
HP Unveils Mini Workstation - manaskarekar
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-news/press-release.html?id=2364757
======
ChuckMcM
See also the Intel NUC thing: [http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/nuc-
kit-nuc6i7kyk...](http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/nuc-kit-
nuc6i7kyk-features-configurations.html)

What really astonishes me though is how you can have these really nice
machines and Apple doesn't bother to update the Mac mini. Seriously, an Apple
version of this would be a nice desktop.

~~~
daxorid
I have the Skullcanyon NUC, and this is not comparable.

I've been waiting for someone to offer me ECC in a small form factor. This is
the first time I've ever seen it.

~~~
Matthias247
Just interested: What's your use case for ECC? Do you intend to run a server
on it and aim for highest stability?

~~~
Declanomous
I'm putting money on something to do with ZFS. Turns out bit flips are
significantly more common than had been thought in the past, which makes a
error-correcting file system somewhat risky to use with normal non-ecc ram.

~~~
Tomte
In the safety industry everyone knows that bit flips (SEUs) are way more
common than laypeople believe.

And that's for embedded microcontrollers and RAM that aren't nearly pushing it
to extremely small processes.

Let me just quote IEC 61508, where "FIT" means 10e-9 h:

    
    
      Causes of soft errors are: (1) Alpha particles from package decay, (2)
      Neutrons, (3) external EMI noise, (4) Internal cross-talk. External EMI noise is covered by other requirements of
      this international standard.
    
      A soft error occurs when a radiation event causes enough of a charge disturbance to reverse or flip the data state
      of a low energized semiconductor memory cell, register, latch, or flip-flop. The error is called “soft” because the
      circuit itself is not permanently damaged by the radiation. Soft-errors are classified in Single Bit Upsets (SBU) or
      Single Event Upsets (SEU) and Multi-Bit Upsets (MBU).
    
      The soft error rate has been reported (see a) and i) below) to be in a range of 700 Fit/MBit to 1 200 Fit/MBit for
      (embedded) memories. This is a reference value to be compared with data coming from the silicon process with
      which the device is implemented. Until recently SBU were considered to be dominant, but the latest forecast (see
      a) below) reports a growing percentage of MBU of the overall soft-error rate (SER) for technologies from 65 nm
      down.
    
      The following literature and sources give details about soft-errors:
      a) Altitude SEE Test European Platform (ASTEP) and First Results in CMOS 130 nm SRAM. J-L. Autran,
         P. Roche, C. Sudre et al. Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on Volume 54, Issue 4, Aug. 2007
         Page(s):1002 - 1009
      b) Radiation-Induced Soft Errors in Advanced Semiconductor Technologies, Robert C. Baumann, Fellow,
         IEEE, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON DEVICE AND MATERIALS RELIABILITY, VOL. 5, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2005
      c) Soft errors' impact on system reliability, Ritesh Mastipuram and Edwin C Wee,
         Cypress Semiconductor, 2004
      d) Trends And Challenges In VLSI Circuit Reliability, C. Costantinescu, Intel, 2003, IEEE Computer Society
      e) Basic mechanisms and modeling of single-event upset in digital microelectronics, P. E. Dodd and L. W.
         Massengill, IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 583–602, Jun. 2003.
      f) Destructive single-event effects in semiconductor devices and ICs, F. W. Sexton, IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.,
         vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 603–621, Jun. 2003.
      g) Coming Challenges in Microarchitecture and Architecture, Ronen, Mendelson, Proceedings of the IEEE,
         Volume 89, Issue 3, Mar 2001 Page(s):325 – 340
      h) Scaling and Technology Issues for Soft Error Rates, A Johnston, 4th Annual Research Conference on
         Reliability Stanford University, October 2000
      i) International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS), several papers.

~~~
pYQAJ6Zm
So, for let’s say 1 TB, if my calculations follow this correctly, that would
be between ~6 and ~10 SEU/h.

I am worried about my personal backups now.

~~~
Tomte
This is for (S)RAM. I don't know the event rates for flash off the top of my
head, but I'd expect them to be at least an order of magnitude lower.

But take 16GB. With 1000 FIT you get pretty much \pi events in one day.

------
Tempest1981
Tangent: I'm curious about HP's hostname taxonomy. I.e. What products or
content live under www8 vs www2 or www7.

[http://www8.hp.com/..](http://www8.hp.com/..).

~~~
r1k
I assume that's just their way of pinning you to a load balancer.

