HP Compaq 8200 Elite Ultra-Slim: The Littlest Desktop
by Dustin Sklavos on September 29, 2011 10:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- IT Computing
- HP
- SFF
- Enterprise
Conclusion: Day to Day Workhorse
Not every build we get in house has to be glamorous, but there's a certain charm to a machine as small and inobtrusive as the HP Compaq 8200 Elite Ultra-Slim. Even on the enterprise side, not everyone is going to be doing CAD work and video editing or trying to power through Maya. There needs to be a client that fills the needs of any business, big or small--for people who just need a terminal to sit and work at.
If you're not space limited you can certainly save some dosh by going with one of the bigger, less specialized towers that HP (or Dell) offers, but it's hard not to like the 8200. This little computer is very good at what it does and well-designed for its intended purpose. It's something you can actually discreetly stash behind the monitor, where it will make virtually no noise, generate virtually no heat, and basically do its job without calling any attention to itself. For something like a library or school computer lab that just wants to get rows of computers in place, this is an excellent choice.
With that said, I do have a couple of quibbles. I would rather have seen DVI on the back instead of DisplayPort; HP sells DisplayPort adaptors to the major screen input standards, but DisplayPort itself is still rarefied, often showing up only on more expensive monitors while DVI is far more ubiquitous at every step of the ladder. And while enterprise machines tend to be about a step behind consumer machines in terms of connectivity, I still would've liked to have seen at least USB 3.0 connectivity on the 8200. Ten USB 2.0 ports are cute, but there's no high speed connectivity anywhere outside of the Gigabit ethernet.
Ultimately the HP Compaq 8200 Elite Ultra-Slim is a well-designed, even cute little machine that's well-suited to being a reasonably inexpensive client machine. If you don't need the quad-core processor you can always downgrade to an i3 and save a hundred bucks or so. You also get the standard 3-year onsite service, which can be helpful even for non-business users should anything go amiss. If something small and reasonably powerful is what you're looking for (ideally for a small business or a large number of terminals), the HP Compaq 8200 Elite Ultra-Slim should fit the bill nicely.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
41 Comments
View All Comments
pandemicide - Thursday, September 29, 2011 - link
You are also forgetting a lot of businesses use Windows. Adding the cost of a windows licence to the mac mini plus the complications of setting up a OSX/Windows environment and getting techs that know both.JarredWalton - Thursday, September 29, 2011 - link
Nihility, it's not a $917 configuration, unless you're going to just go straight to HP and give them whatever they ask. The exact same system configuration is available elsewhere for $770:http://www.costcentral.com/proddetail/HP_Compaq_El...
So twice the processing power, more USB ports, twice the RAM, and three times the warranty (with onsite service). The best price I can find for the base Mac Mini is around $570 online. You can get an upgraded unit with 6630M graphics and a faster (but still dual-core) CPU, with 4GB RAM for $760. Still one-year warranty, though.
http://www.ecost.com/p/6842243?CAWELAID=944624666
And let's not forget serviceability. Anyone here ever tried opening a Mac Mini for servicing? It's not a trivial affair, and once inside the layout isn't ideal either. Long-term, I'd also be a lot more skeptical of the Mac Mini's ability to stay cool if you're running a more intense load, which leads to component failures and downtime.
Given the choice, I'd say anyone going with Mac Mini in a large deployment instead of something like this HP 8200 Ultra-Slim is worried to much about looking cool and being "hip" than they are with reliability, service, and support.
bgnoz - Thursday, September 29, 2011 - link
As a Mac mini user for years, I'd venture to say you haven't used one. The latest versions put this HP kludge to shame... they're wonderfully designed, fast, cool, low-power, and not at all difficult to service. Stupid simple for RAM, and not that bad for drives for anyone with build experience.I'm not hip or cool... the latest i7 mini is a great machine, and has replaced my towers (Mac, PC, and Hackintosh) for all but the heaviest video work. I'd love to see how they stack up against this HP parts bin machine.
