I should stop neglecting my blogs..

Greetings,

I just wanted to drop in an update after almost a year of using the Blackbird 002 in my home. I still love this system, even though the components are becoming a little dated, the system is still slugging away at any games I have loaded.

Most recently I have been playing Age of Conan, and I am still looking forward to Stargate Worlds, and Startrek Online.

For anyone who has purchased a blackbird in the last year, I hope your experience has been as positive as mine.

Best Wishes,
Casey

So I'm pretty Daft

With the hustle and bustle of the Holidays, I completely blew off sending the pre-production blackbird back to HP. It was packed and ready to go, I just didn't do it. It took a message from Chris Sutton at Voodoo to remind me. So thanks Chris and Voodoo-PC team for being patient, I will drop it by the UPS Station on my way into work on Monday.

Casey

Hellgate London DX10 Gameplay Footage

Greetings Folks,

As soon as the file finishes uploading I will have some footage of Hellgate London running in DX10 on my Blackbird.

Casey:

Some New 3DMark06 Score Results - A Wee Bit O' Tweking

So here are my new 3DMark06 Scores after tweaking a few settings with in the the bios, the tweaks were CPU only, but I will look into working on the RAM timings later.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=4412749

Cannis

A Very Merry Belated Christmas To You All:

A combination of work and the Holidays has kept me busy the past few days, but I wanted to jump back on here and post a link to the Blackbird Desktop images and the Blackbird Vista Theme.

Link: Blackbird Desktop Images & Theme

Merry Christmas,
Casey

Blackbird Desktop Images and Vista Themes

I know I promised to put these images up, but I just realized that I don't have server space that isn't mission critical on which to host them. I will see what I can do about putting up a private web space to host this stuff on. Besides I am sure I can find other uses for it as well.

Please bear with me...

Casey

Sooo,,,,,,

It is now week three with my new Blackbird DE, and I am quite satisfied with the system. Although I am a little puzzled by HP's lack of follow up on 'The Orange Box' question. I've asked about the shipping date for the software, but I haven't heard anything back from the support team.

On another note, I still have two Blackbirds, the other one has yet to be shipped back. Still waiting on shipping labels.

Casey

Oh Noze .. He Posted!!

My apologies for not posting any content sooner, but I have been a busy little beaver these past couple of weeks. We are in the middle of a bit network roll out here at work so everything has been focused on making sure it all works like its supposed to.

The Blackbird is doing well, but I haven't purchased any new games recently. It has been doing a stand up job of network monitoring. ;)

Cannis

3DMark06 Scores (No Pics, It didn't Happen)

I ran a 3 test series on the new blackbird and came up with an average performance of 16,440. Which is a small gain over the air cooled 8800's in the pre-production system.

/Casey Annis

New HP Blackbird 002 Dedication Edition Has Arrived

I wanted to post an update!

The replacement unit for the pre-production model of the Blackbird has made it to my front door. This system is very sleek and has some refinements that the other unit was lacking. The paint job is more polished, and the LED accent lighting is much nicer and much much brighter than on the pre-prod model.

This new unit is lacking the Aegia PhysX card, and the Blu-Ray Re-Writer/HD-DVD Drive, but I was being very optimistic when I was hoping for these additions in the replacement unit. The Blu-Ray drive is a $393.00 upgrade from the base price and the almost $200.00 for the Aegia PhysX card. I didn't expect HP to toss them in the deal..

After I get a chance to get the drives configured again, I will run the new 3DMark 06 tests to see if the scores have changed any.

Regards,
/Casey

I'm Baaaaack!

Ok I am now back from Nassau, Bahamas; however I haven't had any more news on the Blackbird shipment. I am going to write HP after the Holiday and figure out what is up.

/Cannis

Greetings From The Bahamas

Hey There Readers!

Greetings from North Eleutreha Bahamas!... I've been here since Saturday afternoon working on some video surveillance equipment. I wanted to drop a line and let you know that I will be posting more regularly once I get back to the States. As is my access to the intarwebz is very sporadic at best. So if you don't hear anything out of me within five days or so, send a rescue party because we've been lost at sea.

Just Call Me Gilligan...

On A Three Hour Tour,
Casey

The Verdict Is In... New Dedication Edtion being shipped.

Hey There Readers,

The official word is in for the winners of the Federated Media Blackbird Sweepstakes, after a phone call from Chris Sutton at HP GGD we now know the outcome.