~~~
Tempest1981
Me too, but then try the same URI at www, www2, www3... it's a 404

~~~
emmelaich
It can still be a load-balancer of sorts, but at a higher layer than layer 7.
Let's call it level8 or the 'wetware' layer.

But yeah, not much duplicated content unless you consider translations
'duplicates' (which it is, at layer8)

------
petepete
So how much RAM could be stuffed in one of these?

Edit: 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.
(from
[http://www.tomshardware.com/news/hp-z2-mini-g3-workstation,3...](http://www.tomshardware.com/news/hp-z2-mini-g3-workstation,33027.html))

~~~
Matthias247
Any idea to which consumer card the Quadro M620 correlates? If it's something
halfway decent then it might be a also a much better ultraportable gaming
solution for some people than e.g. a NUC. However that also depends on if the
Quadro drivers are suitable for gaming or not.

~~~
PascLeRasc
Its desktop variant the K620 performs between a GTX 750 (non-Ti) [1] and a 730
[2], so it doesn't look exceptional. I'd guess around Intel Iris level.

[1] [http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-
Quadro-K620-vs-N...](http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-
Quadro-K620-vs-Nvidia-GTX-750/2840vs3162) [2]
[http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-
Quadro-K620-vs-N...](http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-
Quadro-K620-vs-Nvidia-GeForce-GT-730/2840vsm12582)

~~~
Matthias247
Ok thx, that's quite bad. Had expected more, since some smaller notebooks are
now getting 1060s. But then this thing would probably be much more expensive.

------
croon
By pre-defining specs for the device, you can obviously create a sleak box for
it with no wasted space, but I would claim it will always be impossible to
create something as powerful as something 4 times its size, given the larger
components are still produced, just going off physics. Otherwise no one would
still build towers and just use laptops. (Of course more people use laptops,
but it's not because of performance)

Since they don't mention specs other than "next gen xeon and nvidia graphics",
and the only claim to power is "Building off the success of the HP Z240 SFF,
the HP Z2 Mini Workstation is twice as powerful as any commercial mini PC on
the market today", I won't hold my breath.

Getting better performance than "other mini PCs" is a pretty low bar for a
stationary workstation. I'm unsure who this is for. It's not a laptop, so you
can't bring it with you. A midtower would have better performance and can be
strapped under your desk so you never see it.

~~~
AdamN
That was the theory with the first clocks to go on ships ... but then John
Harrison realized that smaller can be just about as good for a significantly
more useable product:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison#The_longitude_wa...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison#The_longitude_watches)

~~~
m_mueller
Clocks don't need cooling.

------
noja
What's a turbo Z drive? Can I swap it for a Samsung 860 Pro M.2? Can I have
two M.2 devices to raid it? I don't want to lose my work.

Edit: Liliputing says "There’s a 2.5 inch drive bay for a hard drive or SSD
and an M.2 SATA SSD slot." ([https://liliputing.com/2016/11/msi-trident-
compact-vr-ready-...](https://liliputing.com/2016/11/msi-trident-compact-vr-
ready-gaming-pc.html))

~~~
Sephr
It's a 4-way M.2 NVMe raid card, which HP has ignorantly decided to populate
with seemingly mediocre SSDs instead of the current gen flagships from Samsung
or Intel.

You can remove the included SSDs and populate it with up to 4 960 Pro SSDs for
what I imagine would be 14/8 GB/s sequential read/write performance.

Unfortunately there's no way to buy it without the included SSDs, so you're
better off with the unpopulated M.2/mini-SAS NVMe raid cards from Dell,
HighPoint, or SuperMicro.

~~~
gregmac
> Unfortunately there's no way to buy it without the included SSDs

Ah, brings back memories of buying HP servers several years ago. The only way
to get the servers we needed was to buy servers pre-shipped with inadequate
RAM and drives, rip it all out, and then install new drives and new RAM
(purchased at the same time from HP, for an inflated price of course). We were
left with a pile of essentially useless SAS drives and ECC RAM, and still had
to do all the assembly in-house.

I've never had so much trouble getting a company to accept several tens of
thousands of dollars before.. or since.

That project explicitly specified HP hardware, and as far as I know we never
bought HP servers again after that experience.

~~~
znpy
Why was hp hardware a requirement? What was so special about hp hardware?

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
Nobody ever got fired for choosing HP.

------
intrasight
I don't understand why they didn't use a Xeon e3-1545m, which is a 35-45 TDP
part and has adequate graphics for the intended market.

If it doesn't support ECC, there's no benefit vs the Intel Skull Canyon.

I am in the market for a new dev machine, and I want Xeon and ECC. Just not
enough good options currently (unless you build from scratch).

