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]

Oh Rahul, why must you tease us so? Over a month after you referenced that "some other thing," we're still left to wonder what exactly "that thing" is. In a recent video response (posted after the break) to a question surrounding the HP Blackbird 002 gaming PC, Voodoo's founder closes things out by informing viewers that a product "way ahead of its time" is sitting just behind him, but he confesses that he can't show it off just yet. Of course, he also threw in the "forward-thinking" buzzword and assured us that the industry would "absolutely embrace" it, but as of now, there's simply nothing there to wrap our retinas around besides that smile. The game's growing tired, Mr. Sood.

Those that know Rahul Sood, founder of Voodoo PC and CTO of HP's global gaming business, might not be so surprised to hear he used a working MacBook Air to cut his thick, rich, chocolatey birthday cake. While wearing an HP shirt. And then posted it to his site. Good luck, Rahul -- we're totally sure the Apple fanboys of the world are going to give you a pass on this one.

We were at an HP gaming event today, presented by Rahul Sood (former CEO of Voodoo, before HP bought 'em). Rahul wanted to let the world know what HP had all their peoples working on, since not much has changed around Voodoo's business since the acquisition. The answer? HP's launching a new high-to-mid tier PC brand in 2007, which will sit beneath the Voodoo brand and above HP brand in terms of price / performance. They didn't go into much more detail than that, but it's obvious HP thinks the PC gaming space will continue to be a money-maker. Let's just hope they don't resurrect, say, Packard Bell in that slot, or some other flagging PC business. We think it's about time for some fresh blood up in here, don't you?

Update: It took a hella long time to trickle down to us, but HP isn't, in fact, launching a new PC brand this year. According to Sood, "We don't plan to, nor have we considered, bringing on a fourth [brand]." That's certainly not the impression we got from his presentation; what the mystery yellow block in the diagram above (which we mocked up to recreate the slide he showed) actually happens to be is still anyone's guess.