HP ZBook Studio x360

Here's what is listed on my invoice:

• HP IDS DSC P2000 4GB E-2186M Studiox360 G5 Base NB PC [5SJ33AV]
• Premium Packaging [4AD11AV]
• Windows 10 Pro 64 Workstations Plus AUST [2YT52AV#ABG]
• Win10 Driver DVD [2YS76AV]
• Win10 PRO 64 OS DVD AUST [2YT53AV#ABG]
• Integrated HD 720p IR DualAryMic Webcam [2YT31AV]
• ZBook Studio x360 Pen [2YS89AV]
• 15.6 inch UHD (3840x2160) LED UWVA for HD Webcam + IR uslim Touchscreen ALSensor [2YS75AV]
• 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 2666 [2YS95AV]
• 1TB PCIe NVMe Three Layer Cell Solid State Drive [2YT01AV]
• WNC XRAV-1 NFC [2YS90AV]
• Intel 9560 ac 2x2 +Bluetooth 5 WW [2YT32AV]
• No WWAN [2YS87AV]
• Fingerprint Sensor [2YT00AV]
• 6 Cell 95.6 WHr Long Life [2YS47AV]
• 150 Watt Smart Slim AC Adapter [2YS45AV]
• C5 1.0m Tag Power Cord AUST [2YT41AV#ABG]
• 3/3/3 Warranty A/P [2YT39AV#UUF]
• DIB No Adobe Software [2KY02AV]
• AMT Enabled [2YS77AV]
• Country Localization AUST [2YT45AV#ABG]
• Clickpad Backlit Collaboration AUST [2YT43AV#ABG]
• Warranty Book 2016 AP 3YR [X9H39AV]
• eStar Enable IOPT [X9H35AV]
• Intel Xeon Label [1AF06AV]

In hindsight, I should have added in the HP Thunderbolt G2 -- although not sure if I would have gotten a cheaper price. Still not convinced I want to spend $400 on a dock that may or may not work with Linux.

At least according to the HP Australia site, they do 14 day returns as long as it's in new condition. I guess once my x360 arrives, I could always buy the Thunderbolt G2, try it out with Linux, then send it back if it doesn't work properly.

 

LoL HP offers it in Australia but not in North America... if the spec sheet is right...

The Thunderbolt dock is nice but it is big money.

I'm bitter I didn't realize that NFC isn't stock option but yours has it.

I'm thoroughly jealous.

 

Well looks like there's a Zbook Studio x360 G6 about to show up in the near future.

Also here's the official HP advisory about light leakage on the panels. At the bottom they list an x360 G5 and G6.

https://support.hp.com/au-en/produc...tible-workstation/20075826/document/c06060715

 

Haha, damn. I only got my G5 a few days ago.. Will be interesting to see when they release the G6 and what improvements it has.

So far I like it, but I haven't set it up properly yet. It comes with a Samsung MZVLB1T0HALR-000H1. I'm wanting to encrypt my windows partition with Veracrypt, but I'm having difficulty determining if this particular NVMe SSD has OPAL or some other self-encryption, which I would want to disable first.

I'm also unsure about the impact of running encryption (Veracrypt for Windows, LUKS for linux) on the life of the SSD, particularly TRIM and wear-levelling.. I'm getting very mixed information.

Anyway, I'll add some more info on it as I set it up, etc. So far, loving the build quality. No issues with the glass on the 4K display.. So I'm guessing the inking / discolouration is limited to the 1080p model. Brightness seems fine, but despite setting this with the function keys, I think the adaptive brightness keeps overriding this setting.

Fairly impressed with the sound quality from the inbuilt speakers, too.. For a laptop, anyway. Weighs in at 2256 grams, which I'm fine with (I had read some people reporting weights of around 2.4 kg). I haven't tested battery life yet, but will today.

 

In Windows, go to the power settings to shut off adaptive brightness. Generally speaking though I've found the auto brightness will only pull brightness a lot if it's set to recommended or suggested.

As for the drive... I highly suggest getting the Samsung NVME driver for Windows.

The parts manual is a bit vague about the 1TB drives, it would likely be listed as a SED or Self Encrypting Drive by HP, if it is theb it has OPAL2 support.