~~~
nextos
It does support ECC, but I don't understand its thermal design. Probably it's
like NUCs, a small box for the sake of prettiness and a tiny-n-cheap fan that
will be noisy.

It's a shame, because you can passively cool things like a i7-6700T these days
without much effort and without ever falling into throttling [1]. Plus, Calyos
is about to release a loop heat pipe that will be able to cool massive systems
without any noise [2].

I wish someone like Apple or perhaps the new Microsoft had the vision to sell
corporate desktops and workstations that did not suck noisewise. I imagine a
little fanless Mac Mini running on Xeon would sell like hotcakes and would
give Apple the chance to gain a further chunk of enterprise marketshare. But
they don't seem to be interested.

[1] [http://www.atlastsolutions.com/ultimate-fanless-mini-itx-
pc-...](http://www.atlastsolutions.com/ultimate-fanless-mini-itx-pc-
core-i7-skylake-8gb-ddr4-250gb-ssd-asus-z170i/)

[2] [http://www.calyos-tm.com/](http://www.calyos-tm.com/)

~~~
SwellJoe
They specifically mention acoustics in the (long) text about it. I would
assume that means they tried to make it quiet. Whether I believe them or not
is up in the air, as my last HP workstation was louder than hell.

~~~
jonloldrup
Is hell particularly loud? I've never been there.

------
digi_owl
Funny how while the PR spiel talks about CAD, the press image is of a stock
trader desk.

~~~
mwfunk
They probably just wanted to show off the 6-display config for that photo.
Stock traders are much more likely to use that particular display arrangement
than engineers.

~~~
gravypod
This packet is probably more for their investors then anything else and
investors probably think 6 monitors means powerful. It's smart marketing to
attack who you are actually advertising to (and here it's business 'leaders').

------
joesmo
"world’s first mini workstation" my ass (and no, the footnote doesn't make it
so). Here's one that supports 7 4k displays and has no fan: [https://airtop-
pc.com/](https://airtop-pc.com/)

------
Merad
It looks nice, but beyond looks I don't really get the appeal. If you want
and/or need the power, and you're already planning to have 3-6 monitors on
your desk, why not go for a slightly larger box that can hold reasonable
cooling solutions that don't sound like a jet taking off when the PC is under
the slightest load? IME, HP is terrible about considering the noise of their
designs. Our current work laptops are HP 1040 G3's, and it doesn't take much
get the fans spinning at a noticeable volume (playing a video + a couple
instances of VS + the normal outlook/web browsers/etc). The 1040 at least has
been an upgrade over our old HP laptops (I forget the model) where the fan
seemed to run at 100% all the time.

~~~
repsilat
> why not go for a slightly larger box

One upside is that this will fit in your carry-on luggage. Cheaper than a
beefy laptop, but I'm not sure portability buys you much if you'd need to
think about mouse/keyboard/monitor too.

Maybe people just want more physical room?

------
pavlov
Seems like this is what I always hoped the Mac Mini would be...

~~~
krylon
If they can actually pull it off without the device either melting or spinning
its fans fast enough to achieve escape velocity, it _does_ sound like a pretty
sweet deal.

------
mi100hael
Support for six displays out of the box is pretty cool. I'm glad manufacturers
are finally supporting more than just one or two displays by default.

~~~
wscott
If you have 6 displays on your desk, why does it matter that your computer is
tiny? Maybe this is a nice portable gaming box...

~~~
to3m
If you've got enough displays, cable length can become a factor! This is much
easier to solve if you've got your PC on your desk, and it's much easier to
fit your PC on your desk if it's smaller rather than larger.

~~~
vetinari
DisplayPort supports chaining (only two monitors, as master/slave, but hey,
it's there).

~~~
jsjohnst
Very few good monitors I've seen support it though. :(

------
manaskarekar
Some more pictures:
[http://store.hp.com/us/en/ContentView?storeId=10151&catalogI...](http://store.hp.com/us/en/ContentView?storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&eSpotName=Z2Mini)

------
xlayn
HP Mac Mini. This is actually interesting, when Apple switched to max 16 Gb of
ram on their PRO line, HP throws something with PRO graphics and Xeon.

~~~
Bud
Apples and oranges. Intel's mobile Skylake processors don't support more than
16GB of low-power RAM; Apple didn't have anything to do with that limitation.

This is a boxy desktop, not a mobile machine.

