Chassis Design - HP xw4550 Frequently Asked Questions Manual

What optical drives are
available with the HP xw4550?
What software is bundled with
these drives?
Does the HP xw4550 offer
and support SATA 3.0 Gb/s
hard drives?
Does the HP xw4550 support
Serial ATA (SATA) RAID?
What is the value of Native
Command Queuing or NCQ?
Are Serial Attached SCSI drives
and controllers offered on the
HP xw4550?

Chassis design

Is the chassis for the HP
xw4550 the same chassis used
on the HP xw4600? Is it stilll
convertible
What ports does the HP
xw4550 have on the
front bezel?
The following table outlines what optical drives are currently available and what software is bundled with
each drive.
• Support on Windows XP 32-bit,
Vista Business 32-bit, Vista Business 64-bit
• CTO, apps are preinstalled
Create data & music CDs/DVDs • Roxio Easy Media Creator 9
Create video CDs/DVDs • Roxio Easy Media Creator 9
Play DVDs and video files • WinDVD Player 5
Back up files or entire system • HP Backup and Recovery (SoftThinks)
*Actual speeds may vary. Does not permit copying of commercially available DVD movies or other copyright protected materials. Intended for creation and stor-
age of your original material and other lawful uses. Doublelayer discs can store more data than single-layer discs. However, double-layer discs burned with this
drive may not be compatible with many existing single-layer DVD drives and players. LightScribe creates a monochrome image. LightScribe media required and
sold separately. Note that DVD-ROM cannot read or write to 2.6 GB Single-Sided/5.2 GB Double-Sided—Version 1.0 media.
Yes. The HP xw4550 has an integrated 4-channel SATA 3.0 Gb/s controller for Serial ATA hard drives and optical drives.
We offer the following SATA 3.0 Gb/s hard drives: 80 GB, 160 GB, 250 GB, and 500 GB (7200 rpm). As noted above,
we will offer SATA versions of DVD-ROM (SATA) and DVD+/-RW Double Layer, Supermulti (SATA) with LightScribe Direct
Disc Labeling optical drives.
Yes. The chipset used on the HP xw4550 has integrated 4-channel SATA controller with Native Command Queuing
(NCQ) and RAID support for RAID 0, (striped) and RAID 1 (mirrored). You can choose to have a high performance
RAID 0 array of hard drives where data is striped across multiple hard drives (this RAID method greatly improves data
access times and system performance). You can also choose to have a highly reliable RAID 1 array of hard drives,
where data is duplicated to multiple hard drives at once (this RAID method essentially creates a backup copy of all your
data in real time).
NCQ is a performance enhancement for hard drives. NCQ reorganizes read/write commands in such a way that they
can be executed in a more efficient manner than typical synchronous execution. NCQ performance improvement is highly
dependant on the type of application and load, but can be as high as 20%.
No. Customers interested in SAS or 10k RPM SATA hard drives can find an outstanding selection on the HP xw4550 and
other higher performance HP workstations.
Yes. The HP xw4550 uses the same highly engineered chassis as the HP xw4600. The HP xw4550 is housed in an
intelligently designed chassis with tool-less access for ease of servicing, upgrading and maintenance. It is still convertible
from a desktop orientation to a minitower orientation. The HP xw4550 is rackable and shelving kits are available.
The front bezel on the HP xw4550 has the following ports available: (1) IEEE 1394a port*, (2) USB 2.0 ports, (1) micro-
phone port, and (1) headphone port.
*The IEEE 1394a port is only active when the optional IEEE 1394 PCI card is installed in the system.
2007 optical apps set
DVD+/-RW Double Layer
DVD-ROM SuperMulti* (SATA) with
(SATA) LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling
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