JarredWalton - Friday, September 30, 2011 - link
How exactly does a Mac Mini "put this to shame"? It's a bit smaller, perhaps, but what else does it do better? Sure, the 6630M is an okay GPU, but most businesses don't care one way or the other because HD 2000 or HD 3000 is more than sufficient. Heck, I worked at a large company that had thousands of PCs across dozens of locations (I supported about 200 at my particular location), and they would have been happy to stick with older IGP hardware just to reduce the potential gaming capability -- people were periodically caught playing 6+ year old games, because even GMA 900 was fast enough to run stuff like Half-Life!So again, what does Mac Mini do better? It doesn't support higher spec CPUs like quad-core offerings. It doesn't come with an onsite 3-year warranty. It runs slower for the same price (because of a slower CPU and less RAM). HDD performance is probably a wash. Oh, and you need to either run OS X (95% or more of businesses don't), or you have to do Bootcamp. Either way, you're generally stuck going through Apple for Windows drivers, right? None of that would be good for a business PC.
ciparis - Friday, September 30, 2011 - link
Playing devil's advocate here...The one they call a server model is $999, and comes with a quad-core CPU, if the workload demands it. Business discounts are available.
Also, even if you're going to discount the GPU for whatever reason (which is becoming more and more relevant in day to day use) you have to recognize there is a desirable balance between GPU and CPU performance in a SFF design; the mini isn't a gamer, either, but it's a well-balanced design even with a dual core CPU, giving you very good general desktop performance with current OS's.
Re: Boot Camp: these are standard PC components, and while you can get a driver bundle from Apple (just like with HP) you can also source your drivers however you like (preferably from the component manufacturer).
Anyway, you probably wouldn't have had people kvetching about it if you'd at least mentioned the mini in passing, since it's such a similar concept, except much smaller and generally extremely well-executed (look at Anand's review, for example).
JarredWalton - Friday, September 30, 2011 - link
For a home user, the GPU in the Mac Mini is a definite plus (assuming you get the model that includes the GPU). For a business, like I said it really doesn't matter to 99% of the business owners -- unless you want your employees playing more games? HD 2000 is already "too fast" in terms of power for a lot of businesses to be happy, so now they have to worry about locking the PCs down tighter. It's not a big issue for large companies with IT departments, but for the smaller outfits I'd be curious to see how much time gets wasted playing games. Then again, Solitaire, Minesweeper, Flash games, etc. are all sucking down productivity.Since you mention the $999 server version, that actually doesn't have the GPU, though it does have HD 3000 graphics. As a home user, I'd say the middle-of-the-road model is the best option, providing a decent balance. For a business, again, I don't see any (good) reason someone would go for the Mac Mini over a business class ultra-slim desktop. Okay, that's not entirely true: two things the Mac Mini has that this doesn't are native HDMI, and ThunderBolt, and the built-in power supply might also be preferable in some circles. Not sure if the Mac PSU is as energy efficient, though.
owan - Thursday, September 29, 2011 - link
In what usage case that this PC targets is a mac mini going to be better? If you tried to suggest deploying mac minis in an enterprise setting you'd get laughed out of the building. "far higher build quality" isn't really true either. its got a shiny outer case, but this HP is a well designed piece of enterprise hardware.LoneWolf15 - Thursday, September 29, 2011 - link
I agree.It's not even the question of being laughed out of the building. It's that Apple, in the past decade, made modest inroads into enterprise markets --and then in the past 24 months, has deliberately burned every bridge they built.
With that kind of behavior, I wouldn't touch them in the enterprise. They're fine one-off machines that are miserable in large-scale environments.
Pessimism - Friday, September 30, 2011 - link
Apple Troll is trolling.Provide one shred of proof of your claim of "far higher build quality". They probably both came out of the same plant at Foxconn.
Peroxyde - Thursday, September 29, 2011 - link
I notice that modern computers use less and less the DVD player. In business scenarios, the system admin can always arrange so that people can get around without a DVD drive.