HP Z1 All-in-One Workstation PC: Review & Specs

The technical basis of this HP Z1 All-in-One workstation is convincing. It has the originality to provide access to internal components, and replace them if necessary. One big concern: the glossy screen disables the machine.

HP Z1 All-in-One

If the iMac is a machine suitable for careers in the image, numbers of applications that are used require more power, for 3D modeling or video encoding, for example. So far, only towers armed professional components available. With HP Z1 All-in-One, HP has finally an all-in-one powerful PC format. And that’s an understatement to say that expectations were high…

Reality

Nice, sleek and massive HP Z1 All-in-One PC is a great piece. Where the iMac plays the card of finesse, the HP Z1 seems to flex its muscles. And for good reason: the model that we had left in the hands behind the sheet of Mac: Xeon quadcore E3-1245, 16GB RAM and an NVIDIA 3000M Quadro professional graphics card. The large, but especially the heavy components that need more space – for integration and cooling – the components of classic all-in-one Apple.

Engineering high-flying

HP Z1 All-in-One

Two clicks, one bed and the screen opens to reveal the innards of the machine. Integration is flawless, everything is removable – graphics card, fans, power … – And this easy access to parts offer excellent prospects for updating and maintenance. Also interesting for the independent who wants to add RAM yourself for the technical support team of a company that will lose less time than the towers. HP has put all its expertise and the result is good to see.

Powerful

In terms of computing power, no surprise: the Quadro 3000M and the processor Xeon coupled to 16 GB of RAM work quickly, whether to make records video in Adobe Premiere CS6 or run batch processing of RAW files from Nikon D800 (36 Mpix!) 4 under Lightroom. Photoshop filters are, too, although accelerated.

So … all components are adequate

HP Z1 All-in-One

The resort has good potential, but many delays are felt. Blame the hard drive: instead of putting an SSD system and a disk platter Raid 0 for scratch files, HP has merely a single disk platter 500 GB for the system and files. Unacceptable, since this flange all the machine’s performance (disk access, writing to files, launching programs, etc.). We do not even understand how HP was able to let out such a configuration of its plants.

Inserting a SSD and two disks (say 1 TB each) increases certainly a little bill, but why spend thousands euros into machinery to curb its performance?

You will understand, the HP Z1 All-in-One offers a powerful potential, but we strongly encourage you not to overlook the SSD system if you want your investment makes sense.

The fatal flaw: the glossy screen

Probably for reasons of design, HP has chosen to place its very good 27 inch IPS panel 16/9 (2560 x 1440 points) behind a glass plate, which gives a beautiful look to the machine. The downside, it makes unbearable to use. Unlike Apple slabs with antiglare treatment is quite effective (note though that many petitions urge Apple to offer the option “matte panel” for its next generation iMac), the display of the HP Z1 is a mirror where everything is reflects, where any light source, the least shadow that passes just interfere with concentration and, simply, good visibility of the user. After three hours of photo processing on this machine, migraine is widely felt. A really bad choice and a real failure.

Ups, downs

A swivel webcam, USB ports available on the side (unlike the iMac), opportunity to turn the screen as desired: HP has treated some small details that would like to see more often from some other manufacturers. As for regrets, there’s no e-Sata port or Thunderbolt (pro on a machine, it made sense) and the USB ports on the underside of the machine are not more accessible.

The verdict

HP Z1 All-in-One looks impressive, it catch the eyes in one go. But everything is spoiled when you will use, display is (too) bright screen from ruining the quality of work done by the engineers at HP. Because the quality is there, as the side of modularity, that the choice of components or performance. It only remains to HP to fix this problem and propose the display. It was all regarding HP Z1 All-in-One PC, if you have any query then, feel free to ask.

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