Finally! After a delay of two years to first get the cash together and then a further EIGHT months delay compliments of an administrative mess at HP South Africa (you seriously dropped the ball on this one guys), my editing dream machine has finally arrived. Spec'ed out and custom built for me by a man with a fancy Italian name. 

I love this machine. Built on a 17" Zbook G3 chassis I had it jam-packed with as much memory and onboard storage as the motherboard would allow. I've been fortunate to have worked on pro level HP machines since I got started in Avid systems more than 10 years ago, and HP's latest offering in high-end mobile workstations does not disappoint in terms of quality. Initial observations: the keyboard is backlit (an improvement over the little LED light my last Elitebook had), the fan is dead quiet (in fact the entire machine runs extremely cool compared to my 15" Elitebook that has serious heat buildup issues), the 17" display is super bright with fantastic clarity, and overall the build quality is simply rock solid.

It also features two Thunderbolt ports which I will definitely be using as soon as I can lay my hands on some Lacie Rugged Thunderbolt drives. Thankfully HP has also come to its senses and changed the DisplayPort HD port back to good old HDMI.

What don't I like? Not much really. I would have loved one or two extra USB ports, but the Thunderbolt ports are a consolation there. And the machine is heavy, but that is to be expected of something with Milspec construction and loaded up with this much hardware. Another downer that has nothing to do with the machine is the service I received from HP, which was beyond shit to put it mildly. A simple administrative oversight delayed my machine for more that six months after I ordered it. Prior to that I battled for two months just to get a quote and a human being to react to my repeated inquiries. It went through SA Customs twice and probably only finally arrived in the country thanks to the tireless efforts of my local computer store's manager. Seriously HP, you make awesome hardware but your customer service leaves much to be desired.


Above: three generations of high-end HP mobile workstations. No pensioners here, they all still work hard every day.

I now own three generations of pro level HP laptops and EVERY single one of them can still edit video at moment's notice. In fact every single one still works hard everyday. So the Apple fraternity can kiss my motherboard - PC is far from dead and gaining fast on your hipster tails.

Now if only HP South Africa can get its act together...