MSI Launches Small But Mighty Z87I Gaming AC and GTX 760 Gaming ITX Motherboard and Graphics Card Combo

Compact motherboard, meet compact graphics card. MSI announced a sweet-looking mobo/GPU one-two punch that offers a mini-ITX motherboard and a commensurately-sized graphics card to better enable users to put together a compact yet powerful gaming system.

The MSI Z87I Gaming AC supports Intel’s 4th-gen (Haswell) processors and features a Killer E2205 gigabit NIC that includes built-in 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, and Intel WiDi. There are five SATA 6Gbps ports, one eSATA 6Gbps port, and a single PCIe 3.0 x16 slot.

It also has six USB 3.0 and four USB 2.0 ports, as well as 8-channel audio and DisplayPort, HDMI, and DL-DVI-I.

The companion to the Z87I Gaming AC is the GTX 760 Gaming ITX GPU, a 17cm card which offers a 1006/1072 MHz base clock, 2048MB GDDR5, and 6008MHz speed with a 256-bit interface. The card adds to the motherboard’s video inputs with its own mini-DisplayPort, HDMI, and DL-DVI-D ports.

Via: MSI | News Archive | 

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NVIDIA Fan in Bejing Builds a 6ft Replica GeForce GTX 690 Using Over 11,000 Legos

There are many things you could build with 11,396 Lego pieces, but for Xiaosheng Li, a 23-year-old freelance writer for Chinese websites and an avid NVIDIA fan, there was only one thing on his mind. He wanted to build a replica GeForce GTX 690 graphics card, so in July he created a digital mockup using Lego modeling software. Three months later, he had accomplished his goal.

According to NVIDIA, the 23-year-old writer came up with the idea after seeing a "crude model of a competing company's graphics card" that also used Legos. Being an NVIDIA fan, he wanted to make a better looking model. It appears he succeeded, having built a realistic looking replica that measures almost 6 feet long, more than two feet wide, and has a working fan.

"I think I have already qualified to become history’s most powerful Nfan," Li wrote in Chinese-language forum post.

Since constructing the giant size replica, which by the way is built to scale, Li has been able to visit NVIDA's headquarters in Santa Clara, California and meet the company's CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, who gave him an autograph.

Via: NVIDIA | News Archive | 

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Watch Out for Seagate Drives Allegedly Sold Under the Supertron Name with No Warranty

You may not have heard of Supertron Electronics before, but over in India, the company's name is much better known. Supertron has a longstanding relationship with Seagate which, for thirteen years, existed as an import partner and sub-distributor. In 2006, Supertron became an official Seagate National Distributor, giving Seagate an extended presence in India and local areas.

Apparently some unscrupulous folks have decided to take advantage of both company's good names. According to Supertron Electronics, gray market dealers are importing fake Seagate hard drives, rebadging them as Supertron models, and then selling them inside and outside of India with seemingly favorable warranties.

Seagate's normal warranty period for external HDDs is 3 years in India and 2 years outside India. The gray market dealers are selling their fake drives, complete with duplicated product and packaging, with 3-year warranty periods outside India.

"Such a fake warranty period is attracting the customers. Since it is matching with India's warranty period which is 3 years, customers are viewing this as a lucrative option and hence buying the fake product," Nirmal Kr Meharia, director of Supertron Electronics, told DQ-Week. "They are unaware of this unlawful activity and thinking the product to be original Seagate manufactured."

Meharia says he was first alerted of the situation after seeing a drop in sales. He initially shrugged off the decline to poor market conditions, but upon further research, discovered it was only happening in Bengaluru and Chennai. Further probing led to the discovery of the fake drives by an unknown dealer.

Via: DQ-Week | News Archive |

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Top 5 things to look for in a PC monitor

It’s certainly true that only a small handful of manufacturers actually make the LCD panels that go into them, which means there are recognisable levels of technological overlap.

Are PC monitors merely badge-engineered commodity items? It’s certainly true that only a small handful of manufacturers actually make the LCD panels that go into them, which means there are recognisable levels of technological overlap. Take for instance the fact that many of the current crop of affordable IPS screens share panels.
Occasionally a monitor manufacturer picks up a new panel before the competition. For example, Viewsonic seems to have stolen a march by upgrading its IPS 23-inch from 6-bit-per-channel colour to 8-bit.
What’s more, image processing electronics can make a difference, especially when it comes to colour dithering. We use the trusty Lagom LCD suite of test images and metrics to provide a common baseline. Handily, you can too, by popping over to www.lagom.nl. There are test images to help you assess everything from viewing angles to pixel response and colour fidelity.
If that’s the more objective part of the equation, there’s no substitute for some subjective immersion. That’ll be games, movies and just flicking about on the desktop. Sometimes a screen that doesn’t perform all that well in the objectives is still a very nice panel in practice.

