Setup

The monitors can either be connected directly to HP's ZBook 15 G2 or be used via a docking station. HP also provided us with an Advanced Docking Station that we will examine more closely in our next status update. The option of using the docking station is an appreciated gain in comfort, and we will therefore also prefer this method over directly connecting to the laptop.

However, we naturally checked the interfaces in HP's ZBook 15 G2 briefly. While the DisplayPort (1.2) and mini-DisplayPort functioned impeccably, the VGA port delivered a rather blurry image. That might still be enough for low-resolution projectors, but it will not be a pleasure to permanently use flat-screens with it.

The system identified the monitors without problems, and they could be customized immediately. Determine the main monitor, calibrate it, select resolution, ready! AMD's Eyefinity was not available in the AMD Catalyst Control Center version we used, and consequently it could not be tested. Another version that HP's support page provides could not be installed.

Practicality

So, we had two times 2560x1440 pixels and one times 1920x1080 pixels distributed over three monitors in practice. That is a total of 7040x1440 pixels, which results in a lot of space on the desktop. Consequently, multiple documents can be displayed in full-screen at the same time in office use, which considerably facilitates simultaneous editing. There is a lot of room for cropping videos, and Photoshop displays images in an agreeable size in the default view. It is also always possible to move tools, color palettes, or preview screens to one of the other monitors. Video conferencing on monitor 1, video converting on 2, and a bit of Internet browsing on 3 on the side. Workflow really picks up pace here.

Performance/ Reserves

There is no reason for concern about the efficiency of our long-term test workstation in this configuration. We ran multiple, practical load scenarios in multi-monitor operation and were never slowed down by sluggish response times or system crashes. We could only provoke a system load of 47% with the SPECviewperf.11 (2560x1440) CAD benchmark while converting a video at the same time. Internet browsing, office, TV via DVB-T or video conferencing would easily still be possible beyond that. However, games were not much fun when we tried to use a higher resolution than the monitor's limits. The Eyefinity features are likely needed to pool the monitors. In any case, a maximum of 2560x1440 pixels was offered in the settings of the games we tested. However, the FirePro M5100 would not be strong enough to deal with such high resolutions, either. For example, just increasing the resolution dropped the frame rate from 107 fps (1024x768 pixels, low pre-settings) to 24 fps (2560x1440 pixels, low pre-settings) in the relatively undemanding game Dirt Showdown.

Power Consumption

The total system consumes 115 watts just when idling. That includes both HP Z27i monitors, the docking station, and, of course, HP's ZBook 15 G2. The energy requirement clearly increases depending on the load. We measured 164 watts in Catia and 191 watts in Lightwave (both while running SPECviewperf).

System Noise

Multi-monitor operation does not have an adverse impact on the noise characteristics of HP's ZBook 15 G2. We measured virtually identical noise levels of 29.4 dB(A) to 42.1 dB(A) depending on the load scenario.