Patrick's HP ZBook Studio G3 15.6 Mobile Workstation

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Patrick

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Going to keep a few notes. I got this to replace my Lenovo Yoga 900. I love the Yoga series but I wanted a RJ-45 network jack and a lower screen resolution.

Power
I have no idea why this is still using a barrel connector for power. I do like the power adapter setup over the Lenovo wall wart. A longer cord is nice. Ended up ordering https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LZHVDV5/ which has plenty of reach and was cheap (always need a second power adapter right?)

Battery
Putting battery power performance settings to full battery saver seems important. I think it can get around 8 hours like that and low-end office work. I ordered a 9 cell battery because 8 hours is just not enough.

Screen
The 1920x1080 resolution is a bit low, but still needed for many server admin apps. I do wish it was a touchscreen. If anyone sees an assembly for this let me know.

RAM
16GB I am not even fully online but already using 35%+ without Photoshop or Excel open. Looking at 4X70J67438 16GB ECC SODIMM DDR4-2133 Memory Lenovo ThinkPad P70 20ES 6th gen v5 | eBay as an upgrade.

GPU
Performance wise, the Iris Pro 580 and the NVIDIA Quadro M1000M is an awesome combo. Even better, applications like Photoshop and Premiere Pro CC can use the GPU for acceleration. I fired up CS:GO for a few minutes and got 60-110fps consistently with max settings. Going to medium and 100+ FPS is easy to achieve.

The audio was terrible via earbuds so you would likely need another solution if you really wanted to game on it.

I ordered the M2000M so if that shows may do an upgrade to see just how fast it is and whether it is worth the upgrade.

CPU
The Intel Xeon E3-1545M V5 is WAY faster than the Intel Core i7-6560U. I know it comes with a power penalty but the additional cores / threads and extra clock speeds are nice. Essentially, this is a higher clocked version of the Skulltrail NUC (see here Intel® Product Specification Comparison). Easily perceptible difference between the Yoga 900 Core i7 and this.

Storage
I am going to install a second hard drive and put Ubuntu on there. I am not 100% sure it is needed, but I want to try it.

OS Setup
The machine came with Windows 7 Pro. I simply put a Windows 10 Pro installation USB in and set the system up.

One bit here, this required a TON of edits. ME firmware updates, BIOS updates, Iris Pro and NVIDIA driver updates, HP trackpad, and hotkey drivers. It took a long time to get this system online.

Noise
The system is dead quiet when the GPU is not running. When it is rendering video or playing game, it is loud.
 
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Patrick

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This is not good news. I noticed that the notebook was not charging last evening on the 6+ hour flight home.

Cycle count 5 / 1000 and it has a failure and replace code. Not good.
upload_2017-12-20_19-3-22.png
 

Patrick

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ouch...
Chris
So this is some good news. 34 months left on the warranty. They offered to mail the battery. I said I need it before my next trip. I then got "oh you have the 24-hour on-site replacement so we will get a tech out tomorrow to replace this for you."

For those who bought the ZBooks from ANT, they came with on-site support and the warranty works.
 
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Jannis Jacobsen

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I'm amazed how good of a deal that machine was.
Really annoyed I didn't have the funds on hand to jump on it :)
(that would have added a bit on shipping + 25% vat, but it would still be a seriously good deal...)

-J
 

Patriot

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The warranty on hp and hpe machines is really nice. bought a ML110gen9 on ebay for $475, still under warranty. bum psu, got it replaced 17hrs after asking for one.
 
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Joel

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I have similar experience with my Dell Precision lappy. Bought refurb from Ebay, and had two issues:

1. 64gb ECC issue: I used Crucial 2400 sticks to try to get 64gb ECC memory in it, but the system wouldn't boot with more than 32 installed. I contacted Dell support and they replaced the mainboard. Didn't fix the issue, but I found out that it's a BIOS problem because the system only supports 2133 and can't downclock more than 32; it works with OEM memory but I didn't feel like changing. I gave up on this one.

2. Just recently, the LCD panel developed a vertical line (looks like an entire column of dead pixels), and sent it in. They replaced the LCD and had it back to me within 4 days (I mailed it on a Saturday). Laptop is 1.5 years old at this point.
 

Patrick

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Well, as an update "next-day on-site" apparently means you report an issue on the evening of the 20th and with Christmas, the earliest it is expected to happen is the 27th. HP apparently does not stock the batteries and they have to be sent ground.
 

hweisheimer

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Dec 9, 2015
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So this is some good news. 34 months left on the warranty. They offered to mail the battery. I said I need it before my next trip. I then got "oh you have the 24-hour on-site replacement so we will get a tech out tomorrow to replace this for you."

For those who bought the ZBooks from ANT, they came with on-site support and the warranty works.
I'd never paid for that kind of warranty before, but my refurbished XPS15 came with on-site service. I'd have happily wrenched on it myself, but getting parts so fast is pretty awesome!
 

Patrick

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The HP tech called today. Made an appointment and the machine now has a functioning battery!
 

AJXCR

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Patrick,

I thought I'd make a couple of comments since I've been playing around with a Studio G4 quite a bit as well recently. As discussed, I'm going to move the majority of what I've posted comment & comparison wise to a new thread in this section of the forum momentarily.

