No Surprise: HP is Number One in Workstations. Where’s the Mac Pro?

NYC Production & Post News by Joe Herman

Everybody likes to be right now and again. Sometimes it’s easy to do too.

It really came as no surprise when I heard that industry research firm IDC reported that, for the first time, HP both leads U.S. market share in the desktop workstation category and was the global share leader during the second quarter of 2012.

You see, I’ve been keeping my eye on HP’s workstation line for some time. No surprise there either, as I’ve used PCs in my work for years. Over that time I’ve witnessed how HP’s engineering department consistently turns up with designs that I feel create the most powerful, user-friendly machines in the pro production and post market.

I’ve written about how much I like the Z820. That’s not too hard, since it offers a mix of potent dual eight core liquid-cooled Xeon processors, PCI 3.0, and a thoughtfully designed architecture that won’t, for example, destroy your knuckles when you need to change a graphics card or two.

The HP Performance Advisor application is another good move, as having an easy, graphical way to configure your workstation BIOS is a plus. The program also interfaces with an HP database to check driver certification and BIOS settings for your desired applications so you’re always up-to-date. Finally, on site warranty repairs–unlike what Apple offers–also make HP workstations key to a work-a-day pro. read more...