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HP Announces Z Club Device-as-a-Service Program: Hardware Bundles at $108+ per Month

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In addition to launching “Boosted” versions of its ZBook notebooks, HP has also introduced its Z Club device-as-a-service (DaaS) program. Under the terms of the program, select HP customers will be able to lend certain hardware bundles at a fixed monthly payment, and get a special Z Concierge service. The Z Club will be initially available only to select HP customers, if the company finds it successful enough, it may expand it in the future.

The Z Club DaaS program is aimed at creative professionals, such as artists, graphics designers, photographers, and video editors. For each group HP will offer a special hardware bundle. Furthermore, it will offer a choice of components and accessories that users may install themselves and find out how certain hardware affects their workflow. Select customers of HP that will be offered membership in the Z Club will be able to tryout HP’s hardware and components bundle for free for 90 days and in that period, they will be able to configure systems however they see viable. In addition, Z Club members will be offered Z Concierge service available 24/7. The latter will provide recommendations concerning usage of hardware and software to simplify transition to HP Z workstations.

Initially, HP will offer six hardware packages for different workflows:

The Artist’s Bundle will include HP’s ZBook x2 with Pen, HP’s 24-inch DreamColor 24x display, a 1 TB external drive, wireless keyboard & mouse, collaboration software, as well as Z Concierge and next-day business service. Montly cost of this package will be at $156, exact specs are listed in the table below.

The Graphics Designer’s Bundle will include the HP ZBook x360 with Pen, HP’s DreamColor 24x monitor, a 1 TB external storage device, wireless keyboard & mouse, and the aforementioned software and services. This package will cost $167 a month.

The Video Editor’s Bundle will consist of either HP Z2 Tower or HP Z4 Tower desktop PCs, an HP Z38C curved display, or two 24-inch monitors (see the table for details). Depending on exact configuration, the package will cost from $183 to $210.

The Photographer’s Bundle will feature the HP Z mini workstation or HP ZBook x360 with Pen, a 24-inch display, and a printer. The package will be available for $108 to $180 a month, depending on exact hardware specs.

Keeping in mind that HP intends to offer its customers a choice of hardware to install themselves, actual monthly payments will differ from those of canonical bundles. Meanwhile, a quick analysis of hardware packages and their prices indicate that montly payments are about 27-34 times lower than the current cost of hardware. That said, it makes a great financial sense to rent the workstations when using them for less than 27 - 34 months. At the same time, it will be cheaper to buy hardware if you plan to use it for three years or more.

HP Z Club Hardware Bundles
	Configuration	Approximate* Price of Hardware at HP.com	Monthly Cost
Artists's Bundle	HP ZBook x2 with Pen 14-inch 4K IPS LCD Intel Core i7-8650U 32 GB of DDR4-2133 RAM 1 TB PCIe SSD NVIDIA Quadro M620 2 GB + HP DreamColor Z24x + Wireless Keyboard & Mouse + 1 TB external drive + Services	$5362	$156
Graphics Designer's Bundle	HP ZBook Studio x360 with Pen 15.6-inch 4K LCD Intel Core i7-8750H 32 GB of DDR4-2667 RAM 2×512 GB PCIe SSD NVIDIA Quadro P1000 4 GB + HP DreamColor Z24x + Wireless Keyboard & Mouse + 1 TB external drive + Services	$5738	$167
Video Editor's Bundle 1	HP Z2 Tower Intel Core i7-8700K 64 GB of DDR4-2667 RAM Z Turbo 512 GB PCIe SSD 4 TB 3.5-inch 7200 RPM HDD NVIDIA Quadro P5000 16 GB + HP DreamColor Z24x+ HP Z 24-inch LCD + 1 TB external drive + Wireless Keyboard & Mouse + Services	$5374	$183
Video Editor's Bundle 2	HP Z4 Tower Intel Core i7-7820X 64 GB of DDR4-2667 RAM Z Turbo 512 GB PCIe SSD 4 TB 3.5-inch 7200 RPM HDD NVIDIA Quadro P5000 16 GB + HP DreamColor Z38C Curved LCD + 1 TB external drive + Wireless Keyboard & Mouse + Services	$7090	$210
Photographer's Bundle 1	HP Z2 Mini Intel Core i7-8700 32 GB of DDR4-2400 RAM Z Turbo 256 GB PCIe SSD 1 TB 3.5-inch 7200 RPM HDD + HP DreamColor 24x LCD + 1 TB external drive + HP Photosmart Printer + Wireless Keyboard & Mouse + Services	$2937	$108
Photographer's Bundle 2	HP ZBook x360 with Pen 15.6-inch 4K LCD Intel Core i7-8750H 32 GB of DDR4-2667 RAM 2×512 GB PCIe SSD NVIDIA Quadro P1000 4 GB + HP 24-inch + 1 TB external drive + Wireless Keyboard & Mouse + HP Sprocket Printer + Services	$5479	$180
Note	*Since we do not know exact configuration, actual prices may be different than the ones we picked at HP.com on 10/15/2018.