01 Panel type

This is the biggie — the heart of your display machine. You’ve basically got three choices: TN, IPS and VA. TN is the cheapest and quickest in terms of pixel response. It’s also the best for pure gaming. For everyone else, IPS is the affordable option, offering superior viewing angles and colours to TN. Pixel response isn’t that far behind either, making it a tough sell for the TN panels. VA is the odd one out. It’s used fairly infrequently now, but offers better blacks and contrast than both TN and IPS along with colour fidelity and viewing angles that sit somewhere in between the two other technologies.

02 Backlight technology

We’ve been waiting aeons for a dramatic change in panel technology, and yet it never seems to materialise. In the meantime, at least the backlight technology tree has been given a good shake. In the last few years, CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent) backlights have been almost entirely replaced by LED backlights. Almost every PC monitor is now LED.
But not all LEDs are made equal. For starters, there’s the choice between white and RGB LEDs (or red-green-blue LED) backlights. The latter produce purer, cleaner light and allow a broader colour space. But they’re expensive and relatively rarely used.

03 Image processing

Manufacturers know that big numbers make a big impression when you’re in the market for buying a screen — numbers like 10,000 to one or even a million to one when it comes to contrast ratios, for instance. They sound impressive — all the more reason to choose one monitor over another, perhaps, but not the be-all and end-all. Little numbers work, too, like 1ms for pixel response. Many of these and more are made possible by image processing technology.
Big contrast is achieved via backlight modulation, dimming the lights when dark images and video are displayed. Faster pixel response is done courtesy of overdrive algorithms that pump pixels with exaggerated voltages. The thing is, none of them are a substitute for a good panel. Strong contrast with a static backlight is always better than the dynamic sort. And overdriving pixels can lead to nasty side effects, like inverse ghosting.

04 Refresh rate

Forget stereoscopic 3D, the next big thing in PC monitors is 120Hz refresh. At least we think it ought to be. As it happens, the faster 120Hz refresh standard (most LCD monitors are 60Hz) only came about because it was necessary for active shutter 3D technology. But never mind that, because it’s here now and it’s lovely. Until you’ve seen the added smoothness and felt the increased response, it’s hard to really appreciate the benefits of 120Hz. But once you’ve seen it, you won’t want to go back to 60Hz. Unfortunately however, 120Hz technology is currently limited to screens with TN panels. We’re still waiting for the ultimate combination of 120Hz and IPS or VA.

05 Video inputs

Now that we’ve all gone digital, surely video inputs don’t matter? Up to a point, that’s true. Indeed, the video signal used by DVI and HDMI is essentially shared, which is why those little DVI-to-HDMI adaptors are possible. But there are a few extra things worth factoring in. Screens with resolutions beyond 1,920 x 1,200 or with 120Hz refresh speed need dual-link DVI or an HDMI 1.4 port on your graphics card to pump all those pixels. And what about DisplayPort? It offers several theoretical advantages, including the ability to daisy chain multiple monitors in a serial setup. In reality, that’s a fairly unlikely usage scenario. As things stand, we’d pay extra for DisplayPort. 

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ASUS Releases “Faster Than Titan” ROG Mars 760 Video Card

For those wanting an ultra-fast video card and just so happen to be both an NVIDIA and ASUS ROG fan, then your day in the sun hath arrived. ASUS has just announced the release of their all-new Mars GTX 760 that is supposedly even faster than a Titan.
The card is totally designed by the ROG team and features the same racecar red and black color theme that is the mainstay of the ROG series of products. So what exactly is this new Mars 760? Well ASUS has taken a pair of GTX 760s and put them on a single PCB. The GeForce GTX 760 is a mid level card so it seems a bit odd for ASUS to come at things this way, but results will show if this is badass or just ass-bad.
There will not be a limited amount of the cards made and seeing only 1000 of them will be a thing of the past, and hopefully this will see prices at an affordable range as well. Teaming up with NVIDIA ASUS has come up with a 2-card solution that can represent a Quad-SLI configuration and freeing up 2-PCIe lanes in the process as well. Why oh why a GTX 760 we all may ask and here was the answer: The GTX 760 still has 1,152 CUDA cores, which together gives it 2,304: this is Titan territory! Yet, with a GHz+ core clock, it’s even faster than Titan, and the Ti 780 in some games! The MARS 760 is – for the first time – a MARS affordable to many. No longer a limited run 1,000-part device, it provides a real alternative to those interested in buying GK110-territory products.

In the pics you can see the card is designed with looks as well as performance in mind and there is a giant sized MARS logo on the top of the card that features a pulsating red light. The card is based of a dual slot design so it should fit in most cases without problem. The DirectCU technology is still the essential and fundamental core of the cards design featuring dual fans, dual heatsinks, and 8 heatpipes all used to keep those GTX 760s running cool. Underneath there is a high-endurance frame that doubles as a heatspreader for the VRMs and memory. The long card is further braced on the backside and to protect the additional components using an aluminum bracket. ASUS like always when making their high-end cards has a 100% custom designed PCB that they build the new Mars 760 upon and there is nothing else like it on the market.

