HP Blackbird 002: Back in Black
by Jarred Walton on September 12, 2007 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Feature Summary
We've covered a majority of the features already, but before we get to the actual benchmarks we thought we would summarize all of the system details and highlight any other areas that we have not discussed so far.
There's plenty of room for additional hard drives, but the configuration we received includes a single 160GB Western Digital Raptor and a secondary 750GB Seagate 7200.10 drive for mass storage. The Blackbird also includes dual optical drives; one is a slot loader DVD-RW while the second is a combination Blu-ray writer/HD-DVD reader. Not sure which optical format will win out in the coming high-definition content wars? The Blackbird has you covered, at least in terms of reading media. We do have to mention, however, that the slot load drive makes a decent amount of noise when you first start up the system - it sounds as though it's trying to eject a disc, whether or not one is installed.
All of the usual suspects are present for the remainder of the system: Gigabit Ethernet (two ports), plenty of USB ports, FireWire, and HD audio. A small (relative to the rest of the case) hatch pops up at the top-front of the case, providing access to a couple USB ports and a FireWire port, microphone and headphone jacks, and flash memory readers for pretty much every conceivable memory type: SM, SD, xM, MS, CF, and MMC (and probably a few other formats besides).
A large 1100W modular power supply keeps all of the components happily juiced up, and provides plenty of room for expansion in the future. Our power supply testing has revealed that optimal efficiency usually comes in the 30%-60% load range, so with the given configuration the Blackbird 002 will usually fall into that area. We'll have more details on the power numbers later.
Considering that HP has included pretty much everything plus the kitchen sink, there is one notable omission. Audio is not provided by a dedicated sound card, although it does come on a riser card. ASUS uses the Analog Devices AD1988b audio chip, which we have generally found to be slightly better than the Realtek and other onboard solutions. In the past, we have recommended that gamers and other audio enthusiasts use a dedicated sound card, but Windows Vista has thrown a bit of a monkey wrench into that recommendation. Specifically, we have serious concerns about recommending a Sound Blaster X-Fi card for any Windows Vista system at this point in time. When the drivers do work, and with a little bit of extra effort on the part of the user, you can still get enhanced sound effects; however, we are content to sit this one out for a little while longer. In other words, while the lack of a dedicated sound card might seem like a flaw, we're not particularly concerned for the time being - users can always add one later if they feel it's necessary.
We've covered a majority of the features already, but before we get to the actual benchmarks we thought we would summarize all of the system details and highlight any other areas that we have not discussed so far.
| HP Blackbird 002 LCi | |
| Case | HP Custom "Blackbird" ATX |
| Motherboard | ASUS Striker Supreme |
| Processor | Core 2 Extreme QX6850 Overclocked (Quad-core 11x333MHz 3.67 GHz 2x4MB shared L2 cache) |
| Heatsink/Cooling | Asetek LLC Liquid Cooling for CPU/GPUs - Factory Sealed 1 x 120mm front case fan 2 x 120mm top case fans (for radiator) |
| RAM | 2x1024MB Corsair Dominator PC2-8500 (CM2X1024-8500C5D) |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon HD X2900 XT 1GB x 2 (CrossFire Capability) |
| Hard Drives | 1x160GB Raptor 16MB 10000 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s (WD1600ADFS) 1x750GB Seagate 16MB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s (ST3750640AS) |
| Optical Drives | Slot-Load DVDR with LightScribe (TS-T632L) Blu-ray Rewriter/HD-DVD Reader (HL-DT-ST BD-RE GGW-H10N) |
| Expansion Slots | 3 x PCIe X16 (dual x16, single x8) 1 x PCIe x1 2 x PCI 2.2 |
| Expansion Bays | 5 x 3.5" internal bays |
| Audio | Analog Devices AD1988B |
| Power Supply | 1.1 kW Modular Cable Design |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit |
| Front Ports | 15-in-1 Flash Reader 2 X 3.5mm Audio (Headphone and Microphone) 1 x 6-pin IEEE 1394, 2 x USB2.0 |
| Rear Ports | Optical and Coax S/PDIF Out 2 x RJ45 GbE 4 x USB2.0 1 x 6-pin IEEE 1394 2 x eSATA LCD POST Panel LED Switch |
| Dimensions | 23.5" x 9" x 22" (HxWxD) |
| Weight | 72 pounds |
There's plenty of room for additional hard drives, but the configuration we received includes a single 160GB Western Digital Raptor and a secondary 750GB Seagate 7200.10 drive for mass storage. The Blackbird also includes dual optical drives; one is a slot loader DVD-RW while the second is a combination Blu-ray writer/HD-DVD reader. Not sure which optical format will win out in the coming high-definition content wars? The Blackbird has you covered, at least in terms of reading media. We do have to mention, however, that the slot load drive makes a decent amount of noise when you first start up the system - it sounds as though it's trying to eject a disc, whether or not one is installed.
