It’s been nearly a year since the acquisition of Voodoo by HP and we’ve been pretty quiet about what has been going on behind the scenes.
When Voodoo was acquired we immediately created a new gaming business unit within HP in order to best amplify one another’s strengths. We spoke publicly about this strategy and how our relationship would be a symbiotic one - how we would work together and not separately to build this business. We then expanded our team, which now spans from Cupertino, to Calgary, to Taipei. In the meantime there was speculation, both good and bad, as to whether or not this strategy would work – all of which fuelled us to beat expectations – such expectations were high, both internally and externally. That said, under HP Gaming we are now designing a portfolio of products which belong to two different brands, Voodoo and HP.
Today is a very special day, because we’re unveiling our first machine featuring grounds up innovation that you have not seen in a gaming or high performance computer - ever.
Rather than picking a price point and working backwards, we took the time to study the market. We knew that the first thing we wanted to create is a desktop PC – because the desktop PC is our bread and butter. We also wanted to create this under the HP brand because we prepared to scale, and we’re already developing a portfolio for both brands.
We studied all of the best desktop PCs from all major manufacturers because we wanted to understand why innovation has been lacking in the desktop space. Even the people at Voodoo were frustrated with the lack of innovation, thus the reason we felt the partnership with HP would allow us to do things that others could only dream of.
Our research in the desktop space proved interesting – on the high end PC side it seems as if all of our competition are behaving like their nothing more than re-marketers for major semiconductor and software companies. Instead of innovating, they are simply throwing together a suite of components into a “box” (in every sense of the word), throwing a bunch of third party stickers on it, and competing on price for it. Companies are fixated on benchmarks and specs, but they clearly missed the mark when it came down to customer experience. Retail prices have eroded, and innovation has deteriorated.
On the high end the value was starting to get lost in paint jobs and flashy lights. While semiconductor and software companies may be successful with the “sticker marketing”, the long term effects are all but devastating.
Our team chose to fixate on the customer experience and work backwards from there and in the process we grabbed cool technologies and ideas from all over HP, including the workstations, servers, labs, and of course Voodoo. The result is very compelling. Not only are we successfully showcasing technologies from other business units within HP, but we also created Blackbird 002.
HP Blackbird 002 is actually our second product, 001 was canned during the time of the Voodoo acquisition for a number of reasons. We decided that we wanted to create something that was truly game changing – and we did just that. “Blackbird 002 with Voodoo DNA” is the most advanced enthusiast class PC on the planet – it literally kicks the crap out of anything in its class – go ahead and check it out for yourself. There is absolutely no comparison, and it’s easy to see why.
What is “Voodoo DNA” and what does it mean to you?
When you first look at Blackbird you’ll find no stickers on the outside of the chassis – just the subtle HP logo, along with a really cool Voodoo DNA logo in the interior. The team at HP Gaming created the Voodoo DNA brand to associate the amount of detail that was created on the inside to gamers and enthusiasts. Essentially, when we started designing Blackbird 002 we spoke to gamers and enthusiasts and took all their feedback and created customer centric innovations that just make sense.
Many of you may not realize this, but after HP acquired Voodoo we performed a major expansion in Calgary, bringing in experts from all over the industry, new equipment, and a much larger facility. We created an ultra cool “custom shop” with state of the art machinery, an additional downdraft bake booth, and a new cell manufacturing process dedicated to Blackbird 002. In the process we also extended our service hours and expanded our customer care team. Service on your Blackbird 002 is not “outsourced” - we handle all the service and call volume in house – in North America.
Too many other little things to list here, but once you crack it open you’ll understand.
What are some of the major features of Blackbird?
- Most simple and efficient liquid cooling system in the world: No unnecessary technologies that create heat and hurt reliability. No loud fans, no leaks, no thermal electric coolers, no massive power drain - and it is super clean.
- The tightest cabling in the industry: That’s right, we’ve been tested over and over again, and if you ask anyone in the space, there is no company on earth that does cabling like Voodoo does. Tight cabling not only looks amazing (like looking under the hood of a Ferrari), but it also allows for efficient airflow. That said, our biggest complaint was the cabling is so tight that it’s hard to replace a component like a hard drive without altering it. With Blackbird 002 that’s not a worry! You can replace a hard drive in 10 seconds (literally), with no tools, and no touching the cables.
