HP Z1 workstation

from AEC Magazine July / August 2012

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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.

All-in-one PCs have an obvious Back in its collapsed state, with the 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 absorbtools that do not fit. er to stop the screen slamming shut,

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. Designed from the ground up Underneath the hood, everyfor serviceability, the 27-inch Product spec thing is incredibly well integrated workstation is as organised with hardly any functional as it is elegant. It is an incredible feat of engineering and doesn’t its creator just know ■ Intel Xeon E3-1280 (3.5GHz) (Quad Core) ■ 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 ECC wires in view. The custom power supply, GPU, hard drive(s), CPU, memory and it. HP’s slick CG marketing vid- memory DVD drive are all laid out nicely eos do an excellent job of show- ■ HP mainboard from left to right. Simply pull on ing off the ‘power without the (Intel C206 chipset) a green lever and the part pops tower’ (tinyurl.com/HP-Z1- 4000 (2GB) graphics out. Everything bar the CPU is D3D). The good news is, it is just ■ 1TB 7,200 RPM SATA hard disk drive incredibly easy to replace. as impressive in real life. ■ Nvidia Quadro Blind mate connectors mean

But the Z1 is more than just a 1000M GPU (2GB) there is no messing when swapwonderful balance of form and ■ 27” IPS LED backlit ping out drives. The caddy that function. It is a fully equipped monitor (2,560 x holds a single 3.5-inch drive or workstation, certified to run all 1,440 resolution) two 2.5-inch drives clicks in and the leading CAD and BIM appli■ Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit out in seconds. This same level cations. It has a workstation ■ 3 year worldwide of serviceability also applies to class Intel Xeon CPU, up to parts, labour and the graphics card, a mobile 32GB ECC memory, high per- next business day Nvidia Quadro GPU mounted formance storage, a professional Nvidia Quadro GPU and a top onsite service warranty in a desktop style housing. quality 27-inch 2,560 x 1,440 £2,431 The power within display. From the outside it may ■ hp.com/uk/z1 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. a press of the green button at the front of the The acoustics are impressive, with hardstand 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 disapdo not be afraid to apply pressure. pointing for those heavily into rendering.

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.

The Z1 display pops ups, just like a car bonnet, making it incredibly easy to service ● A Lid release clips ● B Hydraulic shock absorber ● C PSU ● D GPU ● E CPU ● F RAM (four DIMM slots) ● G DVD drive ● H Hard drive(s) ● I Dual-cone stereo speakers ● J 2 USB 3.0, 1 IEEE 1394a, mic, headphone, 4-in-1 media card reader ● K Stand release button

I B

H D A

K I

Compared to a standard desktop the Z1’s only real trade off is with storage, impacting those who store data locally as opposed to a server. With a choice of one 3.5-inch drive (up to 2TB SATA 7,200RPM drive) or two 2.5-inch drives (300GB - 600GB SATA 10K or 160GB — 300GB SSD), it is not possible to have large capacity and high performance without paying big bucks.

Desktop workstations that offer a combination of SSD or 10k SATA (for OS and apps) with a high capacity SATA (for data) have a big advantage here.

A single SSD with a high capacity external drive plugged into one of side mounted USB 3.0 ports would do a job, but it is not an elegant solution.

More ports are available at the rear of the machine, but sadly these are only USB 2.0. Firewire (IEEE 1394a) and Gigabit LAN also comes as standard, and for those that are happy to trade off transfer rates for a completely wireless experience, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wireless LAN is included.

It would be a crime to ruin the Z1’s good looks with a wired mouse and keyboard, an offence committed by the suppliers of our review machine. However, a relatively low cost upgrade to an HP Wireless Keyboard and Mouse would instantly remedy this. Conclusion The HP Z1 is an exceptional machine — compact, good looking and easy to service — everything you would want from an allin-one. But it also offers buckets of power for mainstream CAD, boasts an incredible 27-inch IPS display and with ISV certification there is full support when running all types of CAD/CAM/CAE software.

Before this review becomes a big Z1 lovein, it is probably time for a little perspective.

The lack of flexibility in storage could be an issue for some users. CAD data is not getting any smaller, and it is a shame users have to choose between capacity and performance, or pay a big premium for both.

It is also a big shame the Z1 is limited to four CPU cores. Eight core chips are great for rendering and by not giving this option the Z1 is less likely to appeal to AEC firms heavily into design visualisation.

But perhaps the biggest barrier to buying into the Z1 dream is price. Compared to a standard workstation / monitor combo, it is clear that there is a premium to pay for the Z1’s innovative design. A Dell Precision T1650 of a similar specification, plus a Dell UltraSharp U2711 comes in a few hundred pounds cheaper. Plus in a few years when the workstation reaches end of life, you can keep hold of the IPS display and just upgrade the workstation.

But you cannot put a price on elegance. All things considered if we had the money we would dump our desktop workstations in a flash. The Z1 offers a unique proposition in what has become a somewhat predictable workstation market. However, before parting with our hard earned cash we would certainly wait to see if the next generation Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs come on board.

InterPro IPW-iB [i5] the top end Core i7 3770K, users will notice very little difference when performing core workstation CAD tasks. The real differentiator will come when using a ray trace renderer. Here, the

A good all round mobile workstation about to get better with an Ivy Bridge upgrade.

Mobile workstations with powerful GPUs are great if you are seriously into design vizualisation, but the Nvidia Quadro 5010M is wasted on the average CAD user.