 |
All of the usual suspects are present for the remainder of the system: Gigabit Ethernet (two ports), plenty of USB ports, FireWire, and HD audio. A small (relative to the rest of the case) hatch pops up at the top-front of the case, providing access to a couple USB ports and a FireWire port, microphone and headphone jacks, and flash memory readers for pretty much every conceivable memory type: SM, SD, xM, MS, CF, and MMC (and probably a few other formats besides).
 |
A large 1100W modular power supply keeps all of the components happily juiced up, and provides plenty of room for expansion in the future. Our power supply testing has revealed that optimal efficiency usually comes in the 30%-60% load range, so with the given configuration the Blackbird 002 will usually fall into that area. We'll have more details on the power numbers later.
Considering that HP has included pretty much everything plus the kitchen sink, there is one notable omission. Audio is not provided by a dedicated sound card, although it does come on a riser card. ASUS uses the Analog Devices AD1988b audio chip, which we have generally found to be slightly better than the Realtek and other onboard solutions. In the past, we have recommended that gamers and other audio enthusiasts use a dedicated sound card, but Windows Vista has thrown a bit of a monkey wrench into that recommendation. Specifically, we have serious concerns about recommending a Sound Blaster X-Fi card for any Windows Vista system at this point in time. When the drivers do work, and with a little bit of extra effort on the part of the user, you can still get enhanced sound effects; however, we are content to sit this one out for a little while longer. In other words, while the lack of a dedicated sound card might seem like a flaw, we're not particularly concerned for the time being - users can always add one later if they feel it's necessary.
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JarredWalton - Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - link
You have to do a bit more accurate math on the cost. Yes, it's still expensive, but it's not at all a 2-3X mark up.Crazy ATX Case: I'd say this is easily a $500 case. Not that most people need it, but this is not some flimsy plastic thing.
1100W PSU: It looks like this might be a TOPOWER 1100W PSU (it says "TOP-1100W DVT" on a sticker). The 1000W TOPOWER at Newegg costs $330 shipped, so call this on $350.
QX6850: $1200, not overclocked
ASUS Striker: $300
2 x 1GB 2900 XT: $1000
2x1GB Corsair Dominator 8500: $210
160GB Raptor: $190 (technically 10GB more than the normal 150GB Raptors)
750GB Seagate: $210
Logitech G11: $55
Logitech G5: $60
Asetek cooling: $400 for this particular kit seems likely
Blu-ray/HD drive: $880 (Yup, look up the GGW-H10NI - crazy!)
DVDR slot load: $40
Total for parts alone: $4200, and that's going by cheapest online prices.