Chris informed me of what happened over at HP to cause the delay in the support process, but all that has been straightened out and Chris will be taking charge of our Blacbird builds and will be sending out new Dedication Edition systems for us. They will be cross shipping the units and we get to keep our HDD's from the pre-production units. Hooray .. no new data swapping to be done.

This also means that I get to put out some new 3DMark06 scores becasue of the Liquid Cooled 8800 Ultras. Woot Cickles!!!!!

One of my readers has been having some issues with his Blackbird DE not wanting to play Crysis or CoH, so I will relay here what I told him in an earlier comment.

When I started out trying to install the Crysis MP Beta, and the SP Demo I was having the same issue until I downloaded the latest beta drivers from Nvidia's website.

So before you think about sending back the sytem just give the beta drivers a whirl. They have been running extremely well for me.

Thanks,
Casey

Ahh The Dulcet Tones of Top Notch Support

At the risk of sounding like a Fan Boi, I am going to have to sing the praises of the HP Global Gaming Division's support staff, and their crew. If you have been reading along you will have no doubt noticed that I haven't been using a final production version of the Blackbird 002. This was due to a shipping error which just happens sometimes. To make the long story short, I have been working with HP, and Federated Media to help straighten this out for myself and the other two winners in the contest.

While it has been a lengthy process, it has been a rewarding glimpse into the support and marketing aspects of a sweepstakes such as this. It has been interesting working with the HP GGD, and I am happy to report that they have been extremely helpful throughout the entire process.

I hope to be able to report the details of the outcome shortly. I want to speak with HP first and make sure the details are confidential.

Regards,
/Casey

Anyone that is Curious..

The HP Blackbird 002 configurator is working on http://hp.com/blackbird site now.

For those with bottomless pockets the maxed out config came in at $9,103 Dollars as I had it configured.

/Casey

The Move to North Carolina is Done

It occurs to me that I mentioned on other sites and not here that I was going to be offline for a few days whilst I relocated for a new position in North Carolina. So uhmm yeah I have moved and I was offline for a few days. My Bad!...

Any way I am back and as soon as I get my recording gear set back up I will finish my audio blog. Stupendious .. yeah I know .. but don't let it go to my head.

The Blackbird traveled very well, no loose components, extra surprising if you have ever driven through Kentucky on I-40. I will post again later today.

Thanks,
/Cannis

Ahh: Crysis MP Beta Footage

Hmmm .. What to say..

Fory anyone who has been wanting to see what Crysis would look like on the HP Blackbird, here is a small sample of meaningless wandering through Beta Island out of combat. I chose an empty server so I could run around and demonstrate the environment with out constantly showing you how badly I play FPS games. I've always been more of an RTS/RPG player so no laughing at my a) driving ability, b) uncontrollable straffing.. ;)

Video: http://stage6.divx.com/user/canniscam/video/1810360/Crysis-MP-Beta-Footage

Custome Blackbird Desktop Wallpaper by mnemonicsyntax

(Click Image For Full Size)

Reader mnemonicsyntax created his own custom Blackbird Desktop and wanted to share it. So I have linked it in for all to enjoy.

Great Job mnemonic!

Cannis

Coming Later Today!

I know I promised Crysis footage days ago, but it's been rather hectic around here as I am getting to ready to switch jobs, and move out of state. However it will have slowed down a bit today, so not only will I post the Crysis MP Beta footage, I will also put up Edition 2 of the Podcast. I still need to write Edition 2, but it shouldn't be hard now that I actually have some hands on with the HP Blackbird 002. I will review the Pre-Production model that I received in error, and discuss options for different OC profiles.

You may have noticed the 3Dmark Scores in the previous post, and I must say I am quite pleased with the score. I know they aren't the best, but then again I don't ever plain on putting a LN2 cooler chamber on my QX6850. That is the only way to crank out a 29,000+ 3D Mark, or at least I think it is. I am not the world's OC authority.

It is possible to bring this CPU up from 3.00Ghz per core to a not so paltry 3.5Ghz just by adjusting the CPU multiplier, and that is without touching the core voltage. By adjusting the voltage to 1.45 Volts with a 10x multiplier you can get a stable 3.7Ghz from this chip. Not too shabby. I haven't been brave enough to try it myself, but I will reference the online resources where I have been doing my research. I will also make sure to add the elusive show links this time, I sort of blew it off last time.

G'night,
Cannis

3DMark 06 Scores

Here are my 3DMark06 scores for the Blackbird:

Resolution: 1024x768 AA Off

Non-SLI Test:







































SLI-Test: