Well the Blackbird arrived today around 2:30 CT, and I took it to work with me to check it out in our lab. We also have a shipping department there so if it was going to be DOA , I could just flip it and send it back.
As it turns out there were some minor issues with the machine starting up, but this was resolved when we realized the LED Lights on the back of the case need to be switched to the off position before the Asus Stryker Extreme mobo will boot. We figured this out the hard way because the machine I received had no manuals, no OEM information, no Warrant information, no service labels, and no restore media. I was a little under-whelmed by the lack of support media, and I thought that HP could have done a better job by supplying these bits along with the machine.
The system itself has been extremely responsive, while ripping a DVD to backup, watching Ben Hur on Netflix streams, and surfing the web the machine was doing just fine at 7% CPU usage.
My version of the machine came with an Aegia PhysX card installed as well as the two NVIDIA 8800 Ultras. A BlueRay/HD-DVD/RW combo drive and a slot loading DVD-RW.
Another slight disappointment was the lack of liquid cooling on the GPU's, but the system doesn't seem to be lacking at all in heat dissipation.
While running Ghost Recon 2: Advanced Warfare, the visuals were stunning, and the PhysX card really lights the game up.
While ripping a DVD from my collection, (28 Weeks Later) I was impressed by the speed of the rip at 76% quality, with an excellent time of 27:07 with menus and alternate audio tracks as well as subtitles.
Keep in mind I was also streaming video and making use of flash video which is typically CPU intensive while ripping the DVD.
I have some pictures that I will load either later this evening or tomorrow at the latest.
Regards,
/Cannis
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4 comments:
Thanks for the early review. Looking forward to hearing more. There's a Facebook group, Blackbird 002 that you might be interested in joining. Rahul is a member. Here's the link:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4869167697
Awesome man. Congrats.
So, your BB didn't come with liquid cooling on the GPUs? How does the heat dissipation work then with the chamber panels in place? Where does the air go?
Thanks for your time.
MS
@david: I will check out the face book group.. Thanks for the heads up!
@MnemonicSyntax: The unit has several seperate air chambers that flow from front to back. The GPU Chamber has a huge honey comb feild at the back of the case to exhaust the heat.
/Cannis
Cool, get those photos up ASAP!
Thanks again Cannis.
MS
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