HP Blackbird 002 High Performance Gaming System

Name: HP Blackbird 002 High Performance Gaming System
Brand: HP

by Marco Chiappetta — Wednesday, September 05, 2007, 08:00 AM EDT

A short while after Dell purchased Alienware late last year, news broke that Hewlett Packard had acquired boutique system vendor Voodoo PC. Voodoo PC is best known for their high performance gaming PC's that feature custom cases, some with lavish paint jobs, unique cooling solutions, and impeccable wiring jobs. We evaluated a Voodoo Omen some time back and found it to be an excellent product. If you check out the Omen, you'll see why HP was interested in Voodoo.

After HP's acquisition of Voodoo PC, many speculated that the company's entrance into the high-end gaming PC market was imminent. After all, why else would they have bought Voodoo, right? But since then, not much has changed. It seemed as if it was business as usual at both HP and Voodoo. HP was secretly working on their own gaming PC, however, and its codename was Blackbird.

Despite what you may be thinking, the Blackbird wasn't being designed by the newly acquired engineers from Voodoo. In fact, the Blackbird project was well underway before the acquisition was finalized. Since Voodoo PC and HP joined forces, the two have colloborated and the Blackbird project has undergone changes. The final product actually bares a 'Voodoo DNA' badge within its enclosure as an homage to its clean interior and tight wiring job, but the machine is being brought to market strictly as an HP branded product. What we're going to be showing you today is the Blackbird 002 Gaming System - a fully customizable machine that's poised to do battle with the best gaming systems the industry has to offer...

Exterior View Interior View

HP Blackbird 002

Specifications and Features

Processor

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 Factory Overclocked to 3.67GHz

GPUs

2 X 768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra - SLI Enabled

Memory

4GB Corsair Dual Channel DDR2-8500
- Four 1GB modules

Motherboard

Asus Striker Extreme
- NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI

SLI

Support NVIDIA SLI graphics cards (both at x16 mode)

Audio

SoundBlaster X-Fi

CPU and GPU Liquid Cooling

Asetek Custom Self-Contained Cooling System
(GPU Cooling Optional)

Installed Drives:

1 x Seagate ST332062
1 x Western Digital WD1600ADFS
1 x Slot-Load HP DVD-R
(Slot Load Blu-Ray Optional)

Back Panel I/O Ports

1 x LCD Poster
1 x PS/2 Keyboard port(purple)
1 x PS/2 Mouse port(green)
1 x Optical + 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Output
2 x External SATA
2 x LAN (RJ45) port
4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
1 x IEEE1394a port
1 x onboard LED switch

Internal I/O Connectors

3 x USB 2.0 connectors
1 x Floppy disk drive connector
1 x IDE connector for two devices
6 x SATA connectors
8 x Fan connector: 1 x CPU / 1 x SPS / 3 x Chassis / 3 x Optional
3 x thermal sensor connector
1 x IEEE1394a connector
1 x S/PDIF output connector
1 x Chassis Intrusion connector
24-pin ATX Power connector
8-pin ATX 12V Power connector
1 x EL I/O Shield connector
System panel connector

Price

$2,500 - $6,500 ($6,000 as tested)

The Hewlett Packard Blackbird 002 we received for evaluation was a pre-release version, that did not ship in full retail form. We did not receive the final packagaing, the machine's base / stand may have a different finish, and the machine was not loaded up with all of the software that it likely to accompany systems bought at retail. The features of the enclosure and the overall look of the machine should be identical to the machines available for purchase today.

Tags: Gaming, HP, system, Gaming System, performance, rf, STEM, black, RMA, Gamin, AC, AM, K

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com