ASUS likes to take thing a bit further than other companies and tries to make their components and their PCB A++. The Mars 760 features a 12-phase DIGI+ VRM design has Super Alloy Power hardware and (Nichicon GT-series) Black Metallic Caps, providing longer life/harder wearing components. On the backside there are over a dozen super-low noise POSCAPs to enhance OC and stability potential. Both GeForce GTX 760 cores can run up to 1072mhz and combining the 2GB of memory for each card you get 4GB of total GDDR5 memory that runs at 6GHz (effective).  These are connected to the PLX PCI-Express 3.0 switch, providing the maximum throughput to the PCI-Express 16x connection. Adding another MARS 760 and connecting the SLI link gives you a Quad-SLI configuration with four GPUs! ASUS has some initial test scores directly from them if you want to see a preview of how the fast the card is supposed to be.

Source: ASUS 

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Introduction & Packaging

I would like to thank Tranquil PC for supplying the review sample.



There is not much to say about a NUC chassis. Considering its very specific shape and the dimension of the boards, which Intel offers directly, any case manufacturer is able to produce a passive chassis for specific NUC board versions. We have the pleasure of taking a look at the "NUC - YE (GBE LAN board D33217GKE)" variant. It will be compared to the Intel retail chassis with active cooling and the Akasa NUC case variant.

Packaging

Tranquil PC is known for producing excellent enclosures, not for designing fancy packaging, or a fancy website for that matter, which is quite alright as what counts at the end of the day is not how pretty the box looks. The Tranquil PC NUC Case then ships in a plain white package. Two small foam bits hold the unit in place and protect it during shipping. We actually received the entire package inside a brown cardboard box, so you should as well; that is, if you decide to order one from Tranquill.


The enclosure itself is shrink wrapped in a thin layer of plastic. Stickers on the unit warn users not to use sharp objects to get past the wrapping—with a little "thank you" at the end. Another sticker points out that the few pieces one needs to put a NUC board inside the chassis have been placed within the case.

Contents

You will find a rolled up bag full of content within the chassis. It consists of the power/LED lead, a small tube of thermal paste, and all-black screws for mounting the motherboard within the Tranquil PC NUC chassis.

A Closer Look - Outside

It looks like the Tranquil PC NUC chassis is cut out of a solid piece of aluminum and is, according to the company, then hand-polished before it is anodized. The chassis is quite heavy and strays a bit from the traditional 4x4 inch size. It is a bit wider but not much deeper to ensure there is enough material to cool all interior components properly without requiring a fan, unlike the Intel case itself. A panel on the underside of the Tranquil NUC protects the interior and all to-be-installed components. Four little feet, part of this block of aluminum, are also part of the overall design.


You will not find any LEDs or buttons in the front. There is only a single hole for the Intel 3rd generation i3-based NUC's default USB 2.0 I/O. Both sides are identical, but this particular angle nicely shows what Tranquil PC has done to passive cool everything: The chassis is essentially shaped like a big heatsink that wraps around the board.

You have all the default openings for the D33217GKE board in the rear. These consists of two USB 2.0, two HDMI, and a Gigabit network plug with its power lead; on the left is another opening for a WiFi SMA connector. This gives you the ability to retain any wireless connectivity as long as you can get your hands on a little adapter and antenna. A larger, circular hole on the right is for the power button/LED combo.

A Closer Look - Inside

To gain access to the interior, simply place the Tranquil PC NUC chassis on its top and remove the four screws. The interior is quite simple as there is no actual functionality built into the case itself. There are only two square bumps, which are there to make contact with the CPU and chipset of the NUC board.

Assembly

Place the four spacers on each of the corners and apply thermal paste to both components before installing and screwing the motherboard down. We removed the board after assembly to ensure good contact between the CPU/chipset and both bumps within the chassis. As you can see, all is well.


Once the board is in place, simply install the additional components of your choice. These are the exact same parts we used in our initial Intel NUC review, so temperature measurements will be comparable.


We did notice that the connectors within the Tranquil PC chassis are recessed quite far. While this caused no issues, it did keep some HDMI cables from connecting well and all the way, which resulted in slightly looser cables. Installing the power button also takes quite a bit of force and effort as there is very little space and the cables keep turning, but everything panned out in the end, and there was no damage done to either the board or the cables. This lead is then plugged into the standard header found on the NUC board.

Finished Looks

With everything in place, we put the bottom cover back over the opening and used the included screws to secure it, which left the chassis without any moving parts, or openings. The only tell-tale sign of the system inside operating is a blue LED in the back of the device. The Tranquil PC NUC case also ensures absolute silence as there is no fan inside.

