HP Blackbird 002

If you think high-end gaming PC you usually think Alienware, Voodoo PC or even Dell, but there is one computer hidden away that will shock and awe most people. It is the Blackbird 002 from HP.

HP has generally been known for their inexpensive home and business computers. With the increase in the number of gamers in the world HP thought it’d be a good time to get into the gaming market. Whether or not this was a good decision will become apparent with time but for now the Blackbird 002 is a good attempt to crack into that market.

The Blackbird is completely customizable, but some options are Quad-Core processors, upwards of 4 GB of memory, dual GeForce 8800GTS, 1 TB of storage and more. Prices start at $2,400.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the Blackbird:

• Street price: $2700.00 (base price)
• Water cooling available
• Up to 1TB of hard drives
• 900W or 1100W PSU’s
• Up to 4GB of RAM
• Nvidia 8800 graphics card

Things I like
The Blackbird is a solid gaming machine. Even at it’s base model it features a number of things that’ll make most gamers envious. The ability to have dual 8800GTX graphics cards is really nice. This means that you’ll be flying through Crysis, being able to play it on it’s more extreme settings. The availability of RAID and the number of hard drives that you can have is another nice feature of the Blackbird. I like the fact that they allow you to have up to 1TB worth of space (obviously more if you put 1 TB drives in there).

The other thing I like about the Blackbird is its killer case. The graphics on the side look absolutely amazing. While theres no case lighting (which would have been nice) the graphics look clean and clear unlike the HP dv2660se. I think overall, HP did a great job in designing the Blackbird. It’s totally customizable and you can basically pick and choose whichever specifications you wish. I really like this computer except for a few things.

Things I don’t like
The Blackbird 002 is a great computer. It is however, fairly expensive. Coming in at $2700 for the lowest model the Blackbird can quickly get way to expensive for even the most hard core gamers (for a high end version you could be paying over $8000). Other than the large price my only other complain is the noise factor. As expected, the Blackbird is fairly noisy. When you’re running a game you’re definitely going to hear the flans blowing and keeping your computer cool. The water cooling is a little better but there are still fans blowing and making noise. This of course is expected, since it is a gaming machine, but there are still a number of computers for gamers that keep quiet even when running at peak performance.

Pros:

• One mean gaming machine
• Large hard drive space
• Excellent graphics cards
• Very nice case design

Cons:

• Expensive
• Very noisy when running at peak performance

Final Thoughts
The Blackbird 002 is definitely not for everyone. Unless you’re into hard core gaming you shouldn’t even bother looking into this computer. If you are a gamer however, the Blackbird has much to offer. With its large hard drive space, fast processor and a lot of ram it can handle a lot of different games. If you have the money to spend I would recommend you buy the Blackbird 002. It’s a great machine.