Workstation Spotlight Review – The HP Z1 All in One Workstation – Power Without The Tower

You may have heard me discussing the HP Z1 workstation recently. That’s because I’ve had the pleasure of using one for several weeks now, thanks to the kind folks at HP. The Z1, the first of it’s kind, all-in-one workstation from HP is a gorgeous machine, conveniently packaged in one solid bundle, and offers the power and flexibility demanded by any technology professional.

 Now don’t get me wrong, anyone could use and love the Z1, however, at a starting price in the low $2,000 range, the device can be heavily customized to cost well over $5,000 and as a result is ideally targeted at the power user or as an enterprise solution. Note, a number of other lower end "all in one" solutions may be found from the likes of Samsung, Toshiba, Lenovo, and others, however, the devices from those makers would be classified in a category that is far inferior to the enterprise class HP Z1. Of interest, the Z1 line of workstations are considered an "entry" level to the HP Commercial workstation family and a "step down" from the traditional tower workstations

Upon first glance, the Z1 is best described as having a sleek, industrial design (you’ll immediately think to yourself, workhorse!). Graphics and design professionals accustomed to using powerful workstations will likely be very attracted to this solution as is offers power/speed and best of all, no tower required! According to HP the Z1 is ideally targeted at computer-aided design, digital media, entertainment professionals, and naturally, the GIS/geospatial and imaging crowd. Highly configurable, the Z1 supports a range of workstation-class graphics cards and processors

Outside the box

Upon delivery you’ll be pleased to see just one box, a very large box! Because the all-in-one is just one component you’ll get everything you need inside one box – handy! This makes packing up and moving the Z1 around a relatively simple task to accomplish. The box is a very sturdy, thick cardboard and lined with 1"+ of rigid foam offering some decent protection – I’m not sure I’d let United airlines baggage dudes toss it around though! The Z1 isn’t exactly a portable, however, it is pretty simple to move to a new location should you have the need to do so. This will be very handy should you frequently move around your office, need to share the device around a team of designers, or even take it home for the week-end. In my mind this makes the workstation a very nice option for any user that may have the need to relocate the workstation to a new desk or perhaps to a meeting room for demonstration purposes.

Unboxing

Having just one box means a simple task to ship, although you should keep in mind that a box that is roughly 3ft x 2ft x 1ft in dimensions and weighing more than 50 lbs will cost you a pretty penny to ship and may take up some valuable space but it is a viable option should you have the need to do so (likely cheaper than the alternative of renting a machine at a costly conference venue). Once the Z1 is pulled out of the box (I simply slit open a slot, flipped the box over and slid it off) you have a very solid, and attractive workstation. The device lies flat for convenient packaging and then tilts into the upright position supported by a sturdy built-in stand. A wireless keyboard and mouse come in the box as well as one power cable… that’s it! Flip up the Z1, plug it in and power it on… that’s it. You’ll need to run through the customary initial setup of your operating system (entering time zone, language etc…) and provide any required Internet connectivity information. Once these simple steps are done you are up and running immediately.  

The Z1 packed up in the box is pretty large but definitely manageable by one person. Getting the unit out of the box is simple and fast. Once out of the package the Z1 is lying flat for you to adjust. For a first time user this is a little awkward. I found I was staring at the unit and wondering to myself, "OK, now what?" Ideally, at this point you would place the flat workstation on the surface where it will be used. Then comes the tilting. I found myself tugging, pulling, twisting, and leveraging, attempting to get the device into the upright, workable position. The Z1 is a little stiff out of the box and honestly, I was fighting the urge to pull very hard, after all, this is a $3,000 (almost) machine. Eventually I managed to flip the monitor into the upright position and once that is done, the Z1 is then pretty easily raised and lowered and tilted. There will be 2 reasons for most users to have to manipulate the position of the large screen: the Z1 will need to be laid flat in order to access the computer hardware. You may also have a need to tilt and/or raise the monitor slightly in order to access some of the hardware ports. The Z1 is essentially all monitor and it is a very sharp looking device so you’ll definitely be the envy of the office once setup on a desk. The 27" monitor is very high resolution, extremely bright and crisp. Your workspace is keep very clean as the Z1 has just one cord that will be dangling, the power cord, USB and A/V ports, an SD card slot, power button, and DVD drive are all found on the right side and very easily accessible. When first powered up and Windows quickly loads, I have no doubt that any user will be staring at the screen and thinking to him/herself, "WOW"

Up/Down

The Z1 is contained in an all-in-one chassis and sits on a sturdy rigid, plastic stand that folds allowing users to lay the screen flat and snap then snap open the chassis to access the hardware and other components (somewhat oddly, the Bluetooth USB for the wireless mouse and keyboard is mounted/inserted to a port inside the box). The stand is much more rugged and durable than it may first appear and you may be tempted to go easy on it, however, to lift and re-position the heavy weight of the monitor you’ll need to really wrench on it – somewhat intimidating the first few attempts – eventually you’ll be comfortable manipulating it up and down. The stand is more than a foot deep so allow for ample desktop space to house the relatively large stand and take into account that your work surface will need to be able to support the 50lb weight!

What you get in the box

• A comfortable, wireless 2 button HP mouse (with scroll wheel)
• Wirelss HP keyboard (USB dongle provided and must be inserted inside the machine)
• Large, high resolution 27" HP monitor with 1 billion color display
• NVIDIA Quadro graphics
• Intel Xeon processors
• ECC memory
• Professional 3D graphics support
• quad-core Intel Xeon processors
• whisper-quiet acoustics
• Tool-less chassis
• Professional display
• Workstation-class storage
• High-fidelity audio
• HD Webcam
• Native Windows pr Linux
• Comes with 3yr standard manufacturer warranty
• Available Globally
• See complete HP Z1 package contents below
  
  

Pricing starts at $1899.00 in the US and can be customized and beefed up to a $5+ K machine for those so inclined

The configuration of the HP Z1 I received was as follows (coming in retail at less than $2800):

• HP Z1 Microsoft Windows Workstation
• Windows 7 Professional 64
• Intel Xeon E3-1225v2 3.2 GHz (up to 3.6 GHz) 8MB 77W GT2 4C CPU
• NVIDIA Quadro 1000M 2GB UEFI Graphics
• 8GB DDR3-1600 ECC (4x2GB) Unbuffered RAM
• 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 1st Hard Drive
• Slot Load 8X SuperMulti DVDRW Drive
• HP Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
• HP 3/3/3 Warranty

I had the good fortune of meeting up with the HP team at the 2012 ESRIUC in San Diego for a first look at the HP and got a detailed look inside the workstation.

The HP Z1 packs a punch and much to the delight of the technical user is available in Windows or Linux. The Z1 is powered Intel Xeon and Core multi-core processors (think Intel C206 chipset, Gen2 PCI Express Interconnect). Memory shouldn’t be a problem for users thanks to the 4 available slots that will each accomodate an 8 GB memory card for a total of 32 GB RAM. The Z1 runs on DDR3 1600 MHz ECC-protected DIMMs. Storage of data is enabled by 2 SATA ports (SATA 7.2K & 10K, SSD) and RAID 0,1 are available as options.

Energy Efficient

Related and useful weblinks

• Hands On First look – HP All in One Workstation – Portable, Powerful, and Affordable!
• Wow technology at ESRIUC from HP – Eprinter Technology, Thin Clients, Workstations and More
• 2012 #ESRIUC Exhibitor Spotlight – HP Booth #1401
• HP Z1 Workstation Now Shipping Worldwide
• HP Introduces World’s First 27-inch All-in-One Workstation
• HP Z1 Workstation page from HP
  
• Slideshow