~~~
jsjohnst
I up voted your response as it's correct, but for anyone who doesn't want to
believe, here's a fully referenced post I made a while back with specific
references in the Intel documentation:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12900834](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12900834)

~~~
dingo_bat
Now I know why both the new surface book and the mbook pro have such paltry
ram configurations. Sad times when intel itself seems to be falling behind.

------
rch
Seems that it ships with a 'choice of Windows 10 Pro or Linux operating
systems', but I don't see which distro.

~~~
digi_owl
Expect RHEL.

~~~
chx
I'd expect Ubuntu on a desktop but what do I know. It's exciting to see Linux
support no matter what.

~~~
digi_owl
Do HP even do desktop Ubuntu? Never mind that this is being angled as a
workstation.

------
rdtsc
This is very nice. I used to have a mac mini and would toss it in my backpack
so I could work at home (I had two sets of displays and good keyboards). I can
see this working out the same (well I work from home now all the time, but in
a general sense I see it used that way too).

Certainly like the performance of it.

------
andrewmcwatters
Seeing stuff like this on HN brings excitement back into tech for me. New
hardware and debatably a challenger to the Mac mini and Intel NUC? Very cool
stuff.

~~~
digler999
Mac mini ? How come nobody has mentioned the mac pro[1] (aka the traschcan-
shaped mac workstation) which is much more closely related to this

[1] [http://www.apple.com/mac-pro/](http://www.apple.com/mac-pro/)

~~~
andrewmcwatters
Solid point. Mac Pro competitor in mini form factor. If only Apple had
something like that, that would be crazy.

------
questionr
better details
[http://www.storagereview.com/hp_introduces_the_z2_industry_s...](http://www.storagereview.com/hp_introduces_the_z2_industry_s_first_mini_workstation)

------
EdSharkey
I am hungry for news of HP's "The Machine" or whatever they're calling it,
which is the big iron that will leverage and be built around the memristor-
based memory.

Any progress on that development?

~~~
IanCal
They dropped the memristors from it last year:
[https://www.engadget.com/2015/06/05/hp-the-machine-no-
memris...](https://www.engadget.com/2015/06/05/hp-the-machine-no-memristors/)

~~~
EdSharkey
Thanks. Sucks they couldn't make it work.

------
0xCMP
I couldn't help but notice this funny marketing line which made me laugh

> The incredibly compact form factor resembles more a super computer from the
> future than a PC of today.

------
24gttghh
Clickbait. Title should read:

"HP Unveils _its_ [1] First-Ever Mini Workstation"

It's certainly not an Industry first, nor a "World's First" as the press
release claims.

[1]Based on publicly available information of workstation competitors as of
October 3, 2016 with volume of at least 1 million units annually as of October
3, 2016 having < 3 litres volume, professional graphics, Intel® Xeon® quad
core processor, ISV certified applications, ECC memory.

~~~
dang
Ok, we took out "Industry’s First-Ever".

~~~
24gttghh
I appreciate it was changed, despite my snark. Thank you.

------
gaius
This is what the Mac Mini should have been

------
davidgerard
Does it sound like a jet engine? I was disappointed how noisy even the small
Lenovo Thinkcentre desktops were.

~~~
kogepathic
It has to. 135W power supply for a device which is 8.5x8.5x2.3"

There's no way that much heat is going to be quietly removed by those tiny
fans.

I'd love some high res photos of the inside so I could look up the data sheet
of the fans in use.

Considering HP servers ship with cooling ducts to direct airflow and this
thing doesn't even seem to have them. I mean look at the CPU exhaust! From the
photos it looks like the only vents are at the corners, but they've decided to
exhaust the CPU (and presumably the GPU, hard to tell since it's under a hard
drive) straight into the rear IO ports which don't have any vents to the
outside.

~~~
mrpippy
From the pictures it looks like the power supply is external

~~~
kogepathic
I'm not aware of PC manufacturers making a SFF PC with an internal power
supply (look at the Dell Optiplex GX620, and Steam machine).

Pretty much any PC small enough to be VESA mountable will have an external
power supply.

Apple has made the power supply on the Mac Mini internal since 2010, but
previous models had an external power supply. I can't find exact numbers, but
I'd be very surprised if the power supply in the current Mac Mini model is
rated for more than 60 or 80W output.

But besides, it doesn't really matter if the power supply is internal or
external, other than it would be a feat of engineering to fit a 135W power
supply and a PC in such a small space. The fact is, that volume is quite small
to fit the components and a heat sink which can handle a 60-80W TDP (CPU+GPU)
without having a _lot_ of airflow over it to keep temperatures under control.

------
nkurz
Is there an obvious reason that they stick with traditional air cooling for
this, rather than using liquid cooling? Here's an example of a compact system
with liquid cooled CPU and graphics card built using off-the-shelf parts:
[http://blog.newegg.com/building-a-mini-itx-gaming-
pc/](http://blog.newegg.com/building-a-mini-itx-gaming-pc/)

I'd think that at this small size, you'd need really high air velocity to make
it work. Coupled with small fans, this generally means the system would be
really noisy. Is liquid cooling still too expensive? Not reliable enough? Not
actually an advantage for noise? Or do the expected purchasers just not care
about excessive fan noise?

