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