News HP Introduces The Z2 Mini G3

Tom's Hardware said:
At Autodesk University in Las Vegas, HP introduced the HP Z2 Mini G3, a mini PC with a workstation-class Nvidia Quadro GPU that supports Intel Xeon E3-1200v5 CPUs.

The small form factor (SFF) PC measures only 8.5 x 8.5 x 2.28 inches, which is decidedly larger than a device such as an Intel NUC, but it’s comparable to many other mini PCs that don’t house discrete graphics. The Z2 Mini is one tenth the size of a traditional workstation tower, and about one fifth the size of HP’s Z240 SFF workstation PC. Furthermore, the Z2 Mini is (on paper) twice as powerful as the aforementioned mini PCs.

The Z2 Mini supports Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, in addition to Xeon E3 processors. It also supports up to 32GB of DDR4 SO-DIMM memory, and the unit can be equipped with Nvidia Quadro M620 graphics with 2GB of memory. It has both a PCIe M.2 connector as well as space for a 2.5” hard drive, and the M.2 slot is positioned so that it can benefit from the cooling offered by the GPU cooler.

Source: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/hp-z2-mini-g3-workstation,33027.html

Basically, mini workstation PC, 2.7 liters, can stick a E3-1200V5 processors in there. Unclear whether or not ECC RAM would be supported with the Xeon (which should support it). If it does support ECC, should be able to put 64GB in there once 32GB ECC DDR4 SODIMM sticks are available (which I believe is feasible/coming when there's enough demand?)

ETA: per their press release (http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-news/press-release.html?id=2364757 footnote 1) it does support ECC ram as that's one of their criteria they're basing their "Industry's First-ever Mini Workstation" claim on.
 
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CC Ricers

Shrink Ray Wielder
Bronze Supporter
Nov 1, 2015
2,233
2,556
Cool, it kinda feels like HP's own answer to the Apexx 1 (and kind of looks like one too). I'm guessing the kinds of expansion cards it supports are the low-profile ones. Although Apexx 1 also supports ECC ram so HP's claim to be the first may be shaky :p
 

vluft

programmer-at-arms
Original poster
Jun 19, 2016
159
140
so HP's claim to be the first may be shaky :p

Yeah, the full list of caveats also includes "volume of 1 million units annually" and <3 liters (Apexx 1 is 5, looks like?), so imo the claim to be first is a bit janky just by itself, but, y'know.
 

Phuncz

Lord of the Boards
SFFn Staff
May 9, 2015
5,827
4,902
I like these on-paper, there a good step-up from using NUCs in the office is more performance or "reliability" is required. The design is nice too, businessy with an edge.