Quad core i3?
Surely you jest...
Hewlett-Packard has freshened its desktop and mobile workstations with new Intel six-core "Westmere-EP" Xeon 5600 . The move follows an early March update to the company's business notebook lineup that saw the addition of Intel's latest Core i3, i5, and i7 processors. By Intel's reckoning, the Westmere-EPs offer about 45 per …
"HP also kicked out a new small form factor workstation called the Z2000 SFF.... What makes this is workstation instead of a desktop PC in a tower case is not clear. Prices start at $739 for a base configuration"
I believe you had already answered this question above: "...executives think they need one because their egos demand it."
What better way to satisfy their egos than to hand them a "workstation" that is even the fancy SFF, and have it be just about as cheap as a regular old SFF business model?