HP Caters to Creative/Tech Pros with Z2 Mini PC
Preamble
It’s well known now that Apple isn’t shipping modern desktop Macs for the creative and technical professionals. Notably, Microsoft and HP have seized on this gap in Apple’s product line and have moved in with capable solutions designed to be both powerful and aspirational.
One example, and the focus of this article, is the HP Z2 Mini workstation. But before I get into a high-level review of this extraordinary PC, I need to set the stage for why it even exists.
Small, beautiful, powerful. Sound familiar?
One question we all have is whether Apple will fight back soon. That remains to be seen. The fact is, Microsoft and HP are shipping pro workstations and Apple is not. And so the Apple question involves speculation and, while the discussion is tantalizing, it’s beyond the scope of this article. The reality, however, is that many Mac users having been eyeing these kinds of PCs, which is why I’m writing about one.
Seizing Opportunity
There is some significant history here. The origins of my own technical interests in this area go back to the days when I was searching for suitable displays for my 2013 Mac Pro, acquired in June 2014. By then, Apple was in a funk with its 27-inch Thunderbolt display, and I basically began a journal of my search for a much better, modern display.
The result was a discovery of the state-of-the-art and joys of Hewlett-Packard displays. I purchased and reviewed the HP 27i 27-inch IPS display. But I was too early. While I really liked that display, when HP later came out with a 34-inch curved display, I was hooked. This is the display my Mac Pro deserved.
It was about this time that I discovered that even as HP was catering to the creative professionals with displays and the technical professionals with its Z workstations and ZBooks, Apple was leaving the door wide open for the competition. That inspired HP (and Microsoft) to be even more aggressive with desktop products and design. I documented this phenomenon in October 2016.
- Hewlett-Packard Seeks to Exploit Apple’s Inattention to Technical Professionals
- Technical Professionals Are Hanging on, Hoping For The Best from Apple
And then, starting in late October of 2016, Apple’s competitors began to pour on the coals.
- Microsoft Just Announced the iPad I Always Wanted – Surface Studio
- HP Exploits Apple’s Mac Pro Void with New Z2 Mini
And Hewlett-Packard continues to rock the PC world with drool-worthy desktops. See, for example, “The desktop PC is finally cool.” The embedded video tells a great story.
The new HP ENVY Curved All-in-One Desktop PC. Wow. Makes desktop PCs cool again.
To be sure, I’ve given you a library of links that chronicle why the Z2 Mini exists, but it’s an important part of this quasi-review. The story here is as much about the coolness and specifications of the Z2 Mini as why it was brought to market. HP wants to seize Apple’s share of the creative and technical desktop PC market, and it’s off to a great start.
Next page: The Good Stuff on the Z2 Mini.
Introduction to the HP Z2 Mini
Notable HP certified CAD Apps.
The first thing HP did, two years ago, was take a look at the kinds of PCs being used by creative professionals for their work, especially CAD. What they found was that boxy PCs really weren’t up to the task in terms of build quality, graphics performance or the appeal of the physical design itself. HP noted that people who are keen on design are also keen on the design of their tools. That’s something Apple always knew.
HP developed the Z2 Mini to be a powerful, mid-range workstation that’s affordable and beautifully designed. It can drive four 4K displays (six in total with four HD displays in the mix), but it isn’t a gaming powerhouse. It’s small, fairly light, designed for great airflow, easy to open, and as HP says, “Designed to be celebrated.”
More importantly, for those professionals who need lots of different ports, the “performance” model is packed with them. See the figure below.
Oh, my. So many glorious ports on the “performance” model. And USB-C.
In terms of CPU and GPU power, there are several options. You can go with Intel Core i3/i5/i7 (Skylake) or Xeon E3-1200v5 (3.3 or 3.5 GHz). The i7 model at 3.4 GHz is on par with and a little faster than a new 15-inch MacBook Pro, which has a 2.6 GHz i7-6700HQ (Skylake). The Xeon option at 3.3 or 3.5 GHz is on par with and maybe a little slower than that found in the 2013 Quad-core Mac Pro (E5-1620 v2 @3.7 GHz)
One comparison of the CPU in the Mac Pro and Z2 Mini: PassMark. See text.
The NVIDIA M620 graphics card is a mid-range GPU, capable of driving six simultaneous HD displays or else two 4K displays and four 2K displays. With 512 cores and 512 shading units, it’s considered an entry level 3D GPU but far beyond the Intel HD530 integrated graphics found in the base Skylake i7-6700. There are more details in this article.