~~~
tcdent
Liquid circulation doesn't actually cool, just transfers the energy to another
interface for eventual dissipation into the air.

~~~
dingo_bat
I mean that's exactly what every cooling system does.

~~~
tcdent
Duh. OP suggests liquid cooling would give some benefit to acoustic
performance.

Really, it just adds complexity and bulk; it's not some magic solution to
efficiency or increased performance. Especially in a compact form factor.

If volume is not a constraint, sure the availability of added surface area to
dissipate the heat collected from a smaller surface area is beneficial. Most
high performance, low resonance liquid cooling systems take advantage of
increased surface area using oversized radiators and multiple low-speed fans.

I have successfully designed and implemented my own custom water cooling loops
to pull concentrated heat from multiple components, but there is most
definitely no benefit to the volume occupied by the entire system.

------
Slackwise
> The HP Z2 Mini was designed for the millions of CAD users demanding smaller
> hardware

I'm not a CAD user, but is there really a "demand" for smaller desktop
hardware?

~~~
Matthias247
That's also what I'm wondering. For my primary work PC it's: Either it's
really portable and has a screen - then it should be small. Or it's not
portable - then I don't care as long as it fits on or under the desk.

For some environments however small or invisible hardware and the associated
clean look is definitely a bonus: E.g. if it's a PC in your living room (I
bought a NUC for that), or maybe for publicly exposed working places
(receptionist, ...). But that's not really what is targeted with that
hardware.

~~~
rikkus
On a 'living room' PC: I bought a Thinkpad T430s for £150. It's connected to
the TV, the amp, and syncs various file storage services to itself then backs
them up to various locations with Crashplan.

The best thing about it? If I want to do anything with it, I just open the
lid. Screen, keyboard and pointing device built in.

------
desireco42
I don't do CAD but powerful linux station in small package that can power
multiple screens is something I would be in market for. Let's wait for
reviews...

------
bluedino
Only 2 USB ports?

\- Actually, when you click the review picture with the ports, you can't see
the 2 USB-C ports and 4th DisplayPort. Web design glitch.

~~~
desdiv
Before clicking:
[http://store.hp.com/wcsstore/hpusstore/Treatment/HP_Zmini_q1...](http://store.hp.com/wcsstore/hpusstore/Treatment/HP_Zmini_q1fy17_Gallery_th2.jpg)

After clicking:
[http://store.hp.com/wcsstore/hpusstore/Treatment/HP_Zmini_q1...](http://store.hp.com/wcsstore/hpusstore/Treatment/HP_Zmini_q1fy17_Gallery_zoom2.jpg)

No USB-C ports would be a total deal breaker for me.

------
zeckalpha
Wow. The Mac Mini used to have a quad core version.

~~~
spiderfarmer
I loved that thing. I used it 24/7 for two years and then sold it for just 250
euro below the original price. Overpriced Macs do have their advantages.

~~~
josh64
I still use the 2.3GHz quad core "server" version as my main system and I love
it :) I took one of the 1TB disks out and put an SSD in to make a DIY fusion
drive.

------
cmdrfred
I've deployed a hundred or so HP mini's pro units processionally, utter
garbage. Blurscreened constantly, took 6 months of screaming at their tech
support to get them replaced. I can't recommended any HP product after that.

~~~
AdmiralAsshat
I've got an HP Stream Mini, which I've been perfectly happy with[0]. Granted
it's not a business machine and I don't do any dev work on it, it's just my
living room HTPC. But I totally dig how easy it was to open up and replace the
wifi card, hard-drive, and memory. In fact, my only complaint about it so far
is that I _stupidly_ let it update to Windows 10, and now I periodically turn
my TV on expecting to be staring at Kodi, but instead I get a login screen
because W10 decided to install updates and reboot on me.

