MWL17,
Here's an aticle dated September 29, 2015: "HP Updates the World's No. 1 Entry-Level Workstation" and the article mentions: "The HP Z240 SFF and HP Z240 are expected to be available in November", meaning that if you have the first one sold, the "end of life" will be about 11 / 2018 or about 2Yrs. 8Mo.
However, in my experience tthe useful life of workstations is far longer. We have 11X HP z's and Dell Precisions 2007-2015 in excellent, 100% reliable order. The 2007 Precision 390 has a 100% reliability record- not one component has failed not has there ever been any data loss and the newest, a 2015 HP z420, has never skipped a beat. Changes have been made only to improve perofrmance for more demanding applications.
The MTBT of a Xeon E5 is 170,000 HRs. or 19.4 years continuous running. Of course, if the system is as an industrial control in a harsh enviroment, the life may be shortened.
A consultant that makes wind tunnel models using CNC cutting / milling systems and an 80W laser, and the control computers are subject to quite a bit of dust even with efficient dust control systems. Currently m the firm is using four Dell Precision T3400's purchased used for $25-50 - one was a gift from an aerospace company- and these have already lasted more than three years. Their projects involve the making of very accurate, scale wings, whole arcraft, and even orbital landers. One project was to test the behavior of solar panels in high winds.
As I'm always fussing with trying to improve the performance for 3D modelling and programs such as Mathematica, I've questioned the performance level of the T3400's, but they insist the T3400 is more system than necessary. The Solidworks STL sequences are relative simple- it's only one sequsence at a time following another- they could be non-hyperthreading 2-cores, and the CNC program is strictly XP-32-bit.
The firm is moving to 3D printing and from comments I expect they will probably move one generation to used T3500's or HP z400, but only when the T3400's become unreliable.
What is your use for the z240 and using which programs?
BambiBoomZ
CAD / 3D Modeling / Graphic Design:
HP z420 (2015) (Rev 3) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) / 32GB DDR3 -1866 ECC RAM / Quadro K4200 (4GB) / Samsung SM951 M.2 256GB AHCI + Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) + Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 2.1 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)
[ Passmark Rating = 5581 > CPU= 14046 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 4694 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16]
Analysis / Simulation / Rendering:
HP z620 (2012) (Rev 3) 2X Xeon E5-2690 (8-core @ 2.9 / 3.8GHz) / 64GB DDR3-1600 ECC reg) / Quadro K2200 (4GB) + Tesla M2090 (6GB) / HP Z Turbo Drive (256GB) + Samsung 850 Evo 250GB + Seagate Constellation ES.3 (1TB) / Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium PCIe sound card / 800W / Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z313 2.1 speakers > HP 2711x (27" 1980 X 1080)
[ Passmark System Rating= 5675 / CPU= 22625 / 2D= 815 / 3D = 3580 / Mem = 2522 / Disk = 12640 ] 9.25.16
[ Cinebench R15: OpenGL= 119.23 fps / CPU = 2209 cb / Single core 130 cb / MP Ratio 16.84x] 10.31.16