- No proprietary components: No BTX motherboards to wait for! We currently chose an ASUS Striker motherboard for Blackbird 002. The bottom line is we wanted to use industry standard components throughout, and we did. This means you can go to any online store, buy an ATX motherboard, and install it yourself if you want! You don’t have to wait for HP to create a new motherboard – how cool is that? I wonder if our competition wishes they could say the same?
- Build by power users for power users: Our team understands gaming, they understand the requirements for video editing, flight simulators, medical imaging, photo manipulation, and so on. Blackbird 002 is built in a Voodoo approved facility, right next to the Voodoo production line – and it’s overseen by Voodoo trained technicians.
- Totally tool-free: Open and remove the door all in one motion. Get inside your PC and remove the interior panels, all with no tools. Need to replace a hard drive, sound card, or optical drive? No tools. It’s just that simple.
- It’s not a big hunk of plastic: While our competition loves plastic – we believe it should only be used for functional pieces – but certainly not as the major material in your system. HP Blackbird 002 is constructed from all cast aluminium. The doors are something to behold, constructed using a deep draw process only available in the car industry. The aluminium fins also help dissipate the heat.
- Hover effect: Have you ever seen a PC like this suspended in mid air? It really does give that effect, and what’s cool is the fact that we introduced a sixth side of cooling! Cold air is brought into the foot directly into the industry standard power supply and dumped out the back. This is just such an amazing accomplishment, and it means that you don’t have to worry about excess heat inside the chassis thereby increasing the stability significantly.
- Slot Load DVD Drives: HP created Light Scribe technology, and our slot loads are the best in the business. We include up to two slot load DVD drives, and another 5.25” bay for expansion if you want something else to go with them.
- Loads of Expansion room: 5 totally tool free hard drive bays allow you to install up to 5 terabytes of storage. You read right, 5 fricking terabytes. Oh and did I mention certain configurations allow hot swapping? That’s nuts.
- Too many other things to list: From the out of box experience, to the unique “mod panel”, rear port illumination, and much much more. I could go on for days, I catch myself salivating as I write this – it’s just that hot.
Words words words
I may be the spokesperson for the gaming team – but the team effort and passion that was generated in the creation of Blackbird is simply amazing. I can’t thank the countless people who helped make Blackbird a reality – our program manager Vida Z must be very proud, because she was integral in bringing two teams together, and even in the most challenging times she kept things rolling. This is simply the best project I’ve been involved with in my 15 years, and if you think this is good, wait until you see what else we’re working on.
On behalf of the entire team at HP Gaming, we hope you enjoy Blackbird 002 as much as we enjoyed creating it for you.
BTW - While there were a few leaks, the pictures sucked - the "spy photo" that has been floating around is an engineering unit - it's nothing like the real thing.
..and now some words from the media
We have been showing Blackbird 002 for awhile now. When we invited some media for a pre-briefing in San Francisco I said that we’d “make them cry”. I was kidding of course, and I now leave you with some of the reaction we picked up during our pre-briefs with the media.
From Steven Morgenstern, Rolling Stone, Cigar Aficionado, Mens Health
“The physical shape is great. It has a real unique look….. It also has a no bulls**** feel, which I really like.”
From Scott Alexander, Playboy:
“It just looks bad a**…..It has a real visual heft to it. It’s a great way for people to get a little part of Voodoo.”
From Joel Santo Domingo, PC Magazine:
“My gut feeling is that some of the competition are going to s**** a brick”
From Daniel Dumas, WIRED:
“G*ddamn! That’s quite a system you got there.”
From Darren Gladstone, Games for Windows:
“It does look bad a**. I can’t wait to throw some games at it……think Will (G4TV Tech Personality) is going to dry-hump it on the spot.”
From Gordon Ung, Maximum PC
“The whole thing is pretty @*#! nice!”
When Voodoo was acquired we immediately created a new gaming business unit within HP in order to best amplify one another’s strengths. We spoke publicly about this strategy and how our relationship would be a symbiotic one - how we would work together and not separately to build this business. We then expanded our team, which now spans from Cupertino, to Calgary, to Taipei. In the meantime there was speculation, both good and bad, as to whether or not this strategy would work – all of which fuelled us to beat expectations – such expectations were high, both internally and externally. That said, under HP Gaming we are now designing a portfolio of products which belong to two different brands, Voodoo and HP.
Today is a very special day, because we’re unveiling our first machine featuring grounds up innovation that you have not seen in a gaming or high performance computer - ever.