Buy HP ZBook x2 G4 on Amazon.com

We Test a $1,000 CPU From 2010 vs. Ryzen 3

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#ThrowBackThursday Today we're going to have a bit of benchmark fun as we test out a processor we reviewed in 2010. The Core i7-980X was a hexacore beast, but how does it stack up 8 years later? To find out I'm going to compare it with a whole heap of...

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Macs With Apple-Made CPUs Could Debut in 2020

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An Apple analyst with a great track record thinks Apple could be off Intel chips by 2020.

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iBASE Launches MI995 Mini-ITX Intel CM246-Based Board for Xeon E

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iBASE introduced one of the industry’s first Mini-ITX motherboards for Intel’s Xeon E processors on Tuesday. The MI995 is based on Intel’s mobile CM246 PCH and is aimed at low-power miniature specialized PCs. Meanwhile, small does not mean limitations, so the MI995 has nearly all the expansion capabilities its bigger brothers do.

The iBASE MI995VF-X27 is based on Intel’s CM246 chipset designed for laptops and supporting Intel’s Xeon E processors in FCBGA1440 packaging for mobile workstations. The particular model carries six-core Xeon E-2176M CPU. In addition, the manufacturer also offers the MI995VF-8850 and MI995VF-8400 platforms featuring the QM370 PCH as well as six-core Core i7-8850H and quad-core Core i5-8400H processors respectively. The Xeon-powered SKU supports up to 32 GB of ECC memory, whereas the Core-powered models can carry up to 32 GB of non-ECC DRAM. All the SKUs feature a TPM 2.0 module, and support vPro, iAMT 11.6 remote management, and iSMART 3.5 technologies.

When it comes to expandability, the iBASE MI995 motherboards feature a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot for graphics cards, a mini-PCIe slot, an M.2-2280 slot for SSDs, an M.2-2230 slot for CNVi Wi-Fi solutions, two or four SATA connectors, and so on.

Moving on to connectivity. The MI995 is equipped with two Intel GbE controllers, a Fintek F8196D-I chip for four COM ports, three display outputs, (DisplayPort, DVI-D, HDMI 2.0), six USB 3.1 ports, and audio connectors. As noted above, the motherboards may be outfitted with an optional 802.11ac Wi-Fi CNVi module.

iBASE officially positions its MI995 motherboards for digital signage, gaming, entertainment, and POS applications. Even out of the box, the platform can support multiple displays. Once equipped with a discrete graphics card, the system gains both GPU performance and additional display outputs, just what is needed for digital signage and gaming applications.

