Closing Thoughts
Compared to most of the other high-end systems that we've seen and reviewed over the years, it's actually really difficult not to be impressed by the Blackbird. It's not necessarily a perfect system, but compared to most of the other prebuilt "enthusiast" gaming systems we've seen it gets just about everything right. It looks great, it performs as well as all of the other top systems, and unlike some of the proprietary designs we've seen (sorry - we're really not interested in BTX) we basically don't have any serious complaints. What's more, it does all of this while maintaining a competitive price.
That doesn't mean that you can't go out and build a similar system for less money on your own. Not surprisingly, you can, but unless HP decides to start selling the Blackbird chassis without any internal components, the only way you're getting this case is if you purchase a Blackbird or do some serious case modification on your own. We aren't huge proponents of enthusiast class prebuilt systems - mostly because these systems usually fall far short of what most enthusiasts want in terms of price/performance. However, if we were in the market for a top-quality prebuilt system, right now the Blackbird 002 would be at the top of our list. It comes with all of the performance and features you would expect, and the price is extremely competitive.
That's great for the wealthy enthusiasts of the world, but of course the reality is most people are unwilling to spend $3,000 let alone $5,500 on a new computer, regardless of how fast it is. Obviously, the Blackbird 002 isn't meant for everyone. For now we're left to wonder what will be the next offspring of HP's VoodooPC acquisition. We know that a notebook is in the works, but we're a lot more interested in seeing what they can come up with in the entry level and midrange gaming enthusiast markets.
Take what we've seen in the Blackbird 002 and scale the price down to $1500 or less, and we'd certainly be interested. Even better would be to get all of the benefits of the PC as a gaming platform and manage to compete with the PS3 in terms of price... but that might be asking a bit much. Then again, once you play games on a system like the Blackbird, the allure of console gaming may feel a bit tarnished.
Compared to most of the other high-end systems that we've seen and reviewed over the years, it's actually really difficult not to be impressed by the Blackbird. It's not necessarily a perfect system, but compared to most of the other prebuilt "enthusiast" gaming systems we've seen it gets just about everything right. It looks great, it performs as well as all of the other top systems, and unlike some of the proprietary designs we've seen (sorry - we're really not interested in BTX) we basically don't have any serious complaints. What's more, it does all of this while maintaining a competitive price.
That doesn't mean that you can't go out and build a similar system for less money on your own. Not surprisingly, you can, but unless HP decides to start selling the Blackbird chassis without any internal components, the only way you're getting this case is if you purchase a Blackbird or do some serious case modification on your own. We aren't huge proponents of enthusiast class prebuilt systems - mostly because these systems usually fall far short of what most enthusiasts want in terms of price/performance. However, if we were in the market for a top-quality prebuilt system, right now the Blackbird 002 would be at the top of our list. It comes with all of the performance and features you would expect, and the price is extremely competitive.
That's great for the wealthy enthusiasts of the world, but of course the reality is most people are unwilling to spend $3,000 let alone $5,500 on a new computer, regardless of how fast it is. Obviously, the Blackbird 002 isn't meant for everyone. For now we're left to wonder what will be the next offspring of HP's VoodooPC acquisition. We know that a notebook is in the works, but we're a lot more interested in seeing what they can come up with in the entry level and midrange gaming enthusiast markets.
Take what we've seen in the Blackbird 002 and scale the price down to $1500 or less, and we'd certainly be interested. Even better would be to get all of the benefits of the PC as a gaming platform and manage to compete with the PS3 in terms of price... but that might be asking a bit much. Then again, once you play games on a system like the Blackbird, the allure of console gaming may feel a bit tarnished.
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EateryOfPiza - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
that custom bios might be something special, or maybe its a drag on performance.JarredWalton - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
I would be absolutely shocked if performance was more than 3% off with the latest drivers. As it stands, the version of the Blackbird I have for testing has HD 2900 CrossFire, and I think most people would be better off getting 8800 GTX SLI. Even Rahul said, "It's not just about the benchmarks anymore - it's about the experience." Basically, a lot of companies got hung up on oneupmanship, where they would be the "best" in some magazine review, but only by 2%. It's pretty silly, I think.themadmilkman - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
How long until somebody makes a knock-off of the case design? I'd be interested in one.kmmatney - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
One will probably come out of China before the HP one is available...Bonesdad - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
but it might kill your dogOwls - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
I know you are trying to make a comparison to hand built quality but it was a bit over the top. The Duesenberg is a classic and a symbol of craftsmanship in the meantime, cases and parts made in china assembled by hand does not equal classic or "well built" by any means. How many cases have you seen that are "classics" today?Probably none.
good article though :)
strikeback03 - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
I'd imagine the point is that back in the day whoever bought that Duesenberg new was not buying a classic at the time either, just a nice expensive, well built car.psychotix11 - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
I would have thought after the foot-in-mouth "it takes $300 to match or beat air cooling" you guys would have had the tact to leave it alone and accept that you really don't know what you're talking about, but of course you couldn't resist the chance to take another dig at it on your crusade for air cooling, bias at it's finest, tomshardware would be proud of you.That said from what I can see they are using a dual 120mm radiator to cool two ultras and an over clocker quad core, that isn't enough. A dual 120mm rad will cool either an OC'd quad or the dual GPU's, but with both in a single loop it's not going to be enough even if you slap some delta screamers on it and let your ears bleed. You're going to need a triple 120mm for that.
kmmatney - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
rolls eyes...JarredWalton - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
Read what you just wrote: "...they are using a dual 120mm radiator to cool two ultras and an over clocker quad core, that isn't enough. A dual 120mm rad will cool either an OC'd quad or the dual GPU's, but with both in a single loop it's not going to be enough..."Let's talk bias for a second. Suggesting that a $300+ cooling arrangement with dual 120mm fans is not enough cooling and that *more* is required for proper water cooling of this setup illustrates the exact problem. I can get similar results from air cooled GPUs and CPUs for 1/4 the price (on the cooling side of things). Actually, it's even worse on GPUs, as the stock air coolers are "free" and water blocks are just pure expense that may not really even impact performance. Even if a triple-fan WC setup is slightly better in terms of overall cooling, that doesn't make it a great choice. Now read what I *actually* said again:
"We decided to simply skip out on water cooling, as our own testing has been less than stellar and we're finding that top-quality air cooling is still more than sufficient for the vast majority of people."
Yes, that's a terrible slam on water cooling: we find air cooling to be more than sufficient for most people. Or if you want to reverse it, water cooling is really only "necessary" for a very small portion of the market. Just like I specifically recommended AGAINST spending $1100 on a QX6850 and instead chose a Q6600 that will beat the pants off it on price and will overclock nearly as far, I chose air cooling that will cost significantly less and overclock nearly as far. While we're at it, I chose 8800 GTX cards that cost less than the 8800 Ultras and will run nearly as fast. See the pattern?
For the record, the water cooling in the Blackbird does a fine job at keeping the entire system running, and I didn't have any issues with temperatures or escalating noise levels. Without putting a similar setup into the case without water cooling and running benchmarks, I can't say for sure how much of an impact their cooling design has on overall performance and noise levels. However, if I'm building a system for myself or a friend, liquid cooling is just another expense and hassle that I'm going to avoid. I avoid RAID 0 configurations for the same reason.
Water is more complex and creates more concerns (weight, potential for leaks, installation and upgrade time and effort). Is it bad? Nope. Just like a $5500 prebuilt isn't bad, and a factory overclocked system isn't bad. It's still an expense many will bypass.