HP Z2 A1NX5UTABA 2024, Core i9-14900K, 32GB, 1TB SSD

The i9-14900K is still a 95th-percentile monster for CPU performance, but the HP Z2 G9 is now completely out of stock and its overall score has dropped to 62. Even if you find one, you'll still need to add a dedicated GPU immediately. The integrated graphics produce a gaming score of just 15.5 out of 100, which hasn't changed and still stings.

That 24-core i9-14900K is the star of the show. It blasts through multi-threaded workloads like nobody's business, landing firmly in the top 5% of all desktops we've tested. In practical terms, you're looking at compile times, render exports, and data analysis runs that are notably faster than most prebuilt workstations at this price. The 32GB of DDR5 keeps memory bandwidth ample, and the 1TB SSD delivers quick boots and file transfers—though at the 64th percentile, it's solidly average for capacity.

But then the GPU brings everything to a screeching halt. The Intel UHD 770 is fine for driving a couple of displays and handling spreadsheets, but it's a bottleneck for anything graphically intensive. Our gaming score of 15.5 ranks it among the weakest we've seen. If you're looking to do any real-time 3D modeling, GPU-accelerated rendering, or video playback at high resolutions, you'll be disappointed. The CPU is practically begging for a discrete card to pair with.

The competitive field has shifted and the Z2 G9 now faces tougher all-rounders. The HP OMEN GT22-3080 and Lenovo Legion 90Y6003JUS both ship with discrete GPUs that leave the Z2's integrated graphics in the dust, and they cost roughly what the Z2's lower-end listings once did. The Apple Mac Studio M4 Max is a completely different animal, delivering massive GPU and CPU performance in a tiny package for creatives who need both. And the MSI MEG Vision X AI pushes into AI-focused territory with dedicated silicon that the Z2 can't touch. The Z2's i9-14900K still outpaces most of these in raw multi-threaded CPU grunt, but with no graphics card included and zero availability, it's a paper champion. Unless your workload is 95% pure CPU compute and you're willing to track down a used unit, the Lenovo Legion and HP OMEN are far safer bets.

Right now, the conversation about value is purely hypothetical because this machine is completely out of stock across all vendors. When it was available, listings bounced between a reasonable $2,661 and a nonsensical $599,203, but none of that matters if you can't actually buy one. At the lower end of that range, you were paying a premium for the i9-14900K and HP's workstation pedigree, but it still required an immediate GPU upgrade to be a functional all-rounder. If stock reappears at a price near that $2,600 mark, the value equation only works for CPU-bound specialists who plan to add a graphics card on day one. For everyone else, the unavailability just makes the decision easier.

The Intel Core i9-14900K inside this HP Z2 G9 is an absolute monster, sitting in the 95th percentile for CPU performance in our database. That means it's one of the fastest consumer processors you can shove into a tower today, and it shows in everything from code compiles to video exports. The 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 1TB NVMe SSD are solid, modern specs that keep the system feeling snappy. But then you hit the graphics, and the dream hits a wall. The integrated Intel UHD Graphics 770 is the culprit, dragging the overall gaming score down to a painful 15.5 out of 100. This machine is a CPU workhorse with a glaring blind spot.

For pure workstation tasks, it earns an 79.9 score, which is strong for office and business use. The tool-less chassis and ISV certifications are nice touches for IT departments. However, if your workflow involves any kind of 3D rendering, simulation visualization, or even light gaming after hours, the lack of a dedicated GPU will frustrate you immediately. You'll be patting yourself on the back for rendering speeds, then reaching for your wallet to buy a graphics card.

If you do any gaming, 3D modeling, VR, or even GPU-accelerated video editing, skip this machine. The integrated UHD 770 is a severe bottleneck and you'll be disappointed immediately. Similarly, if you want a quiet system under full load, the i9-14900K can get loud and hot, making it less than ideal for noise-sensitive environments. Creatives who rely on Adobe's GPU-accelerated features will find this frustrating without a costly add-in card. You're better off with a prebuilt that includes at least a mid-range discrete GPU from the start.

The HP Z2 G9 still houses one of the fastest consumer CPUs we've tested, but a 12-point score drop to 62 and a complete lack of stock across all vendors changes the recommendation entirely. You can't buy it new, and even if you could, the missing discrete GPU would still be a dealbreaker for most people. Developers and data crunchers who would have loved this machine now need to hunt the used market or look at alternatives like the Lenovo Legion Tower 5i Gen 10, which offers strong CPU performance and an actual graphics card. The Z2 G9 was a one-trick pony, and right now that pony isn't for sale.