HP ships hack-friendly all-in-one HP has begun shipping its easy-to-upgrade all-in-one desktop PC, the Z1, worldwide, the computer giant said today. HP Z1 The 27in, 2560 x 1440, one-billion colour screen machine packs a clamshell casing that allows hardware hackers the crack the Z1 open to add and replace its inner workings. Aimed at punters needing serious …
Funny how for years compaq and now HP seemed bent on making system that became more and more less upgradable and now they say they have something that is like a proper PC but isn't. Packing everything into the back of a monitor does somewhat tie them to that monitor and alas makes that aspect one they cant upgrade. It's like a laptop but not a laptop, it's upgradable but not upgradable. It's bloody horrible and anybody thinking about this should just admit they want to buy a mac and be done with it.
By the way, that £1349 is ex.VAT. Anyone serious enough to buy one from home might as well get an iMac which already has double RAM, double HD, better OS (IMHO), better graphics at less of the cost (£1399 inc.VAT). Why would you even start with 2GB RAM for Windows 7 64-bit? That's ridiculous.
"video editors, industrial designers" - you need more than an internal graphics chip, 2GB RAM to do that! You'll prob end up spending £700 upgrading the damn thing before you even start. Good try HP, better luck next time.
As usual, you have to read the small print: the Linux options are nowhere to be seen when you go to the shopping site and the reason is to be found in the notes on the detailed tech specs: "Linux available 2nd calendar quarter 2012 (CQ2'12)"
Having said this, it looks like a very nice machine for its target audience. Granted, it's got the same downside as any other all-in-one in the sense that the screen is non-replaceable but for customers for whom desk space is at a premium and who would otherwise be tempted by an iMac, it looks like a good alternative. A good compromise between a desktop/tower design and other all-in-one designs methinks.
For those saying "it's not as upgradable as X" or "not as cheap as Y" or "not as slick looking as Z", you are probably right. Just remember that very few people have a single requirement in mind when buying a computer so a design that provides a good compromise between several conflicting requirements is usually a winner.
Finally, it's an HP. Good news for some, bad news for others. My (limited) experience with HP hardware is that their consumer stuff is crap while their business/professional offering is a bit dull but is solid and works very well.
Interesting toy anyway!
If desk space is really such a big issue, why have we not seen a 'flat-tower' form-factor, as a compromise between a bulky tower and a tied-to-a-monitor all-in-one? It would look like a bit like vertical PlayStation 2 Slim or overgrown 'net top', and use convection (and its greater surface area) to help those little fans. Being placed further back, behind the monitor, the noise of all those little fans and 10k rpm HDDs would be less of a strain on the user.
This is more of a "working monitor" than an actual PC.
Seems nice, until you see how little it's *really* got in the expansion department: "4 slots: 1 PCIe x16 full, 3 miniPCIe" (quoted from HP's website).
A computer that gets upgraded in a regular fashion will at some point be limited by this. When the supplied graphics won't cut it anymore, the one PCIe slot will be taken up, and the user will have to hope to be able to get miniPCIe cards for whatever he needs (firewire, SCSI, USB4, etc.).
That said, if the monitor is actually as good as I expect (it IS an IPS) , I want one of those machines. NOW. :-)
Just like old workstations, upgrading them isn't really much of an issue as you already buy them with proper specs. 10 Gig Ethernet would have been nice and probably more useful than accelerated graphics.
Well the graphics and the availability with Windows gets the costs down, by opening it up to gamers.
Again I don't see much sense in things like firewire, SCSI or fast USB. It's not supposed to be an IO server.
Well those are renders anyhow. And in the typical situation you'll only have mains and Ethernet connected, maybe keyboard or mouse if you won't like wireless ones.
It's a bit like those Sparc Laptops which were around about a decade ago.
http://www.sparcproductdirectory.com/portabl2.html
Yes, they had USB, but nobody cared that it didn't work.
Those ports are only there to attract the gamers so more of those boxes get sold, so it'll be cheaper for the people who actually know what to do with it.
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