We always loved us that Voodoo-designed
HP Blackbird 002, but it was certainly a behemoth. Now it looks like the duo are going for a more realistic size -- and hopefully pricepoint -- with the all-new HP Firebird PC 803 that just fell in our lap, a gaming tower which flips the disc drive and most other components on their sides to save on space. The resulting kit seems to have more in common with gaming consoles than desktop PCs in terms of design, with very little configurability or expansion available, but the leaked specs are still quite palatable to the modern PC gamer:
- NVIDIA nForce 760i SLI chipset
- Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz processor
- 4GB of RAM
- Dual NVIDIA GeForce 9800S cards
- Two 320GB SATA drives
- Blu-ray
- 5-in-1 card reader
- 6 USB, 1 FireWire, 2 eSATA, 1 S/PDIF and 1 DVI dual-link
- Bluetooth
- 802.11n WiFi
To save on space (and heat), the Firebird actually uses an external power supply, but we suppose the included wireless keyboard and mouse should help to make up for that clutter. As you've probably gleaned from the specs, those small form factor 9800S cards aren't going to be putting away the frame rates quite like the cutting edge cards from NVIDIA and AMD, and the seeming lack of expandability makes the (theoretical) up-front cost savings seem a bit less exciting, but for a certain type of gamer the Firebird could be a welcome respite from
monstrous, unrealistic and just-as-quickly-outmoded performance towers.
P.S.: Rahul's dubious rant about the boutique gaming industry -- which Voodoo still serves -- makes a lot more sense in this light. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted December 23rd 2008 11:03AM
Am I the only one who thinks it looks like the Asus Eee Box?
And not a word who'll provide the right drivers for the box.PS3 is still superior than a new Vista OS based PC for gaming and much cheaper too.
right, because a 7800 GTX totally beats SLI 9800.
Actually, you're right. After all, who needs Crysis and it's absolutely stunning visuals and amazing physics which were really the first of it's kind?
Wake up buddy. The PS3 can play games usually on what translate to high, my laptop can play assassin's creed on all maxed out and I bought it for $600.
PS3 would have to scale back crysis to medium if it was released for it, and my laptop can play it on high. Now, if I had built it myself with the same models of desktop components, it probably would've cost me $500.
@ Brian
Crysis on high... 600$ laptop.... do you make your own crack or do you just buy it?
hustler has a point. A purpose built machine will perform it's respected task better than a PC. it's a sand-boxed environment with a fixed display resolution, better OS optimization and a homogeneous hardware standard. add the reduced cost and its hard to justify a gaming rig. What your saying, Brian, is that your Swiss army knife can cut steak faster than my steak knife. only problem is that your fork is attached to your knife while mine is not. who's eating dinner faster?
well, the PS3 isn't a PC. theres a very thin layer between game and hardware with the PS3. the PS3's 7800GTX translates to roughly an 8800GT on the PC.
for gaming in general though, consoles win. but for the revolutionary stuff, its PCs.
sorry Hustler, but your PS3 would shit itself trying to process the insanely complex and realistic physics in Crysis. It would pass out just by seeing how many polygons there are in one tree in Crysis.
@ Matthewmongan
Crysis can be played on a netbook. The only difference between systems is the frame rate you want. Obviously a higher end system will handle Crysis better than a lower end one. I for one primarily use a laptop for my gaming needs of COD4, COD5 and Crysis. All on high settings, and I don't even have Sli. Have you been living under a rock?
And how is a gaming console better than a gaming computer system? I find it hard to justify someone buying a laptop for their email and internet use, then a console for gaming. Then you buy cds that you end up loosing or scratching. Talk about money down the drain. I would much rather spend a little more at once but have a much better system that I can use for more than one thing, that will last longer, can be upgraded and much more. Oh, and to me a PS3 is just a handicapped computer. You said it yourself, a FIXED display resolution and a homogeneous hardware. Every new console and so forth is getting closer to a computer, by adding internet, web browsing and so on. I know people who spent $700 to get a PS3 when they came out. Then a new console comes out, and then what? My computer is pretty good now. A new game comes out I buy it. Eventually I will have to overclock my gpu and cpu. Then I will pop a new cpu in. then it will be so old it would have paid for itself (in school work, work, and gaming).
It looks great, but I couldn't live with the utter lack of upgradeability. Not in a gaming machine.
"cutting edge cards from NVIDIA and AMD, and"
You mean NVIDIA and ATI, right?
I did not know that AMD produced graphics card...
AMD owns ATi
you must be new to the site
this is a gorgeous piece of kit. but it IS proprietary & that's a problem. i was just about to pull the trigger too...oh well. Ugly-ass Velocity Micro Edge Gx435 w/Intel Core i7 w/3GB DDR3-1333 RAM, 2 x ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB each in Crossfire, come to poppa! i'll just throw a sheet over it & keep it waay under my desktop.
imho, hopin' for Sood's demise is pretty lame & possibly gay. i'm sure he's already made more money than you ever will in your life. just try to move on buttercup..u'll be aiight
Well, I just bought one and i think it's pretty amazing. It was out of the boxand ready to go in minutes. The wireless keyboard and mouse worked on startup. I plugged it into,my 42" HDTV via HDMI and into my surround sound receiver via the optical digital fiber connection. Presto! I'm surfing in 16:9 from my La-Z-Boy chair. It also doubles as my new universal Blu-Ray RW player, which saved me lik $500. It's dead silent and looks good eenough to put in the living room entertainment center (no complaints from female household members)
I used to build my own systems and this is my first shelf system. I found "upgradeability to be overrated. The last two times I wanted to upgrade I started shopping and decided it wasn't worth b othering to upgrade w/o upgrading the whole board, memory, etc.