The 2GB Quadro 3000M in Workstation Specialists’ (WS) latest mobile workstation offers a much better balance of price / performance. While Nvidia might market it as ‘high-end’ it is probably better matched to mainstream 3D CAD workflows.

Working alongside the Quadro is an Intel Core i7 2760QM (Sandy Bridge). This mainstream CPU runs at 2.4GHz but turbo boosts to 3.5GHz where possible. When all four cores are running flat out — as in our rendering test — it never gets this high, soon settling on 2.7GHz as the chip heats up.

We were a touch disappointed that our Core i7 3770K’s support for Hyperthreading A well-rounded low cost workstation for would give it a significant advantage over CAD based on Intel’s new Ivy Bridge CPU the Core i5 3570K. For those that focus solely on Building You do not have to spend a fortune on Information Modelling (BIM), the hardware for entry-level 3D Core i5 is the logical choice. CAD. At just under £900, Product spec Backed up with 8GB RAM, InterPro’s latest IPW-iB [i5] there is enough capacity to workstation is a testament to ■ Intel Core i5 3570K (3.4GHz) (Quad Core) work with mid-sized models this, combining new technolo- (Ivy Bridge) across multiple gy in processor, graphics and ■ 8GB (2 x 4GB) applications. For storage to good effect. DDR-3 1600MHz graphics, the

The system is built around (PC3-12800) memory AMD FirePro Intel’s brand new ‘Ivy Bridge’ ■ Intel DH77KC mainboard V4900 (1GB) is processor, a small improvement ■ 120GB Intel 330 an ideal partner over its ‘Sandy Bridge’ predeces- Series SATA3 SSD — enough GPU sor, bringing lower power con- ■ AMD FirePro power to make sumption and a small increase V4900 (1GB GDDR5) sure complex in performance to the table. graphics models move

InterPro has not gone all out ■ Microsoft Windows smoothly on with Ivy Bridge for this review 7 Professional 64-bit screen and, for machine. In order to hit the sub £900 price point, it has opted ■ 3 years return to base warranty (incl parts and labour) those that like working with extended deskfor a mid-range model — the £880 tops, support for three displays 3.4GHz Core i5 3570K (quad ipworkstations.com through AMD Eyefinity. core). Only 0.1GHz slower than Some may find our test machine a bit light in terms of storage capacity. With a single 120GB Intel 330 Series SSD, InterPro has designed this machine for use in an environment where data is mostly stored on a server. For those that need more gigabytes, InterPro can add a high-capacity SATA drive without too much expense.

Boasting 500MB/s (read) and 450MB/s (write), the brand new Intel drive certainly offers much for an entry-level workstation. From a standing start, the machine booted in a mere 21 seconds and felt responsive throughout with applications and datasets loading quickly. InterPro also offers an overclocked version of this machine (the K suffix of the Core i5 3570K CPU denotes that the chip is fully unlocked). This would push up the overall system cost to just under £1,000 but would probably boost performance by around 20%-30%. A worthwhile investment in our eyes, but sub £1,000 or sub £900, the choice is yours. If you are in the market for a low cost machine for CAD or BIM the IPW-iB [i5] looks to be an

Workstation Specialists M1550

excellent proposition. Greg Corke test machine did not come kitted out with the price considerably. Standard SATA one of Intel’s new ‘Ivy Bridge’ chips. WS had drives are also offered and with 3 x USB planned to include a Core i7 3720QM, but and an eSATA port for connecting external was unable to get one in time. The new Ivy disks there are plenty of storage options. Bridge chips will be available by the time The chassis is pretty standard fare. The you read this article and, the good news is, at backlit keyboard features a full numeric keyno extra charge. pad, which is great for CAD, and the track-

On paper, the Core i7 3720QM pad’s two finger multi touch runs a bit faster (2.6GHz, turbo Product spec scrolling is a welcome inclusion. boosting to 3.6GHz), so we There is a little too much travel would expect a small but signifi■ Intel Core i7 2760QM (2.4GHz) on the trackpad buttons for our cant increase in the overall per- (Quad Core) liking, but most CAD users will formance of the machine. ■ 16GB PC3-1333MHz use an external mouse so this

Considering this is a mobile DDR-3 memory should not matter too much. A workstation, there is no com■ 120GB Intel 520 Series SATA3 Solid State Drive (SSD) fingerprint reader sits in between the trackpad buttons promise when it ■ Nvidia Quadro to help secure sensitive data. comes to memo- 3000M (2GB) GPU The 15.6-inch HD screen is ry. 16GB (up to a ■ Microsoft Windows high-gloss and delivers a qualimaximum of 7 Professional 64-bit ty image. External displays or 32GB) means it ■ 15.6” W-UXGA projectors can be connected via can handle some (1,920 x 1,080) LED display DisplayPort, HDMI or DVI. sizeable datasets. ■ 3.1kg The WS-M1550 is a good allStorage is not ■ 376x256x35-43mm round mobile workstation for massive — a 120GB ■ 36 months parts mainstream CAD. With the Intel 520 series SSD — and labour warranty Nvidia Quadro 3000M there but, with 550 MB/s (read) and £1,855 is a good balance of price / per520 MB/s (write), performance workstation formance and at 3.1kg it is light is excellent. Higher capacity specialists.com enough for everyday use on SSDs are available but push up the road. Greg Corke