Temperatures

Tranquil PC advertises their passive NUC chassis as a means of achieving better cooling results than Intel's stock unit, which includes a fan. We checked both idle and thermal results under load. Idle numbers were collected after the unit was left to sit at the windows desktop on a default Windows7 installation for thirty minutes. The system was then put under load by creating 100% load on the CPU, using FurMark for the GPU and benchmarking the SSD all at the same time. The latter test was run for 30 minutes as well and all the numbers were, once again, recorded.


The Tranquil PC chassis manages to impress with a much lower idle temperature across the board. With a difference of 9° Celsius, the CPU runs much cooler while sitting idle at the desktop. When the NUC's processor is pushed to 100%, the gap even grows to a full 11°, which is right in line with what Tranquil PC advertises.


The same goes for the GPU, which tends to get extremely hot with Intel's stock cooling solution. In idle, the Tranquil PC chassis manages to keep the graphic chip 10°C cooler, while there is a huge difference of 17°C under load as the chassis manages to keep the unit at 72° instead of 89°C.


Under idle, the difference on the motherboard sensor is not as big, with a 7°C cooler environment when the Tranquil PC chassis is used. But when all the components inside the compact chassis are put under load, the overall temperature difference rises to 14°C in favor of the Tranquil PC NUC chassis.


Even the Intel 525 SSD benefits from better cooling; that is, under load. The temperature difference is marginal when everything is just sitting there, but we once again see a 11°C difference under load. While the SSD does get warm, most of the heat is due to the hotter components around it, as its temperatures are in line with those of both CPU and GPU.

Value & Conclusion

	The Tranquil PC NUC chassis sells for 99 GBP on their website.
	Excellent cooling performance Milled out of a single slab of aluminum Excellent anodizing job Very compact design Also available for Haswell NUC variant Opening for optional wireless antenna Power button and LED light in the back Access to the front USB connector right through the front of the chassis
	Expensive VESA mount only possible through optional accessory The rear I/O is recessed a bit, which may cause issues with large connectors Power button hard to install—very tight Power button and LED in the rear No HDD activity LED Only available in black
8.9	The Tranquil PC NUC does one thing extremely well: It drops the NUC system's temperatures considerably. And it uses no fan, unlike the Intel case; it is great to see temperatures noticeably lower in a passive enclosure. The Tranquil PC NUC chassis is also very compact, and milled out of a single piece of aluminum, which really adds to its overall quality. Its power button is unfortunately located in the rear, and is quite difficult to install. A proper implementation in the top or the front of the case would have been better, but odds are Tranquil chose to go this route to keep the chassis as compact as possible. Then there is the price: at 100 GBP, the case is definitely on the expensive side of things. While this may turn some people off, I really like the "unibody" approach and its compact size. So you, on one hand, have excellent physical attributes and thermal performance, yet there is the price. Those looking for a NUC case don't have a lot of choices, but if you want excellent quality and performance and are willing to pay the price, the Tranquil NUC chassis is an excellent buy regardless of which board you use.

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Kingston ships HyperX Predator 2800MHz Memory for Overclockers, Enthusiasts and System Builders

If you are into fast memory but still need it to be stable, Kingston has something coming that will warm your gaming heart. Overclockers, enthusiast and system builders will all be pleased to hear about the release of Kingston’s latest HyperX memory shipping at 2800MHz. In addition to top speeds, HyperX Predator features an aggressive design to enhance the look and performance of the latest PC hardware while providing greater heat dissipation to optimize memory reliability.
The new HyperX Predator memory is IntelXMP ready and has been fully tested and validated on a wide range of motherboards currently available on the market. End users can easily overclock their systems by simply selecting a profile in BIOS with no need for manual adjustments. Kingston is well know for very stable memory and for being a player who only releases products that have been thoroughly market tested before selling them to ensure that only performance driven stable parts are in their product lineup.

These new HyperX kits shows Kingston moving into faster territory and with aggressive speeds that any PC junkie will love to get their hands on. XMP settings are very easy to use and implement and make it very simple for the end user to get instant performance right out of the box by just enabling a simple XMP 1 profile and saving it in your BIOS. Kingston had this to sat in regards to this new product: “We are proud to offer our flagship 2800MHz memory kits to overclockers, benchmarkers and system builders throughout the world,” said Lawrence Yang, HyperX business manager, Kingston. “Our HyperX engineers will continue working hard to improve high-speed yields to get faster product in the hands of our customers.” Kingston’s HyperX Predator is available in speeds up to 2800MHz and kits from 8GB to 16GB in various dual- and quad-channel configurations. The new 2800MHz kit is currently available in a 8GB kit of two with a CAS latency of 12. For more information visit the HyperX home page. Thanks for reading Tech Of Tomorrow. Does this sound really cool to you? Personally I can’t wait to get my hands on a kit and see how well it performs, as this is some pretty fast stuff.