Rather than picking a price point and working backwards, we took the time to study the market. We knew that the first thing we wanted to create is a desktop PC – because the desktop PC is our bread and butter. We also wanted to create this under the HP brand because we prepared to scale, and we’re already developing a portfolio for both brands.
We studied all of the best desktop PCs from all major manufacturers because we wanted to understand why innovation has been lacking in the desktop space. Even the people at Voodoo were frustrated with the lack of innovation, thus the reason we felt the partnership with HP would allow us to do things that others could only dream of.
Our research in the desktop space proved interesting – on the high end PC side it seems as if all of our competition are behaving like their nothing more than re-marketers for major semiconductor and software companies. Instead of innovating, they are simply throwing together a suite of components into a “box” (in every sense of the word), throwing a bunch of third party stickers on it, and competing on price for it. Companies are fixated on benchmarks and specs, but they clearly missed the mark when it came down to customer experience. Retail prices have eroded, and innovation has deteriorated.
On the high end the value was starting to get lost in paint jobs and flashy lights. While semiconductor and software companies may be successful with the “sticker marketing”, the long term effects are all but devastating.
Our team chose to fixate on the customer experience and work backwards from there and in the process we grabbed cool technologies and ideas from all over HP, including the workstations, servers, labs, and of course Voodoo. The result is very compelling. Not only are we successfully showcasing technologies from other business units within HP, but we also created Blackbird 002.
HP Blackbird 002 is actually our second product, 001 was canned during the time of the Voodoo acquisition for a number of reasons. We decided that we wanted to create something that was truly game changing – and we did just that. “Blackbird 002 with Voodoo DNA” is the most advanced enthusiast class PC on the planet – it literally kicks the crap out of anything in its class – go ahead and check it out for yourself. There is absolutely no comparison, and it’s easy to see why.
What is “Voodoo DNA” and what does it mean to you?
When you first look at Blackbird you’ll find no stickers on the outside of the chassis – just the subtle HP logo, along with a really cool Voodoo DNA logo in the interior. The team at HP Gaming created the Voodoo DNA brand to associate the amount of detail that was created on the inside to gamers and enthusiasts. Essentially, when we started designing Blackbird 002 we spoke to gamers and enthusiasts and took all their feedback and created customer centric innovations that just make sense.
Many of you may not realize this, but after HP acquired Voodoo we performed a major expansion in Calgary, bringing in experts from all over the industry, new equipment, and a much larger facility. We created an ultra cool “custom shop” with state of the art machinery, an additional downdraft bake booth, and a new cell manufacturing process dedicated to Blackbird 002. In the process we also extended our service hours and expanded our customer care team. Service on your Blackbird 002 is not “outsourced” - we handle all the service and call volume in house – in North America.
Too many other little things to list here, but once you crack it open you’ll understand.
What are some of the major features of Blackbird?
- Most simple and efficient liquid cooling system in the world: No unnecessary technologies that create heat and hurt reliability. No loud fans, no leaks, no thermal electric coolers, no massive power drain - and it is super clean.
- The tightest cabling in the industry: That’s right, we’ve been tested over and over again, and if you ask anyone in the space, there is no company on earth that does cabling like Voodoo does. Tight cabling not only looks amazing (like looking under the hood of a Ferrari), but it also allows for efficient airflow. That said, our biggest complaint was the cabling is so tight that it’s hard to replace a component like a hard drive without altering it. With Blackbird 002 that’s not a worry! You can replace a hard drive in 10 seconds (literally), with no tools, and no touching the cables.
- No proprietary components: No BTX motherboards to wait for! We currently chose an ASUS Striker motherboard for Blackbird 002. The bottom line is we wanted to use industry standard components throughout, and we did. This means you can go to any online store, buy an ATX motherboard, and install it yourself if you want! You don’t have to wait for HP to create a new motherboard – how cool is that? I wonder if our competition wishes they could say the same?
- Build by power users for power users: Our team understands gaming, they understand the requirements for video editing, flight simulators, medical imaging, photo manipulation, and so on. Blackbird 002 is built in a Voodoo approved facility, right next to the Voodoo production line – and it’s overseen by Voodoo trained technicians.
- Totally tool-free: Open and remove the door all in one motion. Get inside your PC and remove the interior panels, all with no tools. Need to replace a hard drive, sound card, or optical drive? No tools. It’s just that simple.
