New ZBook Studio G4 (Loaded)

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AJXCR

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Since it came with Windows 7 Pro, it is the first thing you should do! It is Win 10 Pro with license rights to Win 7 Pro that it is using so you are OK doing so.

On my last Lenovo I spent quite a bit to go from Home to Pro.

Battery life is bad when the NVIDIA GPU is churning. It does get somewhat hot. When you go into low power mode and just use office applications the stock battery I am getting around 8-9 hours on. Not great but enough for any trip without an outlet. I have not flown in the past 4 days since getting it, but the huge 150W AC adapter should be more airplane power outlet friendly than the typical wall wart version.

Here are the upgrades I am doing. Quadro M2000M arrives tomorrow (hopefully)
Patrick's HP ZBook Studio G3 15.6 Mobile Workstation
This is EXTREMELY interesting.. I was under the impression that unlike the standard ZBook 15, the studio did not have an MXM GPU...
 

AJXCR

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@AJXCR i would consider it small for how powerful it is, I would not however compare it to a 2017 MacBook Pro (not to mention that power ‘brick’)

Interesting.. Well, I'm typing this from a 2017 15" MBP and my studio G4 arrives on Thursday.. I'll be posting pics one they are both in hand.. Physical diminsions appeared very similar?
 

Joel

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Good point. I know the Dell 5510 maxes out at the m1000m, presumably due to TDP. The Lenovo P50s is has only a wimpy m500m.
 

AJXCR

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What's interesting is this is a 'mobile workstation' but doesn't have HP's docking port connector on it. Fail! Their thunderbolt dock is far more expensive than the traditional docks.

I think the only real benefit you're getting of buying this device is the fact it can us ECC RAM which I doubt most users here need on a mobile device.

from notebookcheck:

The ZBook Studio G3 is a small mystery to us. HP delivers a great product in some respects, while it disappoints in other categories. Sadly, overall, our impression of the ambitious workstation is negative. This is mainly a result of the emissions as well as the battery runtimes. The surfaces reach alarmingly high temperatures that can cause burns, even with normal workloads. The fan behavior is also very annoying, because both fans act independently, get very loud and pulsate heavily. The practical runtimes of less than four hours are also hard to justify for a device that is actually pretty mobile. Otherwise, there are just small issues, like the lack of a SmartCard reader or the missing WWAN module.

Wouldn't feel too bad if you miss out on this deal.
No offense, but why on earth would you use a legacy docking port when you have TB3 ports with 4x PCIe lanes attached...? Why not throw in a floppy drive as well?? :p

Additionally, I hate the major review sites.. everything has to be taken with a grain of salt as they often compare two computers with drastically different spec levels, and then bash a computer simply because the demo machine they received didn't come with a particular option. To a non critical/familiar reader, this is misinformation.

Thermal/fan issues have been addressed in the G4 via firmware. I suspect the same would be true of the G3 at this point....

Battery life? Buy the larger battery.
 

Joel

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Interesting.. Well, I'm typing this from a 2017 15" MBP and my studio G4 arrives on Thursday.. I'll be posting pics one they are both in hand.. Physical diminsions appeared very similar?
Besides the fact that the G4 actually has... ports & stuff. How retro. :D
 

MiniKnight

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This is EXTREMELY interesting.. I was under the impression that unlike the standard ZBook 15, the studio did not have an MXM GPU...
My fault... I told the boss @Patrick the wrong thing. At least I offered $20 for him to try to find this out the hard way.
 

Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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Interesting.. Well, I'm typing this from a 2017 15" MBP and my studio G4 arrives on Thursday.. I'll be posting pics one they are both in hand.. Physical diminsions appeared very similar?
Have both in the office may have to stack side by side and see, certainly looking at both on different desks and not side by side they look rather different, if the dimensions are really similar then it’s probably just a case of the materials used and textures of the HP. Could be just an optical illusion.

I choose not to use the HP workstation instead of a different notebook as I had the impression it was a kind of large brick, could be time to take a look and maybe I should swap.
 

NetWise

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Jun 29, 2012
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Man, I showed up late to the party. I bought one of these completely independent of this thread, should probably have checked in sooner.

Anyone had any luck getting the TB3 dock working? I can't get displayport out of the dock, a TB to DP adapter, or the DP :( Done all the driver updates and everything, but very little luck.
 