As an interesting aside, supercomputers are ranked based on the LINPACK benchmark. Outside supercomputing circles, you don’t often see this benchmark, but Hewlett Packard graciously ran the LINPACK benchmark on a Z2 Mini identical to mine, and it came in at about 110 gigaflops. While the fastest supercomputers today are measured in petaflops, the number HP provided is, for perspective, about the same as a Cray T3E from the year 2000. This is all just for fun. Anything else would go far beyond the scope of this article and get very complicated.
Just remember, when Apple touts 7 teraflops for the 2013 Mac Pro, that’s using the thousands of cores in its AMD FirePro D700 graphics card in concert with OpenCL and is not the same benchmark as the LINPACK test of the CPU.
Rather than go into additional, extensive product detail in text, here’s HP’s specifications in PDF format for you to peruse. It’s just amazing. You’ll be geeking out for days.
Next page: A look inside, my review unit and final thoughts.
A Look Inside
Here’s a look at the inside with callouts.
Pretty compact. It needs that great airflow.
Of note is the fact that the top is held in place with spring loaded button. When you remove the lid, which is trivial to do, the Z2 Mini continues to run—just like older Mac Pros.
My Review Unit
This computer is fairly compact and arrived in a box 19 x 12 x 7 inches (48 x 30 x 18 cm). The computer itself weighs just 4.6 pounds (2.1 kg). It’s easy to look at, but is also easy to tuck out of the way with its VESA mount for HP’s Z displays or 3rd party wall or arm mounts. It shipped with Windows 10 Pro, but is certified as well with HP Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Desktop 6.7/7.2 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 SP4/12 SP1.
Setting it up was a breeze. First I connected the power adapter, then my HP Z27i display via DisplayPort. (I already had the DP cable.) Then I inserted the mouse’s RF dongle and pressed the power button. As it was booting I pressed the Bluetooth pairing button on the keyboard. I was stepped through the Wi-Fi setup and account info. It was very easy, and in a few minutes I was exploring Windows 10.
On my table. That’s a 12-inch/30 cm ruler. Power adapter in foreground.
Related
Here are the specs of a sample base unit and those of the unit I received. Prices are MSRP and provide a sense of the price range.
Base specs and specs of the review unit.
The first thing I noticed was that my review unit didn’t show the 1.0 terabyte hard disk in the file manger. (Windows 10 was on the 256 GB SSD, which is on the M.2 bus.) It was there, it just required me to go to File Explorer > My Computer > Manage > Disk Management, right click, and run the New, Simple Volume Wizard. I thought the omission by HP was rather weird, and no Mac, for review or retail, would ever require that step.
Overall, except for having to initialize and mount the hard disk, I thought the unpacking, electrical connections, power on, and Windows 10 setup were incredibly friendly and easy, even for me, a somewhat inexperienced PC user.
Windows 10
This is a review of HP’s hardware, not Windows 10. But they come as a package, and considering the preamble above, I do want to provide a brief comment or two.
First, Windows 10 is, to me, very adult. One way to explain that is to compare the setup to macOS. Everything you do is clear and technical in Windows 10. MacOS final setup has that silly animation, which I loathe, of settings being (pseudo) filled out one by one. It’s cartoonish and really should be retired. I’d rather see a text summary of settings for verification.
Windows 10 is different, but learnable and not that awful. (Older HP Z27i display.)
The next thing I noticed is that Windows 10 has an Airplane mode. You’re not going to travel with this computer, but there are times when you want it off the air. The Airplane mode button in the taskbar is glorious.
Next, in my initial exploration of Windows 10, I noticed that there are lots of different places to see things, but relatively fewer places to act on and do things. This may be my own lack of familiarity, but my sense is that macOS doesn’t engage in that effect as much.
Finally, and this is the kicker, my feeling was that, despite my 30 years experience with Macs, I could jump into Windows 10 and get some work done. Sure, I’d have to learn a lot of new things. But when Windows 10 is running on great hardware like the Z2 Mini, the pain and stigma of Windows are greatly lessened. Of course, this is just my first blush reaction, intended for longtime Mac users.
Final Thoughts
Beige or black box, race-to-the-bottom, commodity PCs are hardly inspirational. Plus, Windows 8 was an unmitigated disaster. However, when a company designs great hardware, like this Z2 Mini and installs Linux or Windows 10 one can get some serious computational, scientific, visualization, or creative work done, and do it with a great measure of fun. And pride.
That’s what the new PC movement is all about. HP is embracing this concept (and raising its ASP while they do it). I am happy to see this happening. I wish I could have kept this very nice, new generation PC.
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