iBASE's MI995 Motherboards
	MI995VF-X27	MI995VF-8850	MI995VF-8400
CPUs	Intel Xeon E-2176M 6C/12T 2.7 - 4.4 GHz 12 MB cache 45 W	Intel Core i7-8850H 6C/12T 2.6 - 4.3 GHz 9 MB cache 45 W	Intel Core i5-8400H 4C/8T 2.5 - 4.2 GHz 8 MB cache 45 W
PCH	Intel CM246 + Fintek F81966D-I controller
Graphics	Intel UHD Graphics from CPU PCIe 3.0 x16 slot
Display Outputs	1 × DisplayPort 1.2 1 × eDP header 1 × DVI-D 1 × HDMI 2.0a
Memory	2 × DDR4 SO-DIMM Up to 32 GB of DDR4-2667 ECC or non-ECC, depending on CPU
Slots for Add-In-Cards	1 × PCIe 3.0 x16 1 × miniPCIe
Ethernet	LAN 1: Intel I219LM Gigabit LAN PHY (MI995VF-Series) Intel I219V Gigabit LAN PHY (MI995EF) LAN 2: Intel I210AT Gigabit LAN (MI995VF-X27) Intel I211AT Gigabit LAN (MI995VF-8850/8400, MI995EF)
Storage	4 × SATA 6 Gbps 1 × M.2 (PCIe 3.0 x4 or SATA)	2 × SATA 6 Gbps 1 × M.2 (PCIe 3.0 x4 or SATA)
Audio	Realtek ALC888S-VD2-GR
USB	6 × USB 3.1 Type-A 4 × USB 2.0 Type-A via header
Serial Ports	2 × RS232 2 × RS232/422/485
Wi-Fi	M.2-2230 slot
Operating Temperature	0°C~60°C (32°F~140°F)
Form-Factor	Mini-ITX (170 mm × 170 mm \| 6.7" × 6.7")

iBASE already lists MI995 motherboards on its website, but has not touched upon pricing and availability timeframe.

AMD Zen 2 could be five times better than Ryzen 2nd Generation CPUs

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AMD Zen 2 – AMD's rumored 7-nanometer architecture for processors – is still months away from its expected CES 2019 reveal, but we’re seeing a slow trickle of details come out.

AMD Zen 2 will supposedly feature a 13% increase in instructions per clock (IPC), otherwise known as the instructions executed for each clock cycle. This is impressive because it’s a nearly five-times increase in IPC compared to the 3% increase we saw from the first Ryzen processors to Ryzen 2nd Generation, i.e. Zen to Zen+ architecture.

This latest rumor comes from Bits and Chips, an Italian technology site that claims to have gotten the information from an ”employee of a big company in the know,” who was the source of previous Intel Kaby Lake G leaks that proved to be true.

If the leaks are correct, this increase in IPC could be monumental even in the face of Intel’s rivaling Coffee Lake Refresh processors. Considering the jump from 14nm Zen chips to 12nm Zen+ chips was already impressive in our reviews of the Ryzen 5 2600X and Ryzen 7 2700X, 7nm Zen 2 delivering almost five times the performance would be a game-changing improvement.

The only other small detail we may know about Ryzen 3rd Generation processors with Zen 2 is they could make 8-core and 16-thread processors commonplace – even for the lowest tier Ryzen 3 CPUs. Of course, however AMD’s 7nm processors shake out, you can expect us to report on them live from CES 2019.

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Intel to Split Manufacturing Group into Three Segments

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News today from OregonLive, a reputable source on news out of Intel, has posted that Intel is set to reorganize its manufacturing group. Spurred by the retirement of Sohail Ahmed next month, who has led the group since 2016, the Technology and Manufacturing Group will be split between the Technology Development, Manufacturing and Operations, and the Supply Chain.

Intel’s delays in its 10nm process technology have been extensively discussed, although the reasons behind it have rarely been aired in public. The process technology was originally set to have been in producion in 2016, and although Intel officially ‘shipped for revenue’ an obscure 10nm part in 2017, we are still waiting on the 10nm process to hit the primetime. Normally we expect to see a new major manufacturing process every 18-36 months, however the difficulties Intel has faced by attempting to implement a raft of new features down at the 10nm level have proved bigger than expected.

After the retirement of Ahmed, the full three groups will be headed up by different managers already at Intel:

Technology Development, to be led by CTO Mike Mayberry*
Manufacturing and Operations, led by Ann Kelleher
Supply Chain, led by Randhir Thakur

*Mike Mayberry was the head of Intel Labs. Rich Uhlig will be the new interim manager for Intel Labs.

How the three groups will work together has not yet been determined. As this is still during the transition to 10nm, there could be additional challenges in splitting the groups. This is also on the back of Intel still not having a CEO, after Krzanich was removed earlier this year. Given Intel’s predicted six-month search for a new CEO, we should be hearing about it soon.