Compaq Evo W4000 review

The only disappointment becomes apparent when you look at the drive arrangement, with just a 16-speed DVD-ROM when a CD-RW or, even better, a DVD-R combo drive would have been more appropriate. The 40Gb Seagate hard disk is also far below expectations in an £1,899 machine - we'd expect two high-capacity disks in RAID formation to boost performance, as well as disk space, an example of which can be found in the cheaper Systemax Reliance P2400CP (see p109).

Value for money is the main issue with the Evo W4000 and, while the initial price of £1,449 seems cheap, you then need to add £479 for a monitor and £450 for the Quadro2 graphics card, bumping up the total to £2,378. There's no doubt that the Evo W4000 is ideal for OpenGL CAD work, but it's otherwise a sparse PC that's in desperate need of removable storage and more hard disk space. The SPECviewperf results, however, were very promising and it may well be worth your while giving Compaq a call when it launches its Quadro4 workstations in the future.

Author: Ben Hardwidge