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Corsair Raptor HS30 vs HS40 Gaming Headset: Unboxing & Overview

For some people headphones are the only true way they can listen to any audio source in private and without disturbing others. For this group of people the choice of headphone becomes an important one due to their limited way of enjoying audio. Gamers, audiophiles and just those who do general listening seem to also be on a budget without the frivolous spending ability that is shown by those who are cash healthy and that comes into play when making a buying decision. The divide has been drawn and now we see gamer styled headphones, or those dedicated to music audio only and a few who fit right in the middle.
The Corsair Raptor series of headphones is geared for those who want the ability to play games, but also listen to music as well without sacrificing sound quality in the process. We were able to take a look at 2 sets of this new line one that features 3.5mm connectivity and uses your onboard dedicated sound card, and the other is USB based and does not need a sound card to function. The HS30 and HS40 are priced within a well-balanced range with the HS30 being your standard 2.0 stereos with a price tag of $49.99 using the 3.5mm connection. The HS40 are USB powered cans, and feature 7.1-surround sound and hit the market at $79.99, which is very fair for what you get.
A lot of the features between the two sets is identical as they both use 40mm drivers, have a fold up microphone, braided cable, etc., etc. Both have very nicely padded ear cups for long wear times and have a padded headrest as well making comfort a forefront of their design. The mic can be brought down and adjusted to fit your vocal range and although I have not had a chance to test the mics ability from what I am reading online the results do seem more positive than negative. Today we just are doing the unboxing first looks at the products and have to save something for the review J No drivers are needed for either the HS30 or HS40, both are plug and play products and are a no-brainer to use. If you do not like your sound that you are getting from your PC with your sound card spending the extra few bucks to get the USB set will behoove you as USB sound although not the greatest is usually fairly solid.
All the controls for the headphones are located on the cable and this is another area where the products do show a difference as the HS30’s feature an all black volume, mute control, the HS40’s have a blue color and have more control options due to their 7.1 nature. For those on a budget looking for some solid cans for gaming and listening to music Corsair has many different brands lines including the Raptor that we are looking at today and the Vengeance series that can be seen at the end of the unboxing video. This holiday season we will be having the biggest giveaways in our history with sponsors from around the world kicking down the cool goodies to give to you folks. These headphones are just the tip of the iceberg and we will be giving away the HS40’s to one lucky fan. Thanks for reading and watching Tech of Tomorrow where we bring you – All the tech all the time. 
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HP Z1 27-inch AIO Workstation Review

Mainstream All-In-One PCs have become increasingly more popular in recent years, but AIO workstations remain a rare breed. After all, workstations typically require more horsepower than your average AIO, and IT folks demand better access to a computer’s internals than most ordinary AIOs allow. That makes HP’s Z1 workstation all the more attractive perhaps: it’s meant to give you the power and access of your big workstation box in a small footprint, with no (or few) compromises.

HP Z1 All-In-One Workstation

Before we dive into the Z1 specifications (and its gorgeous, 27-inch display), we should give some background. HP has been receiving critical praise of late for its Z220 workstations, which are minitower/SFF systems that squeeze workstation components into cases with small footprints. HP is building on that success with a new line (the upcoming HP Z230 series), but it also opted to branch out into the AIO workstation space with the Z1 we'll be showing you here. The result is that the Z1 is a reflection of the Z220 series, and that’s helpful if you’ve used a Z220 in the past. HP tells us that virtually all components available for the Z220 series are available for the Z1, and that you can expect the same level of performance from a Z1 as a similarly-configured Z220. And as it does with the Z220, HP is generally able to make the latest parts (most importantly, processors) available for the Z1 on day one of the part’s launch.

HP Z1 Workstation AIO Specifications & Features

Operating System:		Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
Display:		27-inch LED IPS Display at 2560 x 1440
Processor:		Intel Xeon E3-1245v2 Quad-Core(3.4GHz, TurboBoost to 3.8GHz)
Chipset:		Intel C206
Memory:		16GB DDR3-1600 ECC (4x4GB)
Graphics:		NVIDIA Quadro K3000M 2GB
Storage:		1TB WD1000CHTZ 2.5-inch HDD
Optical Drive:		Slot Load 8X SuperMulti DVDRW
PSU:		400W HP 90% efficient
Audio:		SRS Premium Sound, Dual-Cone Speakers
Webcam:		1080p 2.0MP Webcam
Ports:		2x USB 3.0, 4x USB 2.0, FireWire, DisplayPort In/Out, Subwoofer, Mic/Headphone, 6-in-1 Media Card Reader
Connectivity:		Gigabit LAN, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0
Cooling:		Internal fans
Software:		CyberLink Power2Go, HP MyDisplay, HP Performance Advisor, HP Power Assistant
Peripherals:		HP Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
Warranty:		HP Three-Year Warranty
Starting Price:		$1,899
As Configured:		$3,344.80 MSRP - Currently lower on Amazon

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For the purposes of this review, HP configured a relatively powerful Z1 designed for multimedia content creation. The system is configured with some high-end components, as is evident by its $3,344.80 asking price. As such, it has some heavy hitters on board, including a quad-core Xeon processor and discreet workstation-class graphics card, but not the top components in the Z series lineup.

