Most office PC users already have the processing power necessary for day-to-day applications such as word processing, Web browsing, and e-mail. However, users involved in high end graphics and computing-intensive applications like 3-D imaging, geophysics, computer aided drafting (CAD), and scientific computation need more -- they require the processing power supplied by high-priced workstation computers.

Sun recently announced its Java Workstations, using AMD's Opteron 64 bit processors, are being touted as having the lowest prices that Sun has offered for a workstation. Sun's workstation comes in both single processor (model W1100z) and dual processor (model W2100z) models.

I looked at a single-processor W1100z model 150 with 1GB of RAM, one 80GB drive, and an nVidia FX500 video card. The unit will accommodate 4GB RAM, and 8GB when 2GB DIMMs are available.

Two USB 2.0, one FireWire, and audio ports are conveniently available on the front panel. The system board includes four PCI-100 slots and one PCI-300 slot, in addition to one AGP-Pro slot (which is occupied by the graphics card). All five PCI slots are unoccupied, leaving plenty of capacity for expansion. Also included is a Gigabit Ethernet port. The configuration sells for $3,195, not including a monitor.

Sun's workstations are available with your choice of operating systems... as long as your choice isn't Microsoft Windows. The workstations will run Sun's Solaris, RedHat Linux, and Sun's Java Desktop, all of which are 64 bit operating systems and take advantage of the Opteron processor. The machines are, of course, capable of running Windows XP, which is only available at this point as a 32bit operating system.

In order to compare the system to a more conventional desktop, I installed Windows XP Professional on the W1100z. My testing was simple, real-world, and to the point: I wanted to determine how much more productive a graphics professional could be using a W1100z compared to a 'standard' PC.

To answer the question I ran four image-intensive Adobe Photoshop tasks on each system. The results showed a clear performance advantage for the W1100z over a Dell 170L (3.2Mhz Pentium 4, 512MB RAM) -- no surprise. Interestingly, the two tests that were more graphically intensive ran in about a third the time on the Sun while the two that required less graphical manipulations showed about a 2:1 improvement.

In other words, while the results varied based on the intensity of the task, it appeared that those functions that require more CPU and graphics functions show the best improvement in execution when run on the workstation.

If you need to outfit your graphic artists or other users with processor or graphic intensive needs, take a look at Sun's W1100z. You'll see a performance boost over standard PCs and have room to expand as capacity requirements increase.