Still expensive, still a ~50% markup, but then the factory overclock with warranty is worth at least something, right? Anyway, I'm not saying it's a great deal, but if someone told me they wanted me to build them a system like this? Yeah, I'd probably charge at least $1000 to do it, just because I'd want to have some extra for the invariable support costs. "My OC'ed computer just crashed...."
jonnyGURU - Friday, September 14, 2007 - link
Actually, the Blackbird's 1100W is based on Topower's 1200W platform. Tweak and guideline requests (OCP settings, efficiency at different loads, etc.) from HP put the continuous output rating at 1100W. So that's another $50 we need to add for the PSU. FWIW, it's based on the same unit as the ABS/Tagan 1300W (looser standards than HP) which sells for $400.yyrkoon - Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - link
OF al lthe OEM system manufactuers HP probably has one of the better warranties, or so I have been told. Since I do not personally OWN a HP machine, I have to go by word of mouth here. Anyhow, I would venture to say that the warranty on these blackbird system would probably have to be close to Dells Gold service plan.What does this mean ? It means you do not have to play the idiot on the phone for some E. India 'technitian' who probably has less of a clue what is wrong with your system than you do, but rather get to deal with stateside technitians who can actually be helpfull . . . It also means you do not have to wait for some lowly tech to wade through the 'chain of command' to get things replaced/fixed.
Slaimus - Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - link
Is it true that for this system HP somehow got CF to work on a SLI motherboard? If so, does it need special modded drivers like the ULi "GLI" motherboards?wolfman3k5 - Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - link
I doubt that, I will do some research on that and post back. Raul Sood said that they didn't do it with NVidia's help, so if anything was moded, it must be special Catalyst drivers that are being made available only to HP. Sooner or later the "secret" will come out. But I don't imagine that it's something that difficult to do, since ATI uses two CF bridges, and they transfer all rendering data over those, hence, they don't have to rely on the chipset.RamarC - Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - link
but the blackbird line is shipping with at least two motherboard options since there's an amd x2 based blackbird. so two additional mobos could be available for cf/sli.JarredWalton - Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - link
No need to do any research:"ATI CrossFire requires peer-to-peer writes in order to function, and ATI has always maintained that support for this feature is the only thing preventing CrossFire from working on other chipsets, like NVIDIA's SLI chipsets."
If the BIOS is updates so that peer-to-peer PCI-E writes work, CrossFire should work. SLI of course is a given, and getting SLI on non-NVIDIA chipsets is what usually requires hacked drivers. I'll let you know if the stock 7.9 drivers work properly later today when I've had a chance to verify.
n7 - Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - link
I was excited to see this review, mainly because i wanted to see how well their cooling system worked.But there's not a word in this review about the cooling setup, what temps were, was it better than others for OCing etc...
And as for the system itself, sure, it looks nice, & getting SLI or CF working is nice, but 2 GB of RAM?
That's just a big joke when many of us already run 4 GB in our "lowly systems"...
JarredWalton - Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - link
For a 32-bit OS, there's not much need to go beyond 2GB of RAM. Users will almost certainly get the option to install 4GB in the online configurator - and they might even be able to select a 64-bit OS; I don't know yet because the system isn't officially on sale for a few more days.As for the water cooling setup, I haven't tested any other water cooling configs so I can't say whether the Asetek unit in the Blackbird is better or not. It appears to deal with a fully stressed Core 2 Quad @ 3.66 GHz, though I can't be 100% sure that the overclock didn't cause a crash or two. I can look into temperatures for the follow-up, but honestly I think stability is far more important. If a system can manage to run Folding@Home SMP without excessive failures and/or crashes, that's usually a pretty good indication that the overclock is "safe".
wolfman3k5 - Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - link
HP should have known better than installing a 32 bit OS on such a system, because the OS will never be able to address all the video memory. It's about the same as installing 4GB Ram on a 32 bit OS, except that in this situation with 2GB system RAM and 2GB Video Ram, the OS will be able to address closer to 4GB Ram. Other devices also take away some of the 4GB addressing space.As far as CrossFire is concerned, it's not so miraculous that it works on a Striker Motherboard. After all, native crossfire will transfer all data over the two bridges, so it can be chipset agnostic.
It looks like the high performance PC market is pretty profitable, and HP and other companies are going after the boutique manufacturers to try and take away what business is left. But if I want this kind of computer, I'd rather buy from Falcon NW, Puget or build my own. Sorry, not my cup of tea.