AJXCR

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Man, I showed up late to the party. I bought one of these completely independent of this thread, should probably have checked in sooner.

Anyone had any luck getting the TB3 dock working? I can't get displayport out of the dock, a TB to DP adapter, or the DP :( Done all the driver updates and everything, but very little luck.
Every machine I’ve owned w/TB3 usually required a special “process” to get it up and running (driver/firmware installation order, plugging in a device while installing the drivers, etc).

The cables can be a bit tricky too, but if you’re using the HP dock I doubt there would be an issue. Have you updated the dock firmware? I believe the driver page for my model has several dock related downloads..

I’ve had my G4 for a week or so now.. really enjoying it. My primary concerns (fan noise and battery life) are non issues. The trackpad isn’t as good as the MBP, but it’s one of the best non-Apple trackpads I’ve ever used. The only thing I really would like to have are physical trackpad buttons... but this is true of every notebook, including the MacBook Pro.

I’ll try to post some comparison pics later tonight.

Edit- Wanted to point out that I also prefer both the keyboard and dreamcolor screen on the G4 relative to the MBP..
 
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AJXCR

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Alright, I know I've been promising MBP vs ZBook Studio comparison pictures for quite some time and have yet to deliver.. So, hoping that some of you subscribe to the better late than never theory, please find a few pictures comparing the two machines below:





























A couple observations to date:
-A few days ago the ZBook suddenly experienced an issue where the fans were running 100% non-stop from the second the machine was powered up (during post). After checking all of the settings, running all of the diagnostics, and re-flashing the BIOS, I popped the back off the computer to re-apply the CPU thermal paste as a last resort effort to eliminate the issue before calling HP. While in there, I remembered a similar issue with a Lenovo P50 which was remedied by unplugging the battery, holding down the power button, plugging the battery back in, and rebooting. Following this process eliminated the fan issue completely on the ZBook as well. The one other thing I touched while I was in there is the two dimms- I removed and reinstalled them (I doubt this had anything to do with it).

-The one glaring issue I have with the ZBook is the fact that it only seems to support only "YCbCr420" and "Limited" options for output color format and output dynamic range (respectively) when attaching an external monitor via the HDMI port. This is a real problem for me as it absolutely ruins the picture quality on my OLED screen. If moving to a Thunderbolt dock doesn't solve the issue, this is the one drawback which might cause me to return it for a Zbook G4 (non-Studio) or learn to live with the drawbacks of a MBP dual booting Windows. My P50 with the M2000M handled this no problem (via TB3 port).

-With the high capacity battery installed, only one m.2 port is usable without adding some kind of ribbon cable/adapter to re-position the drive.

Other than that, the notebook is phenomenal. I couldn't be more pleased with the dimensions (note that the Macbook Pro in the pictures is about the same thickness as my iPhone with a case installed).

-Craig
 
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AJXCR

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Another interesting observation for anyone thinking they might want to run 2x m.2 drives in the ZBook Studio G4 (either by utilizing the smaller battery, or relocating the drive via an adapter).. It would appear that only one of the two ports is a true 4 lane PCIe connection:



 

Joel

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So I'm considering making a similar move away from my 7510... Any regrets 3 months later?

I had Xeon/ECC in the "old" machine, but looking back I really didn't need it at all. Eying a Studio G4 with i7 and Dreamcolor display. Memory and SSD I'll upgrade myself ($700 for 32gb HP, really??).
 
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AJXCR

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So I'm considering making a similar move away from my 7510... Any regrets 3 months later?

I had Xeon/ECC in the "old" machine, but looking back I really didn't need it at all. Eying a Studio G4 with i7 and Dreamcolor display. Memory and SSD I'll upgrade myself ($700 for 32gb HP, really??).
Well, it was a fantastic computer and I have no complaints, however, I ended up selling it for more than I paid (after tax) and bought a ZBook 15 G4.

Wanted to try swapping in a P3000 as the Studio card isn't MXM. I also take the computer out to field locations on a regular basis and always felt like I was going to tear up the (extremely nice) magnesium/aluminum case. For all practical purposes, it's a far less expensive and more powerful MBP that is actually serviceable.
 
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NetWise

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Hey, just trying to confirm...

The high capacity 92.4whr battery for the G3 is 907584-852? Where have you folks been able to source it, and how much? Thanks!