GPU
Performance wise, the Iris Pro 580 and the NVIDIA Quadro M1000M is an awesome combo. Even better, applications like Photoshop and Premiere Pro CC can use the GPU for acceleration. I fired up CS:GO for a few minutes and got 60-110fps consistently with max settings. Going to medium and 100+ FPS is easy to achieve.

The audio was terrible via earbuds so you would likely need another solution if you really wanted to game on it.

I ordered the M2000M so if that shows may do an upgrade to see just how fast it is and whether it is worth the upgrade.
Have you had any luck getting the M1000M to provide 4K @60Hz with high image quality settings enabled (e.g. Desktop color depth: Highest, Output color depth: 8 bpc, Output color format: RGB, Output dynamic range: Full) via the HDMI port? With my very similar M1200 GPU, I've not had any luck to date.

Regarding the audio, with the amount of time you spend traveling, I'd be shocked if you didn't have a set of Bose Quietcomfort 35 II noise cancelling wireless headphones. They're pretty much the bee's knees on an airplane/in a hotel room.. Particularly considering that they have a mic built in and connect to all of your devices simultaneously. Interestingly, I discovered a few weeks ago that if connected to the ZBook and your iPhone at the same time, Skype for business will use your iPhone mic, send audio through the headphones, and maintain all normal functions on the computer.. seamlessly.

Bose is never something I'd purchase if chasing sound quality, but when it comes to noise cancelling they are tough to beat. While they'll never touch a set of Sennheiser HD800's hardwired to an external DAC and headphone amp, I have absolutely no complaints regarding sound quality for an "away from your desk" solution. Range seems to be approx 50ft; battery life a non-issue (a true 15+ hours min)

CPU
The Intel Xeon E3-1545M V5 is WAY faster than the Intel Core i7-6560U. I know it comes with a power penalty but the additional cores / threads and extra clock speeds are nice. Essentially, this is a higher clocked version of the Skulltrail NUC (see here Intel® Product Specification Comparison). Easily perceptible difference between the Yoga 900 Core i7 and this.
So I have a 1535Mv6 (lower spec, one gen newer) processor in my machine and yes it's fast, but it also throttles performing semi-cpu intensive tasks... a lot. I borrowed my old P50 I sold to a friend in order to take the comparison pictures in the other thread and took that opportunity to perform a few quick non-scientific tests. When transferring 400GB to a network share or manipulating a massive excel or database file for instance, the P50 (1505Mv5, 64GB ECC, M2000M, was significantly faster. I would say the same holds true for manipulating large RAW files in Lightroom CC 16 Classic.

I seem to recall reading that HP might have artificially restricted processor TDP for the G4's in an effort to reduce heat.. If true, this might account for the different experience we seem to be having.

Storage
I am going to install a second hard drive and put Ubuntu on there. I am not 100% sure it is needed, but I want to try it.
As I'm sure you've already discovered, there are two issues here:
1. Larger battery you've ordered prevents the use of the second m.2 slot without using some kind of adapter to relocate the drive.

2. It would appear that the second m.2 port might be connected to 1x rather than 4x PCIe lanes. (see my post)

It's worth noting, however, that the 1TB SM961 that came in my ZBook benchmarks better than 2x RAID0 512GB 950 pro's in the P50.. I haven't investigated, but I would assume this has something to do with the 950's potentially being downstream of the PCH on the P50.

I installed the Samsung NVMe driver in the ZBook.


OS Setup

The machine came with Windows 7 Pro. I simply put a Windows 10 Pro installation USB in and set the system up.

One bit here, this required a TON of edits. ME firmware updates, BIOS updates, Iris Pro and NVIDIA driver updates, HP trackpad, and hotkey drivers. It took a long time to get this system online.
I've done this several times now moving from Pro to Enterprise to Enterprise LTSB. By far the easiest way to accomplish the clean install is to use the HP Sofpak manager to select the latest versions of the drivers and software you actually want to keep, build a driver package file, and then wipe the machine. When clean installing W10 on a machine that isn't going to be managed via AD/GP, I generally boot into the installer, select custom, delete ALL of the partitions, find and load my F6 driver, and let Windows complete the install process. Once it wraps up I skip the step requesting a network connection, spend a while making all of the appropriate privacy fixes (including getting rid of Cortana and disabling the "Auto download manufacturers' drivers" setting, run the previously constructed driver package, and then you're ready to go!

To really do it right you could build a machine independent .iso that already incorporated all of your preferred settings using one of Microsoft's enterprise tools..


Noise

The system is dead quiet when the GPU is not running. When it is rendering video or playing game, it is loud.
Apart from the temporary (but easily fixed) fan issue I experienced, mine is dead silent as well.. Until I open something like Lightroom that is.. :rolleyes:

For the most part, I absolutely love the machine. I think the materials/rigidity of the aluminum/magnesium case provide a premium feel relative the P50, and the size (both computer and power brick) is phenomenal.

I'm still on the fence about how valuable the lesser size and weight are for me, however.. There is still a decent chance I'm going to swap it out for a ZBook 15 G4 which offers superior cooling, drive capacity, 4x dimm slots, and an MXM GPU (which could theoretically be swapped out for a higher spec Pascal card).

-Craig
 

Patrick

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@AJXCR I still use the wired Bose. Wireless will be when these break down.

I only use the laptop display which is 1080.

Getting the larger battery has been hard. I even asked the service tech and could not do it.