Review
HP Z1 workstation HP’s new all-in-one combines desktop workstation-class components with a stunning 27-inch LED backlit display. The results are incredible. Greg Corke drools over one of the most elegant, serviceable workstations he has ever seen.
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Back in its collapsed state, with the ll-in-one PCs have an obvious appeal — sleek lines, minimal screen horizontal and facing up, the Z1 is wires, and no tower to clutter up ready to do its party trick. By releasing the desk. The downside is you two front clips the screen can be lifted up, are pretty much stuck with the machine you car bonnet style, to reveal the components bought. Upgrading or servicing an all-in- inside. Unlike other all-in-ones, there are one may be the idea of a perfect Friday night no screws and no risk of scratching the in for an IT geek. For the rest of us, it is a screen by having to place it face down. nightmare of wires, leftover screws and The Z1 even has a hydraulic shock absorber to stop the screen slamming shut, tools that do not fit. The HP Z1 is a far cry from the main- though you would need some bravado to stream all-in-ones sold in PC World. properly put this to the test. Underneath the hood, everyDesigned from the ground up thing is incredibly well for serviceability, the 27-inch Product spec organised with hardly any integrated workstation is as ■ Intel Xeon E3-1280 wires in view. The custom functional as it is elegant. It is (3.5GHz) (Quad Core) power supply, GPU, hard an incredible feat of engineering ■ 8GB (2 x 4GB) drive(s), CPU, memory and and doesn’t its creator just know DDR3-1600 ECC memory DVD drive are all laid out nicely it. HP’s slick CG marketing vid■ HP mainboard from left to right. Simply pull on eos do an excellent job of show(Intel C206 chipset) a green lever and the part pops ing off the ‘power without the 4000 (2GB) graphics out. Everything bar the CPU is tower’ (tinyurl.com/HP-Z1■ 1TB 7,200 RPM incredibly easy to replace. D3D). The good news is, it is just SATA hard disk drive Blind mate connectors mean as impressive in real life. ■ Nvidia Quadro there is no messing when swapBut the Z1 is more than just a 1000M GPU (2GB) ping out drives. The caddy that wonderful balance of form and ■ 27” IPS LED backlit monitor (2,560 x holds a single 3.5-inch drive or function. It is a fully equipped 1,440 resolution) two 2.5-inch drives clicks in and workstation, certified to run all ■ Microsoft Windows out in seconds. This same level the leading CAD and BIM appli7 Professional 64-bit of serviceability also applies to cations. It has a workstation ■ 3 year worldwide the graphics card, a mobile class Intel Xeon CPU, up to parts, labour and next business day Nvidia Quadro GPU mounted 32GB ECC memory, high peronsite service in a desktop style housing. formance storage, a professional warranty Nvidia Quadro GPU and a top £2,431 The power within quality 27-inch 2,560 x 1,440 ■ hp.com/uk/z1 display. From the outside it may With all eyes on the tool-less look like an Apple iMac with a chassis it is easy to forget the black finish makeover, but the Z1 is a com- Z1’s other standout feature — its workstapletely different beast altogether. tion class components. Our test machine’s top-end 3.5GHz Intel Open all hours Xeon E3-1280 is ideal for mainstream The Z1’s convertible tool-less chassis is the CAD and, with four CPU cores, suitable star of the show. From its folded down state, for occasional rendering or simulation. The acoustics are impressive, with harda press of the green button at the front of the stand clicks things into action, releasing the ly any fan noise even when hammering all screen to move into its upright position. A four CPU cores in our 3ds Max rendering fair bit of force is needed here, and there is test. However, with a 400W power supply certainly a knack to expanding and collaps- and strict thermal limits there is no place ing, but the hinge feels strong and sturdy so for an eight core CPU, which will be disappointing for those heavily into rendering. do not be afraid to apply pressure.
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Downsizing the CPU is an option. A 3.3GHz Intel Xeon E3-1245 will save a fair bit of cash but only drops the GHz down a couple of notches. The dual core 3.33GHz Intel Core i3-2120 should really only be considered for entry-level 3D or 2D CAD. While all three ‘Sandy Bridge’ CPUs offer good solid options for CAD they are already slightly out of date. We would expect Intel’s new generation ‘Ivy Bridge’ chips to put in an appearance in the Z1 soon, as they have already in HP’s entrylevel desktop workstation, the Z220. For 3D graphics the Z1 has a multitude of options — a choice of four Nvidia Quadro mobile GPUs. The entry level Quadro 500M and Quadro 1000M are likely to be a little underpowered for mainstream CAD users. Indeed, our Quadro 1000M’s score of 22 in our SolidWorks graphics benchmark left us a little underwhelmed. For a little more oomph we would recommend a Quadro 3000M or 4000M, though a graphics upgrade, particularly to the Quadro 4000M, will push up the price a fair bit. It could be that the Z1 gets some new GPUs soon. HP already offers Nvidia’s new generation Kepler-based Quadro K1000M, K2000M, K3000M, K4000M and K5000M GPUs in its mobile workstations. The possibility of more 3D performance could be worth waiting for. 3D SolidWorks models viewed on the professional 27-inch HP DreamColor display are breathtaking. The 2,560 x 1,440 image is crystal clear, bright and incredibly responsive with virtually no ghosting when moving 3D models around on screen. The colours on the LED-backlit IPS panel are superb and the viewing angle is noticeably good. It stands shoulder to shoulder with Dell’s excellent UltraSharp U2711. With a DisplayPort port on the rear of the machine the Z1 could also be used as a monitor, hooking in a laptop or a more powerful workstation. The port also doubles as an output, so a secondary display could be used alongside, perhaps for CAE or rendering, or simply email and Web. www.AECmag.com
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