Digital Archaeology: Hewlett Packard xw4100
The HP Workstation xw4100 was an entry level workstation featuring a Pentium 4 processor. Based on a bit of googling, it seems to have been a popular choice for video editors. At least I found a couple of generally positive reviews from video publications. This machine features:
- CPU: Pentium 4 @ 2.4 GHz (Northwood)
- RAM: 2 GB DDR-333
- Video: nVidia Geforce2 MX400
For more detailed hardware information, check out the reports from HWiNFO, CPU-Z or HardInfo.
Early versions of the Pentium 4 earned a pretty bad reputation as being expensive, underperforming power hungry CPUs. They weren't really much faster (and sometimes slower) than the Pentium III on a per MHz basis. The supposed advantage of the Pentium 4 was that it would be able to scale to very high clock speeds. It turned out that it couldn't really do that either.
Having said that, by the time the Northwood variant came along, the Pentium 4 had come into its own and if it couldn't outright beat the competition (primarily the Athlon XP at the time), then it could at least keep up. By the time the hyperthreaded Pentium 4s came along during this same generation, Intel had regained their lead.
For a Windows XP machine, a Pentium 4 is a great processor having plenty of speed for pretty much any game and fast for video editing too though at the time we were only talking about DVD resolution stuff. This machine has 2 GB of RAM which is plenty for most things. Windows XP can only see about 3.5 GB so it isn't like you can go all that much further anyway. However, you could upgrade this machine to 4 GB if you wanted to.
The weak spot in this machine is probably the Geforce2 MX 400. It's a pretty low end card for this machine and I suspect that it may not even be what originally came with it. In theory, this machine could run a 32-bit version of Linux reasonably well (given its age anyway) but unfortuantely, neither official nVidia drivers nor open source drivers seem to support this card properly. It seems to be limited to 1024x768 resolution and the video refresh is really slow. In theory, a newer card would fix this issue.
On the other hand, Windows XP still runs well. If you wanted to use it as a video editing machine for old DV stuff then it would be great. If you wanted to use it for gaming though, you would probably want to find a better AGP video card.
Other than upgrading the video card and expanding the RAM to 4 GB (which would be especially useful for Linux), you could also upgrade the CPU if you wanted to. It should support at least a 3.06 GHz hyperthreaded Pentium 4. I currently have both Linux and Windows XP installed. However, utnil I get a different video card installed, I'll probably stick to using Windows XP as it performs much better (and supports the proper resolution).
Like all of the machines I use, this one has BOINC installed and is participating in various projects including Einstein@home, Asteroids@home and World Community Grid. These seem to be the only three of the six projects I regularly participate in that still support 32-bit. You can see how it is doing overall at FreeDC.
Check out some of my other recent posts:
Vintage Photos - Lot 3 (577-580)
https://ecency.com/photography/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-lot-3-577-4b9da1f9767fb
Big K (August 1984)
https://ecency.com/retrogaming/@darth-azrael/big-k-august-1984
Vintage Photos - Lot 3 (585-588)
https://ecency.com/photography/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-lot-3-585
Home Computer Magazine Volume 4, Number 1 (1985)
https://ecency.com/retrocomputing/@darth-azrael/home-computer-magazine-volume-4
Vintage Photos - Lot 3 (581-584)
https://ecency.com/photography/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-lot-3-581
Advanced Computer Entertainment (October 1989)
https://ecency.com/retrogaming/@darth-azrael/advanced-computer-entertainment-october-1989
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Red Star Falling by Steve Berry.
A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry
The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Rick Atkinson
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It was a computer that was considered very powerful at the time. I remember that even today some people make music centers with these machines.
In Colombia, there's a company that does this work and has good videos on the subject, but I can't find one right now.
Wow, this is a true gem of digital archaeology! 🔍 The HP xw4100 is a fascinating piece of workstation history your deep dive into its specs and performance really brought it to life. It's amazing how these machines were once cutting-edge and still hold their own in specific tasks today. I appreciate how you blended technical insight with a bit of nostalgia definitely a treat for retro computing enthusiasts. Looking forward to more of your explorations from the golden age of silicon!
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