That quad-core processor featured in the system is an Intel Xeon E3-1245v2, which is less than a year old. The CPU runs its four cores at 3.4GHz and has 8MB of cache. It supports error correction code (ECC) memory, which is ordinarily a tricky component to put in a slim computer, as ECC memory generally resides on full-height DIMMs. HP made room for the full-size memory in the Z1 series and installed 4GB DDR3-1600 ECC DIMMs into the system’s four memory slots, for a total of 16GB of memory.

Graphics are powered by NVIDIA’s Quadro K3000M, which is designed specifically for AIO workstations. It has 2GB of GDDR5 memory and 240 CUDA Cores, and has only a 75W TDP. This card is one step below the top of the line - the Q4000M takes that spot – but it’s plenty powerful for a range of uses.

HP rounded out the system with a 1TB Western Digital Velociraptor hard drive. The 2.5-inch drive looks tiny in the HDD bay, which is designed to accommodate full-size hard drives. The system also includes a 400W power supply, which is a fairly powerful PSU for an AIO.

The HP Z1 Workstation all-in-one has a clean look that makes it a fit for desks facing into a room.

On the outside are a total of 6 USB ports, two of which are USB 3.0. That’s a little disappointing; we’d like to see more USB 3.0 ports on new system like this. The upcoming Z230 towers, for example, will have four USB 3.0 ports (two up front and another two in the back), but it’s a minor quibble. FireWire, DisplayPort, and mic/headphone ports are available, as well as a 6-in-1 media card reader.

The Z1 features a gigabit LAN port, as well as 802.11 a/b/g/n connectivity, but its Bluetooth 3.0 feature is a generation old. The biggest differentiator between Bluetooth 3.0 and 4.0 is the latter’s lower energy consumption, so it's not necessarily a problem with a desktop system such as this. The system will work with peripherals that have the newer Bluetooth standard, however.

Now, let’s dig into what makes the Z1 so interesting: its design.
Not surprisingly, the HP Z1 Workstation has a substantial stand that takes up much more desktop real estate than the stand of a typical monitor. The Z1’s stand offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to display height and tilt, and it’s very solid too. Once you have the Z1 where you want it, the system isn’t going to tilt or sink on its own.

The Z1 is a sharp-looking, but not flashy system. The 27-inch display is surrounded by a black, nondescript bezel that houses two dual-cone speakers, which are aimed directly at the user. The screen itself is an IPS display, which offer much better viewing angles and color reproduction than cheaper TN panels. That’s an important feature for you if you collaborate with nearby colleagues or are a content producer. The LED display has a 2560 x 1440 resolution, and offers bright, crisp images.

Most of the Z1’s ports are hidden in an area at the lower-back of the computer, making it easy to direct cables back behind the stand. The card reader, a couple USB 3.0 ports, the FireWire port and mic/headphone jacks are on the bottom left side the computer (your right, when you’re facing the Z1). Above them is the slot-loading DVDRW, as well as the Power button, which has a blue light that makes it easy to spot.

Power and Eject buttons (left) and a smattering of handy ports (right), as well as the card reader.


A wheel at the top of the system adjusts the webcam (left). On the right is one of the tabs you'll need to slide to open the Z1.

The button in the center lets you collapse the stand.

A 1080p webcam (capable of shooting 2.0MP still photos) sits atop the Z1’s display. Obviously, tilting the computer to best suit your view of the display is likely to point the camera too high or too low, so HP built in a wheel that sits discreetly at the top of the system for vertical camera adjustment.

USB ports, the Gigabit LAN port, and other inputs, just behind the HP Z1 Workstation's display.

One of the things we like about the Z1 is that you’ll rarely need to turn it around: most of what you need to reach is accessible from where you sit or stand. The system’s serial number and related info, for example, are on a small card that pulls out of the Z1’s right side, rather than being plastered on the back of the system. In fact, the back of the Z1 is so clean, you can easily put this system on desks that face into a room, rather than against a wall.

What will make administrators happy is how easy it is to access the Z1’s guts. Just push gently at the top of the system, and it will glide down until the Z1 is completely horizontal on its base. Push the two clasp buttons, lift the display housing, and you’re looking at the Z1s internals. A gas-based strut holds the display up and out of the way. We felt as though we had just lifted the hood of a car.

