Business | Technology
Finally an 'exclusive' worth talking about
After months of complaining about marketing campaigns involving "exclusive" deals, the region is finally getting the type of machine that I've been looking for: one made exclusive by its capabilities.
- By Scott Shuey, Chief Reporter
- Published: 00:05 May 3, 2008
After months of complaining about marketing campaigns involving "exclusive" deals, the region is finally getting the type of machine that I've been looking for: one made exclusive by its capabilities.
It's called the Blackbird 002, and it was released by HP last year in North America. Truth be told, I won't actually be buying it, but if I had a spare Dh30,000, I would. I don't often gush about computers, but I had a chance to play with the machine in Las Vegas in January. When fully configured, the Blackbird 002 has everything plus a few things you didn't know you could get.
It comes with an Intel Core2 Extreme Quad-Core chip clocked at 3.0 gigahertz, dual video cards with 768 megabytes of dedicated memory, and you can stack five hard-drives into the thing with some of them configured for speed and some figured for performance. It even has a Blu-Ray rewriter.
Here's the kicker: the CPU and GPU are both liquid cooled so that the massive amounts of heat generated by this monster won't affect performance. Bad puns aside, how cool is that?
My only complaint surrounding the machine is memory. Why do computer manufactures insist on only putting 4GB of RAM into a machine? I realise that this is a price/motherboard issue, but at least give me the option of saying no. However, the memory the Blackbird comes with runs at much higher speeds (up to 1066MHz) than anything you're going to get off the shelf. Dell's top-of-the-line gaming machine only comes with SDRAM chips clocked at 800MHz.
Year-end release
According to Serdar Urcar, HP's general manager for personal systems group here in Dubai, the Blackbird 002 will be released in the region before the end of the year, although only a very limited number of machines will be sold. That's because while this system is what I'd want, you still have to be careful what you asked for. This system has added features aimed at high-end games, which would be lost on most people looking to buy a home computer.
Additionally, it's loud. As one consumer put it, liquid cooled also means "sounds like a jet engine". There have also been a few complaints about ports. One gentleman complains that four USB ports in an home office environment was about half of what he needed.
What's really going to be lost on most people is the open BIOS, which means people will be able to customise the computer's firmware. OK, I'm a technophile, but even I've been seen the need for an open BIOS.
But that's also what makes this system so cool. For anyone who really wants to get into the nuts and bolts of the system, they can, because there are no nuts and bolts. The chassis is build so that no tools are required to get into the system and upgrade or tweak components. That's great for users looking for high performance, but not everyone wants to pay extra for a chassis that's ultra-accessible.
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