HP was nice enough to send us a prototype Firebird 802 gaming rig, and while we haven't had a chance to fire it up and start sucking at Crysis quite yet, we thought we'd throw up a quick unboxing for you. It's pretty slick stuff, all around -- the box has big plastic latches that pop open, and the machine itself is held in by swing-out cardboard panels, giving everything that "top-secret missile codes" feel you'd expect from a gaming PC. The Firebird itself looks just as nice in our living room as it did at CES, but there are some sad surprises here -- the super-heavy external power brick has a troublesomely lame connector, and the included wireless keyboard is pretty simply crap -- the slightest downward pressure basically bends it in half. Plus, we're not at all sure why the mouse and keyboard require a plug-in USB dongle -- why not just build the receiver into the gigantic chassis? We're guessing the lameness of these two is why HP also sent along a Gaming Keyboard and Laser Gaming Mouse with our tester -- we'll have those two unboxed along with our in-depth Firebird impressions a little later. For now, hit up the gallery for the full unboxing!

After arguably the biggest hype-fest of late 2008, HP's Firebird with VoodooDNA was revealed as Rahul Sood's ambitious little secret. The miniaturized gaming rigs began shipping out during CES, and we've no doubt that a few of you with space constraints and a lust of high frame rates have already chomped on the bullet. So, does the machine live up to the hype? Is it worth the asking price? What features weren't included that should have been? Has it handled your gaming demands with ease? Feel free to sound off below -- who knows, maybe Mr. Sood will tune in and hear you out.

We know it's a little easy to lose track of time with the world's craziest consumer electronics show steaming ahead, but today actually is January 9th. The meaning of that? HP's two Firebird gaming towers are go for purchase. Both the Firebird with VoodooDNA 802 and 803 are available for purchase right now, with starting prices pegged at $1,799 and $2,099, respectively. The primary difference between the stock configurations are the CPUs (a 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad versus 2.83GHz Core 2 Quad), the hard drives (2 x 250GB verses 2 x 320GB), the sound card (the 803 has a Creative X-Fi mini-PCI audio card) and the fact that the 803 comes packed with a slot-loading Blu-ray drive. Hit the read link to get your shopping on.

We just hit up HP's booth to check out the new Firebird gaming rig, and it's pretty slick looking, although it's a lot bigger than we expected / hoped. The side panels are actually a cool translucent smoke finish, and the blue LED lighting might be the first classy gaming PC light kit we've ever seen. HP was demoing the Firebird with Left 4 Dead and Crysis, and the gamers on hand seemed pretty pleased -- we'll have see how the $1,799 machine's 2.83GHz Core 2 Quad and dual NVIDIA GeForce 9800S graphics cards benchmark out when it's released on February 1st. Check it all in the gallery!

We figured it was destined for a CES release, and HP has confirmed that today's the day. The hotly anticipated Firebird with Voodoo DNA has been properly introduced to the world, and within it will come an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU, twin NVIDIA GeForce 9800S graphics cards in an SLI configuration, hot-swappable 320GB hard drives (two of 'em) and an advanced thermal management system to keep things cool, calm, collected and quiet. As we'd heard, the rig will be available starting on January 9th for as little as $1,799 directly from Voodoo, while those too frightened to hand over their credit card information online can hold tight 'til it hits select retailers (read: Best Buy, most likely) on February 1st. Have a look at Rahul Sood and team gloating ad nauseum over this thing just after the break.


[Via DesktopReview]

It'd be a gross understatement to say that we weren't remarkably excited about the HP Firebird 803 when we caught wind of it last week, but now you can safely say that our emotions have settled down after hearing the price. Granted, the $1,799 starting figure for the Firebird 802 isn't totally unexpected -- after all, the Blackbird 002 went for upwards of three large -- but we still see the sticker as a touch high given the weaker innards and the lack of upgrade options. Those of you who vehemently disagree can certainly hand over your wallet starting on January 9th, or you can wait for the boxes to hit unnamed retail outlets in February.

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]