Although being a fantastic device to operate, the HP Z1’s very tiny casing has limited the expansion options to which workstation-class PCs typically strive. Moreover, this hardware platform has fallen in the speed rankings with the release of AMD Ryzen 3.
Pricing and accessibility
Although you may see the HP Z38c ultra-wide display in some of our photographs, this review is only focused on the workstation and does not discuss the monitor in any detail.
Also, we were informed that the Z38c monitor is no longer sold in the USA.
Straight from the HP Online store in the UK the review Z1 Workstation costs £2,062.80 inclusive of VAT, and it can be obtained elsewhere for a comparable price.
Although the Core-i9 processor is not a typical option in the States, Newegg offers a nearly identical computer to
The review hardware
Designers should choose design business workstations because they offer a greater level of performance than a standard desktop and can boost output.
With that goal in mind, HP built the Z1 on the Intel Q370 chipset and is able to provide it with a wide range of processors, starting with the budget-friendly Intel Pentium Gold G5620 and moving up through the sunnier uplands of the Intel 8th generation Core i3, i5, and i7 to the alpine peaks of the Intel 9th generation CPUs.
Although it may appear to be one from the outside, a Z1 with a Pentium inside isn’t in our opinion a true “workstation.”
The GPU choices range from the unimpressive Intel UHD integrated alternatives through a number of vintage NVIDIA Quadro cards, AMD Radeon RX and R7 models, and the most recent NVIDIA RTX options.
The Nvidia RTX 2080 video card was pre-installed on the review unit. Even while that isn’t the fastest GPU Nvidia has, it is still really quick.
The casing layout is typical for HP and is mostly tool-free thanks to certain hidden hinges and spring-loaded latches.
With two M.2 ports, two 3.5-inch, two 2.5-inch, and a half-height open bay for an optical drive or tape system inside, adding more memory and storage is simple. For those who still want discs, the device comes with a small laptop DVD drive installed.
The system can accommodate up to 64GB of DDR4 memory in four slots, however the review system had two slots filled with 16GB of RAM.
This is a fairly compact container with few alternatives for expansion as far as workstations are concerned. Thus, we advise anyone thinking about the Z1 to get it completely described up front because presuming that some features can be added later could be a mistake.
Hardware
The majority of the components in the review Z1 system would probably be installed if you cherry-picked the top components from Intel and Nvidia together with some premium RAM and extremely speedy NVMe storage.
The 9th generation Intel Core i9-9900 is an octa-core part that can run at 3.1GHz, turbo boosts to 5GHz and supports processing on up to 16 simultaneous threads. Although faster chips are available for individuals who desire to excel in one area, it offers an outstanding balance between single-threaded performance and multi-threaded operations.
The sibling Core i9-9900K chip is frequently preferred by gamers since it can be unlocked, however this system’s chipset does not support changing clock speeds in that way.
The Q370 chipset, a mid-range option that provides 24 PCIe lanes and up to 14 USB ports, is used on the HP motherboard on which the i9-9900 is installed.
On paper, this might appear to be a wise decision, but the Q370 has some drawbacks that hinder users who want to get the most out of this CPU and GPU combination.
For starters, the Q370 can’t split the 16 PCIe lanes from the Core i9 across numerous devices, preventing the possibilities of CrossFire or SLI from the outset. Moreover, it only supports PCIe 3.0 and not PCIe 4.0.
The Z1 only receives two PCIe 3.0 x16 slots with four endplates, which is a rather dismal PCIe slot allocation.
One of the slots uses the 16 PCIe lanes provided by the CPU, while the other uses 16 of the Q370’s 24 available lanes. That leaves just 8 lanes, and these are utilised in the two M.2 NVMe slots, 4 for each.
Even if you don’t use both M.2 spots, that design gives no open lanes for any 1x or 4x card slots. And since there is just one PCIe slot accessible, adding 10GbE networking is not possible without doing so.
The review system only came with a 500 watt PSU, which further discouraged purchasers from adding a second video card. A questionable amount of power for this system with just one Nvidia RTX 2080, and definitely not enough to install another video card of any kind.
The majority of the problems with the Q370 chipset are addressed with an 850-watt power supply and an Intel Z390-based motherboard in a typical gaming system with this price range. The Z1, however, receives the less expensive components that don’t provide the same amount of system flexibility because it was created for corporate customers.
