Thanks to the wonderfully effective HP PR machine there has been an incredible amount of coverage of HP's new Firebird with VoodooDNA that I can't go through it all myself - although I did catch this one fantastic article from Damon Poeter I had to quote it and link to it.
Is Rahul Sood going soft? The VoodooPC frontman has grown decidedly agnostic towards over-the-top, power-hogging gaming rigs, if his recent pitch for the new HP (NYSE:HPQ) Firebird high-performance desktop PC is any indication.
Sood and Hewlett-Packard unveiled the HP Firebird with Voodoo DNA at this week's Consumer Electronics Show, where Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP turned up with a slew of new PC desktop and notebook products. More on those in a second.
The Firebird is the successor to the Blackbird 002, the result of HP's 2006 acquisition of Calgary, Canada-based enthusiast system builder VoodooPC. Unlike the Blackbird 002 and just about every other gaming system on the market, the Firebird is not simply a vehicle for the latest, greatest processors and graphics cards.
Sood, making that distinction clear in his recent chat with ChannelWeb, held up a typical boxy graphics card and called it "yesterday's news" while calling for a more economical and less garish "paradigm" for enthusiast systems.
Instead of using such bulky cards, HP has populated its custom motherboard for the Firebird with a pair of Nvidia (NSDQ:NVDA) GeForce 9800S small form factor graphics cards that are cooled, along with the Intel (NSDQ:INTC) Core 2 Quad CPU, via the new system's liquid-based thermal management system. The result: A unit that looks as elegant on the inside as it does on the outside and doesn't draw anywhere near the juice that traditional gaming PCs demand.
Nor was it lost on us that the video card Sood held up so dismissively was made by AMD (NYSE:AMD)'s ATI graphics unit. Nvidia makes plenty of equally bulky, decadent units. But it probably wouldn't do to bash one of your current hardware partner's products while praising another.
The HP Firebird with Voodoo DNA won't rise to the level of the more extreme gaming systems out there, but it's not really made to do that. Instead, Sood said, HP decided to ditch the model of putting the most powerful possible components into a performance rig, regardless of how rarely their full capacity ever gets tapped.
Which all leads to the curious experience of listening to Sood give a lecture on the virtues of restraint in product development, but there you have it.
The HP Firebird retains the Blackbird's hot-swappable hard drive scheme, featuring a pair of 320GB units in the basic set-up. It has smoky glass side panels that let you see what's inside " not a power supply, which is external " and will be available starting at $1,799 on Friday at VoodooPC.com and on Feb. 1 in retail stores.
Damon, I love the article, thanks for taking the time to cover our Firebird machine. This product was the most difficult I've ever been involved with. It was like we gave birth to the most complex baby ever and in the process we almost lost the mother. The struggle seems to be worth it based on the extensive feedback we have received. So far the industry experts and even some of our competitors have fallen in love with Firebird and say we're on the right track.
I believe the high end PC industry needs to change - I feel it's getting stale and un-innovative. I feel that if we don't get the ball rolling now then the very companies who helped drive the PC gaming industry may end up shutting down. I think it's important for people to recognize stagnation in their business and in the industry so they can get ahead of the problems before it's too late.
As an example, just the other day a big video card manufacturer decided to launch an incredibly jacked up PC - and just as I thought I'd seen everything I heard this thing will have up to 5 GPU's in it. I'm not quite sure who on this planet needs 5 GPU's to play a video game - and thus I believe their business model is flawed. I have been hearing the same from others in the industry, but whatever the case may be I wish them luck.
HP Firebird with VoodooDNA will likely change the way the semi manufacturers look at the premium space. I'm hoping we'll see AMD, Intel, and Nvidia switch to lower power, smaller, and more thermally efficient platforms. I'm hoping that the MXM standard will be widely adopted on the desktop. Also we lead the way with liquid cooling making it standard in the premium space - and under HP we helped to further the reliability of such solutions.
I would love to see companies release more flexible flat configurations which can be built in almost any form. After Firebird, custom PCs will either become more creative and interesting, or perhaps they won't change and volumes will decrease.
I spent a few hours at CES speaking to some of my competitors in the PC Space. Based on their reactions to Firebird I think we'll start to see a new push in the high end PC space for smarter designs. I really believe we did the right thing at HP to make this happen, and I love all the feedback we've received so far.
I'm even willing to help some of the smaller guys get access to cool technologies like MXM on the desktop. I have already spoken to Wallace Santos from Maingear Computers, one of the more respected boutique builders out there (and just an all around really good guy), and we're both discussing ways to make this happen. I am also placing the challenge on Nvidia to help drive this via their partners at eVGA or others. Whatever HP needs to do to help I will try to do what I can.
Anyways, stay tuned for another blog summing up some of the cool coverage on Firebird - and let me know what you think of the future of high performance personal computing.
6 blogger comments:
Rahul, I think your direction with Firbird is right on. I saw it at the Nvidia booth and as much as I hate to admit it I wish it was ours. I work with a small system builder in California and we'd love to participate in MXM on the desktop!!! How do we do it?
Hi Rahul, this is Vadim.
very interesting direction you are taking...good luck with it and hope it works out!
I didnt follow your blog very closely as I had to start up a new venture and busy with other work, but I am curious what happened to the other project of yours http://www.custompc.co.uk/news/602730/video-glimpse-of-new-voodoo-pc.html
I see the BFG PC is using some of your concepts - bottom to top airflow, classic case design, LCD on the front.
Whats the story?