- It’s not a big hunk of plastic: While our competition loves plastic – we believe it should only be used for functional pieces – but certainly not as the major material in your system. HP Blackbird 002 is constructed from all cast aluminium. The doors are something to behold, constructed using a deep draw process only available in the car industry. The aluminium fins also help dissipate the heat.
- Hover effect: Have you ever seen a PC like this suspended in mid air? It really does give that effect, and what’s cool is the fact that we introduced a sixth side of cooling! Cold air is brought into the foot directly into the industry standard power supply and dumped out the back. This is just such an amazing accomplishment, and it means that you don’t have to worry about excess heat inside the chassis thereby increasing the stability significantly.
- Slot Load DVD Drives: HP created Light Scribe technology, and our slot loads are the best in the business. We include up to two slot load DVD drives, and another 5.25” bay for expansion if you want something else to go with them.
- Loads of Expansion room: 5 totally tool free hard drive bays allow you to install up to 5 terabytes of storage. You read right, 5 fricking terabytes. Oh and did I mention certain configurations allow hot swapping? That’s nuts.
- Too many other things to list: From the out of box experience, to the unique “mod panel”, rear port illumination, and much much more. I could go on for days, I catch myself salivating as I write this – it’s just that hot.
Words words words
I may be the spokesperson for the gaming team – but the team effort and passion that was generated in the creation of Blackbird is simply amazing. I can’t thank the countless people who helped make Blackbird a reality – our program manager Vida Z must be very proud, because she was integral in bringing two teams together, and even in the most challenging times she kept things rolling. This is simply the best project I’ve been involved with in my 15 years, and if you think this is good, wait until you see what else we’re working on.
On behalf of the entire team at HP Gaming, we hope you enjoy Blackbird 002 as much as we enjoyed creating it for you.
BTW - While there were a few leaks, the pictures sucked - the "spy photo" that has been floating around is an engineering unit - it's nothing like the real thing.
..and now some words from the media
We have been showing Blackbird 002 for awhile now. When we invited some media for a pre-briefing in San Francisco I said that we’d “make them cry”. I was kidding of course, and I now leave you with some of the reaction we picked up during our pre-briefs with the media.
From Steven Morgenstern, Rolling Stone, Cigar Aficionado, Mens Health
“The physical shape is great. It has a real unique look….. It also has a no bulls**** feel, which I really like.”
From Scott Alexander, Playboy:
“It just looks bad a**…..It has a real visual heft to it. It’s a great way for people to get a little part of Voodoo.”
From Joel Santo Domingo, PC Magazine:
“My gut feeling is that some of the competition are going to s**** a brick”
From Daniel Dumas, WIRED:
“G*ddamn! That’s quite a system you got there.”
From Darren Gladstone, Games for Windows:
“It does look bad a**. I can’t wait to throw some games at it……think Will (G4TV Tech Personality) is going to dry-hump it on the spot.”
From Gordon Ung, Maximum PC
“The whole thing is pretty @*#! nice!”
17 blogger comments:
I'd say the Mac Pro has you beat on the cabling department, granted pretty much everything about the Mac Pro is custom designed and you can't throw in a new motherboard like you can with your machine.
The system looks totally awesome.
But I guess I won't get them in Singapore rite? Coz I can't see it on the website.
Nice work!!
This is the best looking PC I've ever seen.
is their any possibilty us pb builders would ever see a similar case on the market. I currently have a blog full of builders going gaga over the case and want one!
Best system I have ever built!
My record was 1 hour and 12 minutes. That's from the components still being in their original boxes to first POST.
Proud to be apart of this team. :)
Very nice - makes my Omen look dated.
Still no Blackbird on the VooDoo site - why?
Egil: It's an HP branded product (with Voodoo DNA). Please go to www.hp.com/blackbird for tons more information. Thanks!
Very impressed by the design. Congratulations.
Side note: I would really like to see a head-to-head between this design and the Mac Pro. I think it would help people put things into perspective. Especially since the starting price seems to be about the same.
That promo was lame
Sorry
Not excited.
Rob in Vegas
Rahul,
Awesome job with the Blackbird. Whomever designed this site for it, under the "Power" tab in the "Level 5 Raid" area might want to correct their grammar, "The Blackbird is the one of the only..." ;) Just trying to help. But otherwise, a job well done. I'm very interested.
That is an amazing looking bit of kit, now the big question for me is ... will it be released in the UK?
