HP Announces Six Core Istanbul Workstation
HP has announced that starting today, customers purchasing the company's xw9400 will now have the option to add AMD’s six core Istanbul processors, allowing for 12 cores in one system.
"HP understands the immense pressure its customers are under to deliver more return on investment in a shorter period of time," said Jeff Wood, director of Worldwide Marketing for workstations at HP. "By providing the most extreme combination of technologies – up to 12 cores in one workstation – HP continues its commitment to bringing customers leading-edge technologies."
Launched last month at Computex Taiwan, the six core Opterons are said to offer an increase in performance of up to 34 percent, while using a similar amount of power to AMD's quad core Opterons. Packing an ATI FirePro V7750 GPU, HP's press release states that the xw9400 has a starting price of $1,899. However, a quick visit to the HP website puts the entry-level version of the xw9400 at $2,599 with a quad core processor. Whether it’s down to human error or HP not updating the site yet, we don’t know but we’ll update as soon as we figure things out.*
*Our lovely commenters figured things out for us. Hat tip goes to bk420 for the link to the base model HP was referring to, which appears to be a special offer. Click here for the deets.

This will be an amazing workstation.
I noticed they have LIQUID COOLING on some models... AMAZING
I second that.
If money grows on tree I'll need a forest to have HP charge me this kind of workmanship.
As a former employee, I must add my 2¢. From my short stint with them, I was very impressed with their corporate beliefs, etc. It's the implementation that needs work. The people. That's the key. The product line is also not the 'back of the pack' either. HP offered Linux installations and support ahead of the field. Also, niche products like this workstation are usually marginally profitable (except for the free publicity generated by threads like this boosting their mainstream stuff), so it takes cajones to even offer this product, im (not so)ho.
We all build our own rigs, so I understand the impulse to flame any big OEM.
What about Gorillas in QBasic for DOS? That's hardcore!
When did Intel release their 6 core server chip?
Sure it costs more than that HP/AMD system for a single chip, but still...