[0] [http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/02/cheap-functional-
upgr...](http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/02/cheap-functional-upgradeable-
hps-stream-and-pavilion-mini-desktops-reviewed/)

------
monoid
Sounds like a Steam Machine =)

------
jitix
HP has been coming up with some really innovative PC systems. And they almost
sold the PC division few years back.

This is a good development - PC market might have shrunk considerably but it's
not going to go away.

------
destitude
Gets me sad all over again that Apple refuses to update the Mac Mini.

------
colanderman
"Based on publicly available information of workstation competitors as of
October 3, 2016 with volume of at least 1 million units annually as of October
3, 2016 having < 3 litres volume, professional graphics, Intel® Xeon® quad
core processor, ISV certified applications, ECC memory."

This fine print, particularly the words "Xeon" and "ECC", let them
conveniently ignore the 6th gen i7 NUC:
[http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/nuc-kit-
nuc6i7kyk...](http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/nuc-kit-nuc6i7kyk-
features-configurations.html)

~~~
detaro
To be fair, that is a fairly defining feature of "Workstation" vs "Office PC"
if selling PCs.

------
honkhonkpants
Actually has a footprint larger than the Mac Pro which is only about 7" in
diameter. This has a diameter of 12".

~~~
Leynos
It'd definitely smaller than 12". That's the size of the SFF PC I have on my
desk, and this thing, next to the coffee cup and mouse shown, is definitely
not as large. The subtitle of the article states, "HP Z2 Mini delivers server-
grade power in a 2.3 by 8.5 inch package".

~~~
honkhonkpants
It's 8.5" on each square side and 2.3" high. A square 8.5" on a side has a
diameter of 12".

~~~
Leynos
That makes sense. I'd suggest "diagonal" as opposed to "diameter", as
"diameter" suggests that the measurement is being taken across the flats. I
see what you're saying though. The Mac Mini was, I recall, of roughly the same
area as a CD jewel case, which is consistent with the size you describe.

------
PascLeRasc
No audio output as far as I can tell, and after I plug in my USB keyboard and
mouse I'll be out of ports.

~~~
jsjohnst
USB hub? Many monitors have them these days built in. If yours doesn't, Amazon
sells them for barely more than the cost of shipping these days.

~~~
PascLeRasc
Still, there's room on the case for additional front and back ports, and all
the hubs I've used have had problems. It also defeats the clean look of the
machine.

~~~
jsjohnst
anecdata: I've bought more hubs than I care to count for multiple employers
and not had issues. Also, the monitor hub route wouldn't affect the "clean
look" of the machine any more than having a dozen cables sticking out of it
every which way.

------
walshemj
Only $799 the average full sized workstation has CPU's that cost more than
this.

~~~
detaro
For the most basic model, I wouldn't be surprised if there are going to be
options at more than double the price...

~~~
wscott
If you can't get this up to $4000 by enabling all the options then HP is doing
it wrong.

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JohnStrange
Good specs, I wonder what it will cost with maxed out memory.

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homero
I love these cute machines

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JadeNB
What is the etiquette on posting literal company press releases? I'm not
asking snarkily, but mean it as a serious question. I don't want to see an HN
that's dominated by ads for the latest gadgets, but I understand that this
_is_ something of interest to hackers, and perhaps that criterion dominates
all others.

~~~
manaskarekar
Honestly, I felt a little dirty posting this, but I stumbled on it on some
blog and thought of linking straight to the press release.

I just thought this was an interesting product. I am in no way affiliated with
HP or have any financial incentive in sharing this link.

~~~
maxerickson
Yeah, I think the same rules apply as for any other link.

(which the way I see it, as long as you aren't posting a torrent of boring HP
links, it would even be fine if you worked at HP and posted the link, so long
as it is interesting)

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toisanji
this does not seem interesting to hackers at all

~~~
rch
It is if it ships with Linux.

~~~
jasonkostempski
I'm sure they're referring to upgradability which is the last attractive
feature of desktops. I can't figure out why anyone would care how big their
tower is. If you're going to have an array of 6 monitors, I'm sure you've got
an extra square foot or 2 for a standard tower that won't lock you into HP
components.

~~~
intrasight
You'd be surprised how much two square feet cost in a trading floor in
Manhattan. Plus enterprise customers are typically "locked in" anyway.

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finid
_Support your unique user needs with a choice of Windows 10 Pro or Linux®
operating systems._

Above that line on the product's page is the Micorsoft Windows logo. HP should
know that Linux also has an official logo. Put it there

