HP Firebird With Voodoo DNA A Cheaper Alternative to HP Blackbird

HP has come out with HP Firebird - a performance PC that’s small
in size, low on noise, is modular, and more energy efficient than other
gaming PCs. It looks similar to the chic and very expensive HP Blackbird
002, which costs around $5,000. It features removable tool-free hard
drives (250 GB-320GB dual hard drives), full system liquid cooling, and
an aluminum foot opening an additional side so that cool air can enter
the chassis.

A lot of the hardware used in this PC has been custom-designed to fit
into its smaller confines. For example, Nvidia has created smaller video
cards and Creative Labs have designed smaller X-FI audio cards.
Hopefully, the custom hardware should not present any problems while
upgrading capabilities or when swapping with another machine.

The GPUs, chipset, and CPU are cooled with the help of an on-board
dynamic thermal management plus a factory sealed liquid cooling system.
An innovation that helps keep the system stay cool while running is the
external power supply. It also reduces noise. In fact, HP claims that
less noise emanates from the Firebird when it’s running as
compared to other gaming PCs that are on idle mode. Keeping the power
supply outside has enabled the company to keep the CPU chassis small and
at the same time dramatically improve efficiency.

The HP Firebird is one-third the size of the HP Blackbird and will
retail at $1799. An upgraded version, the model 803 is available for
$2099. It features extra hard drive space, Blu-ray, built-in wireless
Ethernet, a more powerful processor, and more.