Please, please, please tell me you're going to sell this in the UK. It makes the XPS look even more like Jawa Sandcrawler inside & out!
Hi Rahul,
Well, it may be exciting for someone who is interested in form *over* function (there are plenty of those people), but there is very little in it that appeals to someone who intends to buy the thing and sit it on the floor under their desk next to them and play games or work (I look at the screen, not the case).
Isn't this a creation of the gaming department? The gaming department should be doing something to bring gamers back from crappy console systems to the PC instead of merely beefing up a computer. What incentive is there to buy something like this system? To get 30 more frames per second that are unnoticable anyways? To store my entire DVD collection on? To look good? (Which it certainly does, but it's hardly compelling.) Why buy this over an Xbox? I'm sure you could buy a fantastic locally assembled PC with almost the same benchmarks as this thing plus an Xbox, a PS3,a Wii AND a bigscreen LCD tv for the same price as this will probably be sold at.
It drives me batty when PC builders champion their systems as "innovative" and then reconfigure their systems to look different but do the exact same thing anyone with a screwdriver and a few dollars could achieve with store bought components albeit not as cool looking. Wow, tight cables. Wow, raid level 5. Wow, 5 terabytes of hard drive space. Wow, 1.1 Kw. I mean, come on, you're talking to enthusiasts! You should have known that half of us would think "I can come close to building the functional equivalent to this myself, pretty much."
What could you do to make it better? How about immersing the whole thing into that liquid they use for high tech fire extinguishers that doesn't ruin electronics for a more thorough cooling. That would be interesting and innovative. How about something like a small LCD panel on the outside of the case where I could adjust my memory timings, bus frequency, or fan speeds without delving into my bios - heck even come up with something to be able to make on-the-fly bios setting changes, haven't you got an arsenal of engineers at your dispoal? How about making the case into two railed sections so I could slide the case taller or shorter if I wanted depending on the number of drives I had? Instead of making the computer MORE obvious and flashy, how about making it into something that I can integrate into my office/home entertainment center more discretely? This is the age of simplicity and unobtrusiveness, look at the iPod. I think you guys mistook the word 'innovations' with 'improvements'.
I didn't intend to rant, but all I can think of when I see this is that it's the same as my own home PC that I built myself, just a bit flashier and a bit more powerful/capable/modular, nothing revolutionary. Sorry if I hurt the HP lab team's feelings, undoubtedly they worked hard but it's a terrible disappointment (for me anyways) when you've been pumping up the thing for a year now and a beefier PC is all there is to show for it. Wow. Color me disappointed. :(
I won't equivocate... The Blackbird is the most incredible PC ever built. But it doesn't do much to change the economics of PC gaming vs. consoles
and isn't so groundbreaking as to threaten Apple's position as the standard for state-of-the-art.
The Blackbird is clearly a PC built with no compromises... In essence, a PC in its most evolved state. But it doesn't represent a leap. A pretty damn good jump, but not a leap. And it definitely doesn't make me want to run Windows as my primary system again. But its going to kick the shit out of anything from Dell, Alienware, Falcon, Velocity Micro et al.
The Blackbird reminds me of the BeOS... Technology in its most refined form but not necessarily something the general public can relate to. Sure, you and I can appreciate SMP, multi-threading, and a journaled file system
but can the average moe? The Blackbird is a dream from a geek's standpoint but how much value does it have from a GP standpoint?
The thinking is that this is primarily a branding piece and, from that perspective, a very strong first step. I'm interested to see if you guys have anything revolutionary up your sleeves. If you can develop anything that will bring me back into the Windows fold, I'll definitely give you my props and my business. You don't need either but I think I'm voicing what you'd hear from the general public.
That being said, the Blackbird is as close to perfection as I've seen in PC technology, Macs included. If Apple had put the thing out, a national holiday would have been declared. The only thing wrong with it is that it runs Windows... And that's not an insurmountable challenge by any means, eh? ;)
Peace bro and keep havin fun,
James King
noblock, I think you have some valid points - but don't think that we spent a year just working on one machine. That said, Blackbird is easily the best personal computer in its class, I don't think anyone can or will argue that.
We have a number of other technologies that we're working on in HP (including Labs) that have yet to be seen.
Thanks for the comments guys, stay tuned...
Well it is the best PC that I have ever seen, and I have seen many a PC in my time! I wonder, though, how soon will you reach the U.K. with this masterpiece?
Who designed and developed the website?
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