Hey Rahul,
I love the concept of the Firebird and think you are taking PC gaming into the right direction, but with the FEAR 2 system requirements coming out today, I have my doubts. The Firebird is above the recommended specs but not by all that much. You talk on how you hope more people embrace the MXM standard but if you can't upgrade them whats the point? In 3 years or less people who buy the Firebird will be forced to play on lower settings and giving them a $2100 PC that cant play games very well anymore. The only way people will accept and adopt the Firebird design is if they can upgrade it on a regular basis and I hope you guys offer some new MXM graphics cards in the future for it. Other wise people are going to have a hard time spending $2100 on a computer that they cant upgrade in 3-5 years when it starts showing its age. Just my 2 cents since I'm thinking of buying a Firebird and this is really the only thing that ercks me away.
At the risk of sounding like a hater, I'm skeptical that this design is going to catch fire. Here's why:
1. It's smaller and more energy efficient but how many people really care about the power consumption of their desktop PCs, especially gamers who generally try to pack the biggest and baddest components in their systems? Is energy efficiency really that important to that crowd? My guess is "no."
2. How good is the 2K price point? I can't think of anyone who says "damn, if they can bring that down to two thousand bones, I'd snatch it up." The market has consistently pushed PCs of all types down to below $1000. Below $500 is even better for PCs, which must now compete more with consoles. The Firebird seems to occupy a no-man's land at the 2K price point. It seems to be a great value vs. other gaming machines but would it be the first choice of people with only a spare 2K in their pockets? I can think of a few things I would purchase with a spare 2K well before the Firebird, at least a few of them laptops of various makes and models. I don't think the Firebird has a must-have quality, especially at that price point.
3. The desktop paradigm is dead (or dying pretty quickly). I think the only reason desktop PCs still sell at all is because they still have a significant price/performance advantage over laptops. But laptop technology has finally crossed the price/performance barrier for "good enough." There's a reason why netbooks are getting snatched up by the millions and it's the fastest growing segment of PC sales. Netbooks are just UMPCs with decent keyboards and usably-sized screens at great price points. Microsoft refused to innovate with its Windows GUI to facilitate running the OS on very small screens but Intel picked up the ball and ran with it by overcoming the thermal and energy challenges of creating a small yet decently powered mobile PC platform. Netbooks are the equilibrium of having the capabilities of a full-featured PC OS in a package that is inexpensive and convenient to carry.
The Firebird is nice but it competes with EVERYTHING in the 2K range and I don't think it's so groundbreaking that it will compel people to make it a "must-have" purchase. The MXM platform may as well be proprietary. Maybe if you can convince other PC makers that the platform will scale well from a manufacturing standpoint and provide logistical and cost-saving benefits at the manufacturing level, economies of scale may kick in and people may start getting the performance of today's $7000 PCs for under a grand. Price/performance is really the last true advantage of desktop PCs and any technology that improves that area ultimately benefits the form factor. Will the MXM platform allow PC builders to improve their gross margins on desktop PCs? You'd know this better than me but, so far, the Firebird looks like a solution without a problem. It's not truly mobile and not truly inexpensive. It would have value only to a segment of the market that already has other options.
Netbooks are proving that people still desire a full and complete computing experience but in a mobile and inexpensive package. Desktops have the power, laptops have the mobility... find a way to effectively combine the two and you get the best of all possible worlds. You already know my take on this... it's inevitable. I think it's real interesting that Apple's new in-house semi-conductors are rumored to have ground-breaking capabilities in real-time video compression/decompression.
Hey Rahul, I just got done reading your latest blog on the review of the Firebird by Damon Poeter. I was indeed good to see that there are other system enthusiasts/reviewers who appreciate what you and your team were trying to accomplish in designing the Firebird. It seems like some, if not many of the gaming geeks in the bloggersphere seem to think that the more horse power you can put into a rig, regardless if a user would every tap the system’s full potential, is the only way to go. I guess it’s “size matters” mentality.
As you point out in your blog, the hope is that the development of the Firebird will inspire other companies to develop desktop PC in the same low profile, low power, high performance design as seen in the Firebird. Unfortunately, I’m not sure many companies, with their entire sights set on the bottom line, have the financial where with all to develop such systems. HP has the advantage of the very diverse product platform across a broad line of products and a multi-billion dollar revenue base to experiment with product design, and take a shot at an unproven commercially viable new design. After all, if the Firebird doesn’t sell several hundred thousand units or whatever the breakeven is for the R&D costs, its not going to materially impact HP’s finances. But I do share in your thoughts that the high end PC industry needs to become more innovative. And I hope the development trend in the industry will change.
Hey Rahul - glad you liked the article. I have to say I was impressed with a lot of HP's new products for CES. The new Pavilion dv2 and dv3 seem to me like they were convceived along the same lines as the Firebird ... to take advantage of a wide-open pricing sweet spot with a really solid product. In the dv2/dv3 instance it's the $700-$800 range for an ultra-thin laptop with a lot of media capabilities, for the Firebird, it's a sub-$2,000 gaming/entertainment rig for the increasing number of people out there looking at their bank accounts, portfolios and job security and not seeing any percentage in dropping $5K just to play the next best game before the drivers can keep up with it anyway.
BTW, I also think Nvidia's doing something interesting on the netbook/nettop front with their Ion platform. I think it's great to see a Voodoo or an Nvidia come out and say, hey, we can take it down a notch and do affordable and efficient, too.
As for the Firebird, I think one of the best things about it is that it's NOT kitted out like some eyesore of a NASCAR vehicle with a jillion clashing vendor logos staring out at you from its insides, cartoons of half-naked women, etc. ... like, you could actually keep this system on your desk in front of polite company.
Post a Comment