Welcome to the future of the desktop: the all-in-one workstation. Why would anyone buy a machine with various parts and pieces when it's all contained in one? Introducing the HP Z1, a powerful machine featuring a bright and crisp 27-inch screen. If it's important to your business, the Z1 has ISV certifications. Service is simple, the speed is fast, and if you are in an environment where you need to take limited space into consideration, look no further than this machine.

Design

The enormous 27-inch LED-backlit IPS display features a 2,560 by 1,440 resolution. The only other machine that matches these specs is the Apple iMac 27-inch. The Z1 is perfect for all you graphic artists out there. Easily adjust the screen height and tilt thanks to the dual-hinged articulating arm, which allows you to tilt the screen horizontally or vertically, handy for those used to drafting tables. Stop pegging all-in-one systems as rigid, and feast your eyes on the Z1, the most flexible machine on the market today which will stay put in any position or angle. Feel free to mount it on a VESA arm alongside another 27-inch HP professional display screen to create an insanely wide field of view, helpful when one must deal with multiple data all at once.

Specs

The Z1 features an Intel Xeon E3-1280 processor and 16GB of DDR3 ECC memory, Blu-ray writer, two 300GB SSDs, and an Nvidia Quadro 4000M graphics card. Easily set the two SSD drives up as a RAID array using preinstalled Intel utilities, rather than the two individual drives it is set up as out of the box. It is also free from pre-loaded software overload, featuring the standard HP, webcam, and driver utilities as well as MS Office 2010 Starter.

There isn't a lot of internal expansion space, but it's simple to swap out components contained within to newer components. There are four DIMM slots and they are all filled, but feel free to replace the included RAM for up to 32GB. If you desire, replace the two 2.5 inch drives with a single 3.5 inch drive. In the future, you can swap the Quadro 4000M for a different MXM card. There is an internal USB port for the wireless keyboard and mouse, allowing you to keep the exterior ports free for other peripherals. There are a total of four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, audio and media card reader, FireWire 400 port, a two-way DisplayPort, and Ethernet port. Use the DisplayPort to connect another monitor, and if years down the road the machine becomes obsolete, use this port as an input. Use it on most Wi-Fi networks with its 802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4 GHz and 5GHz wireless.

Performance and Value

The Xeon E3-128 processor and Nvidia graphics mean it is a fast machine, completing tests faster than other workstations. It didn't beat the iMac during 3D gaming tests, but the overall performance of the Z1 was faster. There is really no way to compare this with anything, as there aren't other competing all-in-one workstations, but you can be sure this will be what other workstations are compared to in the future once they hit the market. Pick one up at the HP SMB Store for $2599.00.