core Opteron 2.4GHz (280) processors, 2GB RAM and a Quadro FX 1500 video card. In contrast, the xw9400 has two dual core Opteron 2.8GHz (2220) processors, 4GB RAM and two Quadro FX 4500 cards in an SLI configuration. Here’s how they scored:

HP xw9300
SUM_RESULTS3DSMAXSUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 20.67

SUM_RESULTSCATIASUMMARY.TXT
catia-02 Weighted Geometric Mean = 26.58

SUM_RESULTSENSIGHTSUMMARY.TXT
ensight-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 16.03

SUM_RESULTSLIGHTSUMMARY.TXT
light-08 Weighted Geometric Mean = 25.72

SUM_RESULTSMAYASUMMARY.TXT
maya-02 Weighted Geometric Mean = 50.99

SUM_RESULTSPROESUMMARY.TXT
proe-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 23.93

SUM_RESULTSSWSUMMARY.TXT
sw-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 26.56

SUM_RESULTSUGNXSUMMARY.TXT
ugnx-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 8.519

SUM_RESULTSTCVISSUMMARY.TXT
tcvis-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 7.376

HP xw9400
SUM_RESULTS3DSMAXSUMMARY.TXT
3dsmax-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 22.85

SUM_RESULTSCATIASUMMARY.TXT
catia-02 Weighted Geometric Mean = 29.46

SUM_RESULTSENSIGHTSUMMARY.TXT
ensight-03 Weighted Geometric Mean = 20.81

SUM_RESULTSLIGHTSUMMARY.TXT
light-08 Weighted Geometric Mean = 26.36

SUM_RESULTSMAYASUMMARY.TXT
maya-02 Weighted Geometric Mean = 101.8

SUM_RESULTSPROESUMMARY.TXT
proe-04 Weighted Geometric Mean = 29.74

SUM_RESULTSSWSUMMARY.TXT
sw-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 39.91

SUM_RESULTSUGNXSUMMARY.TXT
ugnx-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 13.63

SUM_RESULTSTCVISSUMMARY.TXT
tcvis-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 10.89

As you can see by the results, the xw9400 really benefited from having two Quadro FX cards when it came to the Maya test. And in case you haven’t got the review I did of HP’s xw8400 Xeon-based system at your fingertips, the 9400 also beat out that system in the Maya, Pro/E and a few other benchmarks, achieving anywhere from a few points to quadruple its score.