Claw back the cost of lost productivity with an HP Workstation

How the HP Z240 Small Form Factor (SFF) workstation can deliver significant ROI for users of AutoCAD®

Over the past few years, where the recession has led to many companies cutting expenditure across the board, a lot of AutoCAD users have been running the software on outdated machines, pushing them to their very limit. However, since AutoCAD has been subject to a rigorous overhaul (2015 saw the introduction of Autodesk), the potential of the software has been greatly enhanced. And yet, if run on old, lagging machines end users will not reap the many rewards of these developments, highlighting the need for a hardware upgrade. This is where the HP Z240 SFF workstation comes in and it won’t break the bank, while guaranteeing that users can use AutoCAD to its maximum potential and helping to boost ROI.

Since 2015, AutoCAD has become a one-stop 2D/3D visualisation program and as such places greater demands on the PC of the user. Models will occupy more space and require more RAM to run, rendering dual-core machines from 2012 and earlier wholly inadequate for the task. The pros of switching to up-to-date workstation-class machines are so great that they should be ignored at the peril of companies who value client relations, completing work to deadlines and in the end, their bottom lines. Increased power and reliability are both massive incentives to make the switch and bite the immediate bullet for the sake of a smoother process down the line. Such workstation models as the HP Z240 are practically future-proof.  Their chassis’ can be easily popped open to allow for Processor, RAM, Hard Drive and Graphic Card upgrades should further advancements in AutoCAD deem it necessary.

Fact: Crashes, lags and lost time all amount to a serious loss of money.

Behind every outdated PC struggling to run AutoCAD is a well-paid individual.  If the software is unable to run effectively and causes crashes, requires restarts and generally lags you could be talking about several hours a week of zero productivity.  Let’s say five, for arguments sake. Five hours a week over just 45 weeks a year is 225 lost hours. That equals serious bucks and definitely more than the cost of upgrading the machine, not to mention the probable loss of good will of many frustrated clients or the mental health of the employee! It doesn’t take a maths genius to work out that if your average hour is worth around £50, you are talking more than an £11,000 a year boost to your productivity should you eliminate those five lost hours! When you consider that the HP Z240 Small Form Factor retails at around £1,000 you can begin to form a solid argument against the “it’s too expensive to upgrade” argument.

Why the HP Z240 Small Form Factor?

Well, it’s surprisingly cheap as we’ve already established and it comes with a quad-core processor; a drive offering 1TB storage and a high-end graphics card, while the 16 GB ECC Memory boosts reliability On top of the 1TB you benefit from a 256 GB PCIe SSD Z Turbo Drive. SSD memory runs faster and in this case it will greatly improve the load speed of your software. The difference when running 2D models will be noticeable, while the difference in 3d modelling will be off the charts. One final advantage worth noting is the HP Remote Graphics Software (RGS). This comes as standard and means that AutoCAD users are able to access their workstation from the road via their laptop. If all of this isn’t enough to convince you that it’s time to make the upgrade, from both an ROI and common sense perspective, then nothing will!