HP introduces new desktop PC ranges, models

IDG News Service - Hewlett-Packard Co. introduced two new desktop PCs for small business and enterprise customers, Tuesday, and reorganized its commercial PC ranges in a move that it claimed will simplify things for customers.

The reshuffle groups PCs into basic, mainstream and advanced ranges, the HP Compaq 2000, 5000 and 7000 series, the company said. On Monday, HP revamped its server range for small and medium-size businesses.

HP will sell the new business PCs alongside the current d200, d300 and d500 business PC product lines, said David Hemphill, a product manager with HP.

The first model in the 2000 series, the dx2000, comes in a compact microtower case, 356mm high by 180mm wide by 396mm deep, with eight Universal Serial Bus 2.0 ports, the company said. It can be ordered with Intel Corp.'s processors ranging from a 2.6-GHz Celeron to a 3-GHz Pentium 4, according to the company's Web site. The base model dx2000 ships with 128MB of double data rate synchronous dynamic RAM DDR SDRAM, and it can hold up to 1GB. The machine is available with hard disk drives from 40GB to 80GB in capacity, a choice of optical drives and either Mandrake Linux or the Home or Professional versions of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP operating system, according to HP. The cheapest configuration will cost around $389 in the U.S., the company said.

HP promises that the other new model, the dc5000, will have a lifecycle of at least 12 months. It is available in two case designs: small form factor and microtower. Like the dx2000, the dc5000 can be ordered with Celeron or Pentium 4 processors running at up to 3GHz. The dc5000 can be fitted with up to 4GB of DDR SDRAM, a hard disk up to 160GB in capacity, a choice of optical drives and either Mandrake Linux or Windows XP Home or Professional operating systems, the company said.

The dc5000 will simplify life for IT managers, HP said: Both case designs can be opened and components added or replaced without the need for tools, and the company offers its HP Lifecycle Solutions management tools to help in deploying and maintaining the systems. HP can also notify users of any hardware changes that may affect their software image through its Product Change Notification service, it said.

A bottom-of-the-range dc5000 will cost around $599 in the U.S., HP said.

Eventually, the Palo Alto, Calif., company wants to guarantee IT managers that they will ship business PCs with a stable platform for at least six months on the low-end machines or 12 to 15 months on the