The HP Z1 Workstation, open for business. Notice the strut, which keeps the heavy lid up while you work.


The CPU is covered by a large fan (left), with the hard drive cage in the foreground. The memory (right) is full-height and standing straight up, which is unusual.

A 400W power supply and the NVIDA Quadro K3000M video card (left). At right is a large fan at the dual-cone speakers, below the slot-loading optical drive.

From here, reaching most components is easier than it would be in a typical PC chassis. You have unfettered access to the memory DIMMs and the hard drive tray. Should you need to remove the power supply or video card, those are exposed, as well. The processor is covered by a large, flat fan-sink assembly, with another fan nearby. Even the slot-loading DVD-RW drive is easy to reach. Closing the system and returning it to an upright position is surprisingly easy job too.
Because this is a business-class computer, OS choice is important. HP ships the Z1 Workstation with Windows 7/8, or Linux (Red Hat and Suse, among others). Our test system includes an oldie-but-goodie: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.

The Z1 is mercifully light on installed applications. A smattering of CyberLink and HP utilities make up the bulk of the system’s third-party software. The workstation has webcam software, so you can start snapping shots right away, but security software is left to your judgment. That’s for the best – your business mostly likely has a security plan in place and uninstalling trialware would just waste your tech’s time.

HP My Display is a handy tool that helps you optimize the display for certain activities, like working with text documents or watching movies. You can dig a little deeper into the settings if you have a particular task you want to configure the display for, but we suspect most people will stick to presets.

HP My Display

HP Performance Advisor is a utility with a slick interface. Some of the features provide the same info that Windows can (like the Windows Experience Index), but the interface makes it easy to find features you want. And, the utility has some useful tools, like the Memory Graph.

HP Performance Advisor

CyberLink Power2Go has some handy backup features, but not all of the features that appear in the main menu are available on the system free. It does have a DVD burning tool, however, which is worthwhile. A better program is the HP Power Assistant, which lets you set energy usage profiles and schedule automatic profile switching so your workstation (or workstations) conserve energy during down times.

CyberLink Power2Go



HP Power Assistant

HP also sent us a wireless keyboard and mouse, both of which are tied to a single, tiny transceiver. Plug the transceiver into a USB port, and you’re ready for action. The mouse is serviceable, but unexciting. The keyboard is also modest, but the keys are responsive and the layout felt comfortable.

Next up, we’ll take a look at the HP Z1 Workstation’s performance.
We started testing with two benchmarks that have been in our repertoire for quite a while: Cinebench and SiSoft SANDRA. We compared the HP Z1 Workstation to several AIOs we have recently tested, but keep in mind that these systems are generally targeted at consumers, whereas the Z1 is a pro workstation-class rig. Although this isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison, it should paint a pretty good picture of the Z1’s capabilities.

Cinebench R11.5 64-bit Content Creation Performance

Cinebench R11.5

Cinebench R11.5 is a 3D rendering performance test based on Cinema 4D from Maxon. Cinema 4D is a 3D rendering and animation suite used by animation houses and producers like Sony Animation and many others. It's very demanding of processor resources and is an excellent gauge of pure computational throughput.

The Z1 kicked off our benchmarks by putting up some strong numbers in Cinebench. The 7.28 Multi-threaded score is tops for the AIOs we’ve tested and the rig also took the top spot in OpenGL test.

SiSoft SANDRA Synthetic General Performance Metrics

SANDRA

We like SiSoftware SANDRA (System Analyzer, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) because its suite of benchmark tools lets us get a look at the performance of individual subsystems.We selected the CPU Arithmetic and Multimedia tests, as well as the benchmarks that stress system memory and storage capabilities.

The Z1's Xeon processor finished just behind the Core i7-3770K in SANDRA's processor and multimedia tests. Versus previous AIO systems we've tested, the Z1 fared well in the physical disks and memory benchmarks, besting all of the other AIOs we've looked at to date.
Next, we fired up some benchmarks by Futuremark. The company, which is based just outside of Helsinki, Finland, started publishing benchmarks in 1998. Since then, Futuremark has developed tests for evaluating standard PCs and mobile devices and continues to update its flagship 3DMark gaming benchmark suite, and PCMark as well.

Futuremark PCMark 7 Simulated Application Performance

PCMark 7

Futuremark’s PCMark 7 benchmark includes a suite of tests designed to measure the way your computer would perform during typical tasks. It includes an Entertainment Suite, which offers gaming scenarios and tests its media playback capabilities. The benchmark also has a Creativity Suite, in which the system processes images and video. Other tools include the Computation Suite and the Storage Suite. The latter is capable of measure SSDs and hard drives, either individually, or as a whole.

