HP Blackbird 002

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Hewlett-Packard Company.
Type	Public (NYSE: HPQ)
Founded	Palo Alto, California (1939)
Headquarters	Palo Alto, California, USA
Website	www.hp.com www.hpshopping.com www.Compaq.com

VoodooPC
Type	Subsidiary of HP
Founded	1991
Headquarters	Calgary, Canada
Products	Enthusiast Personal Computers
Website	www.voodoopc.com

The HP Blackbird 002 is a gaming and high-performance PC built by HP’s Voodoo Business Unit. Designed by a core group of gaming enthusiasts at HP and performance computing experts from VoodooPC ^[1], HP Blackbird 002 offers gamers and PC enthusiasts new levels of innovation and versatility. The Blackbird 002 has won over 10 Editor’s Choice awards, including C-NET, which gave it a 9.3 out of 10^[2] . It received similar reviews from other review magazines and web sites. The chassis is made out of brushed aluminum and it sits on a cast aluminum foot. The elevation provided by the foot opens a sixth side for additional ventilation.

1 History
2 Performance and design
3 Aluminum chassis and foot
4 Liquid cooling and thermals
5 Tool-less architecture
6 Reviews and awards
7 Criticism and issues
8 External links
9 References

[edit] History

The HP Blackbird 002 was originally a side project of an HP engineer named Tom Szolyga. Tom, a gaming enthusiast, began to build what he thought would be the best gaming PC. He requisitioned components together to form a high-performance system. At the time, HP had no immediate plans for the gaming PC business.

Tom mentioned his project to HP executives Phil McKinney, Todd Bradley, and Paul Campbell during a flight to San Diego for business meetings. By the time the plane landed, a plan had been hatched to secure funding and a support team to further develop the system and eventually bring it to market.

The first iteration of the system was scrapped. The Compaq team in Houston acquired by HP, helped create a new design. During this time, HP acquired Voodoo PC. With additional input from Voodoo PC founder Rahul Sood, the HP Blackbird 002 with Voodoo DNA was launched in September 2007. ^[3]

[edit] Performance and design

The Blackbird 002 features an all-aluminum chassis, which is uncommon in PCs. The Blackbird’s chassis, with fins on top that look like an accordion, and every other element of the system were designed to contribute to both its dynamic look and extreme performance. Built exclusively with industry standard components, the system is designed to encourage modding and allow users to easily upgrade to future generations of performance hardware. Every HP Blackbird 002 is configured to the individual’s preference and ships with an open BIOS to allow for user-controlled overclocking. ^[4]

The Blackbird boasts performance similar to the Falcon Northwest Mach V. If you open the unit you see "VoodooDNA" branding inside the case. It features an ASUS Striker Extreme 680i motherboard which supports Intel processors. It features four slots of DDR2 RAM, in basic configurations of 2 or 4 GB 1066MHz.

The motherboard can feature both Nvidia and ATI graphics cards, including Nvidia's SLI. Both Nvidia and ATI options are available with liquid cooling. The Blackbird 002 features flexible RAID capabilities, with five hard drive bays. The system also features two multi-drives, a single bay for a Blu-ray and HD DVD-ROM, and a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional. ^[5]

There are three basic configurations: the first is fan cooled, second is CPU liquid cooled, and the third is both CPU and GPU liquid cooled.

[edit] Aluminum chassis and foot

The system’s most striking feature is its wedge-shaped aluminum chassis and cast aluminum foot, which is capable of supporting up to 600 lbs. The wedge-shaped design and fins that line the top and front of the chassis act as a heat sink. The cast aluminum foot allows airflow to pass under the HP Blackbird 002, adding more efficient cooling to the 1.1 kW power supply seated at the base of the chassis. ^[6]

[edit] Liquid cooling and thermals

The HP Blackbird 002 is the first in its class to feature full system, maintenance-free liquid cooling that draws heat away from the CPU, motherboard, and GPUs. The HP Blackbird 002 is also designed with three thermal chambers that isolate key heat sources, ensuring that cool air reaches all major heat-generating components.

[edit] Tool-less architecture

All of the components of the HP Blackbird 002, from the CPU and GPU to the hard drives, can be removed and installed without tools. The removable side panel allows quick and easy access to the interior of the system.

[edit] Reviews and awards

C-NET Editors choice^[7]
PC Magazine gave it a 5/5^[8]
Computer Shopper gave it 8.5 out of 10
Wired Magazine gave it Best of Test
Maximum PC gave it 7 out of 10
CPU Magazine 4 out of 5

[edit] Criticism and issues

The Blackbird 002 is more expensive than other mainstream PCs. Another complaint has been that the unit comes with a skimpy one year parts and labor warranty, unusual given its steep price tag.

The Blackbird is also competing with more dedicated gaming companies such as Alienware, Velocity Micro, Cyberpower, and Falcon Northwest. The Falcon Northwest Mach V has outperformed the Blackbird on some occasions.^[9] Also, it appears that HP has not updated the components to include the newly released Intel Core 2 QX9770, nVidia nForce 790i Ultra SLI MCP, Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Gamer Fatal1ty Pro, or any of the Nvidia GeForce 9 Series Graphics Cards (HP is either slow to update for new components or it is working on a new Gaming PC.)