TRIM should be data agnostic, so even if the drive is fully encrypted it should still behave. TRIM even functions behind RAID now, since the drive's firmware does it itself. You can't use software based TRIM. Something I would suggest is setting an Over Partition of 5 to 10% of the drive's space. So have 900GB partitioned however and leave the other space unpartitioned. It gives the drive slack space to work with and will guarantee that the drive's garbage collection and wear levelling works as intended. Bonus thevdrive will outperform it's stock self... lol

For your speakers in Windows, try setting the volume around 20% with the AC adapter connected. Do you get distortion/static? For me below 30% volume and I have to disconnect the AC adapter or it's static and broken sound. I'm wondering if it's a problem.

I could see 2.4Kg if you had the 3 HDDs, privacy panel, and every option plus stylus.

 

So I decided to pop in my new ram. A nice set of HyperX DDR4-2666 CL15. A noticable impact on memory latency from the stock Samsung DDR4-2666 CL19.

According to UserBenchmark latency tests:
Stock Ram: 63.6ns
HyperX Ram: 58.8ns

Single vs Dual Channel Ram

GPU score for Intel UHD 630:
Stock: 8.89%
HyperX: 9.86%

The rest of these are 6C/6T dual channel first:

Intel XTU scores:
6C/6T = 1,885(1,228)

PCMark10: 4,870(3,843)
Essentials: 9,380(8,551)
Productivity: 6,855(6,430)
Content Creation: 4,875(2,802)

CineBench R20
Single: 2,039(1,187)
Multi: 400(381)

So I repasted it with MX4, idles at 39/40'C now and ran the xtu benchmark:

Original Paste: 3.86Ghz/83'C
-------->
Redone 6c/12t: 3.93Ghz/71'C

Whoa that's pretty good, a 12 celcius improvement with just goop. Though the score only shifted 1pt between normal and high.

Edit: Added the original 6C/6T single channel benchmarks. I noticed that by giving it dual channel it actually beats the 6C/12T single channel scores:

PCMark10
6/6/DC vs 6/12/DC vs 6/12/SC vs 6/6/SC:

4,870 vs 5,030 vs 4,757 vs 3,843

Edit2: added 12 thread PCmark and dual channel score.

I beat the 4K Gaming PC reference score!

 

Hmm, I'm not sure if I have the sensors set up incorrectly, or what.. but I'm noticing in Linux, I'm getting Core temps up to 94 C, but CPU usage is only maxing out at 22%.. Yes, I'm running a Xeon E-2186M, but that seems excessively high?

I'm not sure what to use, but I might have to try some benchmarking in windows to see if it's similar..

 

I'm going to say that the system doesn't seem to be spinning up the fans properly.

I saw mid 80'S running Intel's XTU memtest for an hour.

Though 23% on 12 cores(HTT) is 3 cores at almost 100%, and without HTT is 2 cores. I know the 2186 gets hot but that does seem kind of excessive.

In windows grab the HP Softpaq manager, select the three latest versions of Windows 10 Pro 64 and then run the update check. Grab the HP Performance Advisor and update everything else.

In the HP performance advisor it can read out the fan speeds so you can make sure they are ramping properly.

 

I still haven't booted back into Windows and checked temperatures yet.

I've landed on Arch linux, which seems to give me good performance on the newer kernels, and honestly I haven't been throwing heavy workloads at this thing yet.. Just some basic development stuff for now.

My overall impression of this laptop is that I love it. The Optimus setup on Linux has been a bit of a pain (particularly around power management and having to switch between GPUs to get maximum performance), but there hasn't been anything fundamentally wrong with it. I also honestly haven't used it on the battery much either, which I should do -- my battery ETA readings are still a bit jumpy.

After using a 4K panel (even just on a 15" display), I'm really struggling with lower resolutions on other devices. I'm wanting to replace the 8 year old 1080p BenQ external monitor I'm currently using. I like the idea of a 34" Ultrawide, however I'm a little unsure about 3440x1440 resolution. I'm looking at the LG 34K95U-W, which runs at 5120x2160.

Has anyone output to a monitor at this high of a resolution? The QuickSpecs indicate the Zbook Studio X360 G5 supports DisplayPort 1.3, and has this:

So I'm assuming I should be okay? Not sure how 5K output works for the Optimus setup on this laptop.. as the UHD P630 only supports up to 4K output. I'm assuming the Quadro P2000 can output to DisplayPort at 5K?

 

I believe the Quadro would have to be locked on, and run as the only GPU for it to take over the outputs.

I'm glad you are enjoying yours, I want to enjoy mine, but HP certainly makes it difficult.

I'm sitting now because the keyboard is truly glitching, missing key strokes. The system board has also been flagged for replacement.

Sigh...