HP Z220 CMT Workstation

Workstations may not be the sexiest computers out there, but they?re among the most important when you need to get your work done reliably and quickly. Well equipped to help you achieve both of those goals is the HP Z220 CMT Workstation, an unassuming-looking one-tone desktop that nonetheless packs some serious processing punch. That and its attractive sub-$2,000 price (once you factor in the perpetually available rebate) make it an outstanding choice for professional users who want good performance on everyday tasks but don?t want to compromise?and our new Editors? Choice for single-processor workstations.

Design and Features
Like most workstations, this Z220 has a look that bellows business?but doesn?t say much else. It?s a boxy, jet-black tower with a front panel on which you?ll find a collection of ridges, two silvery logos (one for HP, one for the Z220 itself), and that?s about it. Our version was the CMT, which stands for ?convertible minitower,? though a small-form-factor model (dubbed, appropriately, SFF) is also available, using the chassis design we saw on the previous generation of Z210 machines. The CMT?s biggest design accomplishment is its amazingly easy-to-open side panel: Just pull a latch and the door comes off in your hands, leaving you ready to service or upgrade the system in literally a second.

Once you?re inside, you?ll notice that the amount of available expansion space is somewhat variable. A DVD burner occupies the sole available 5.25-inch drive bay, and of the three 3.5-inch bays present two are already filled (one with a 1TB hard drive, one with a 24GB solid-state drive for caching so the hard drive may reach near-SSD speeds through use of Intel?s Smart Response Technology). There are, however, two free 2.5-inch bays found in the topmost 5.25-inch bay, which is otherwise occupied with a built-in handle that makes the Z220 easier to carry. This limits your options somewhat, but if you want to add in another SSD or a pair of notebook-class hard-drives, you can.

The rest of the hardware in the Z220 is highly respectable. The processor is a 3.5GHz Intel Xeon E-1270v2, and there?s 8GB of 1,600MHz ECC RAM (distributed between two DIMMs in a total of four slots). The video card is a 1GB Nvidia Quadro 2000, which will suffice for most graphics task. There are a number of other slots free, should you want to install more cards: a PCI Express (PCIe) x8 slot for a second video card (although it will necessarily run slower), two PCIe x4 slots, two PCIe x1 slots, and two regular PCI slots. The included 400-watt power supply is sufficient for driving all this, but if you add too much more hardware, you?ll want to consider swapping it out for something stronger.

On the front panel of the Z220 you?ll find a multiformat card reader with a USB 2.0 port buried among the other slots, one additional USB 2.0 port, two USB 3.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port, and headphone and microphone jacks. Gracing the rear panel are two PS/2 ports for connecting a keyboard and a mouse, integrated DVI and DisplayPort jacks (which, because of the video card, you won't need), four more USB 2.0 ports, two more USB 3.0 ports, Ethernet, and three standard audio jacks. An extra DVI port and two additional DisplayPort jacks can be found on the I/O bracket on the video card, giving you lots of flexibility for hooking up external displays.

As part of your Z220 purchase you also get a standard wired USB keyboard and mouse, the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Professional preinstalled (and almost entirely free of bloatware, something that?s always nice but particularly important for professional systems), and the protection of a three-year limited warranty.
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Performance
On the types of business-related productivity tasks that are likely to constitute much of how it?s used, the Z220 acquitted itself quite admirably. Compared with other similarly priced workstations, it was the lead performer in both our Handbrake test (needing just 1 minute 5 seconds to convert a video, versus 1:13 for the Editors? Choice Dell Precision T1600 and 1:14 for the Lenovo ThinkStation S30) and our CineBench R11.5 rendering challenge (scoring 7.55, versus 6.87 for the Dell and 6.38 for the Lenovo). It also placed first (by a considerable margin) among these systems in our Futuremark PCMark 7 full-system benchmark, although it finished just behind the Dell when applying a dozen filters and effects to an image in Adobe Photoshop CS5 (2:57 versus 2:59). You can get faster performance still by moving up to an even more packed workstation like the Velocity Micro ProMagix HD180 Max, a behemoth intended for use by hard-core video editors, but you?ll have to pay a lot more for the privilege (that system runs nearly $7,000).

The Quadro 2000 video card in the Z220 is a powerful one, ideal for most CAD and digital content creation tasks, but not quite as robust as the animation- and video-focused Quadro 4000 found in the S30: As a result, the Lenovo rocketed to the top of all our gaming tests, with the Z220 regularly finishing in second place. None of these computers is intended to be used for gaming, of course, but if you want to take maximum advantage of what potential exists, a faster video card on a workstation is?as on any other kind of computer?the best way to go.

By practically every other measure, the HP Z220 CMT Workstation is an impressive class leader that should help you muscle through your daily tasks with strength and speed?and it?s difficult to want too much more from it. If you need firmer 3D rendering chops, you can get them by upgrading to a system with a card like the Quadro 4000, but for most people the more mainstream (but still imposing) capabilities of the Quadro 2000 in the HP will be just fine. The Z220 replaces the slightly more expensive Dell Precision T1600 as our Editors? Choice, but we don?t anticipate you?ll want to replace it in your own office very soon after picking one up.

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