Interestingly, the Z1 didn’t take the lead in PCMark 7, bowing to the Dell XPS One 27, which has an Intel Core i7-3770S processor, NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M graphics and a hybrid storage subsystem. It appears the 10K RPM HD in the Z1 couldn't keep up with the SSD/7200 RPM HD combo in the XPS One 27.

Futuremark PC Mark 8 Simulated Application Performance

PCMark 8

Futuremark recently launched PCMark 8, which has several separate benchmarks. The Home test measures a system's ability to handle basic tasks: video chatting, web browsing, photo editing, an similar day-to-day activities. The test is designed to be run on just about any Windows 7 or 8 computer. The Creative test offers some of the same types of tasks, but puts more stress on the system and is meant for mid-range and higher-end PCs. The Work test simulates the workflow of a typical office user. And the Storage test - you guessed it - benchmark's your computer's data storage performance.

Because the benchmark is so new (the free version isn’t even available yet) we don’t have comparison data for PCMark 8 just yet. All the data from the benchmark's separate tests, which provide plenty of detailed feedback, is available in the chart above.

Futuremark 3DMark 11 Simulated Gaming Performance

3DMark 11

As a gaming benchmark, 3DMark 11 puts extra emphasis on your system’s handling of DirectX 11. But it measures more than the graphics card’s performance (the processor can make a big difference to a score, for example) and is a good way to get a feel for a system both as a gaming PC and as a general-use computer. Futuremark recently updated 3DMark 11 to support Windows 8, so if you plan to run this test on your own Windows 8 system, be sure to get the latest version.

The Z1 reasserted its position at the top in this test, which isn’t surprising. That said, don’t expect the system to be much of a gamer – this workstation is designed to create content more than consume it.
Obviously, the HP Z1 Workstation isn’t a gaming PC. But, who’s to say you won’t want to blow off a little steam at the office? To that end, we fired up one game and then got back to business with SPECviewperf.

Lost Planet 2 DX11 Gaming Performance

Lost Planet 2

We used Lost Planet 2 to test system’s DX11 performance. This game’s benchmark features soldiers attempting to take down a massive beast that seems to shrug off their firepower. There is a ton of action in the five or so minutes of benchmark run, and we’ve seen the test stutter when being run by lesser systems. We used Test B and set all graphics settings to High Quality. We also boosted the Anti-Aliasing setting to 4x before we ran the benchmark.

The scores here prove that AIOs generally aren’t good gamers. Where gaming systems we’ve tested (with cards like the Titan for firepower) can score more than 100fps in this benchmark, the Z1’s best shot came in at a mere 34.2fps.

SPECviewperf 11 Computer-Aided Three-Dimensional Interactive Application

SPECviewperf 11

One graphics benchmark you won’t see in gaming system reviews is SPECviewperf. This is a solely workstation-oriented benchmark that runs the system through a number of pro applications like Lightwave and Maya (3D Rendering) and Pro/Engineer and CATIA (computer-aided design).

As we test more workstations, we’ll have more data for comparison in SPECviewperf. For now, we'll let the Z1's results stand alone, and mention that the system provided scores that are appropriate for a workstation with similar hardware and specifications.
  Most users shopping for a single system, may not consider power consumption when making a purchase, but admins looking to acquire many systems will certainly be interested in this data. We placed a power meter at the electrical outlet to catch the Z1’s power consumption at idle and while under a heavy load. To create the load state, we ran Prime 95 and Furmark simultaneously to whack both the CPU and GPU.

Power Consumption Real-Use Testing

The Z1's power supply is rated to handle 400W, and HP assures us that the PSU supports all of the configurations it offers – easily. That seems to be in evidence here, as the system pushed only 213W at peak.

As for noise, the system is whisper quiet under load. When idle and even when doing basic tasks, the system’s sound never rose above our lab’s hushed environmental noise.
There’s a lot to like about an all-in-one workstation. AIOs save space and reduce clutter in your work area. They’re also easier to move around – just pick it up and you’re ready to go. But maintaining and upgrading an AIO can be difficult, particularly if it’s not built with easy access in mind.

The HP Z1 Workstation successfully juggles several balls. It provides solid performance for the price, offering serious power for under $3,500. The system also scores well when it comes to access – in fact, it’s easier to get to the Z1’s internals than it is to access the guts of many ordinary desktops. You won’t need a flashlight to find your way around this system’s interior either; once that lid goes up, it’s wide open. The Z1 also has a polished, professional look, even from behind, so it's going to look nice on the desktop as well.

Given the Z1’s performance and accessibility, we recommend it to anyone looking for serious workstation. Check out HP’s website for configuration options – if you don’t need quite as much power as our review unit provided, you can reduce that price tag significantly by choosing less-expensive parts.

Bright, 27-inch LED IPS display Solid performance for content creation Clean professional chassis No bloatware	Last generation Bluetooth Fewer USB 3.0 ports than some similar desktop models

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