Case and exterior
The left panel is opened by pressing a button on the “chin” of the case. It pops open smoothly and looks very cool. It only opens up to about 90 degrees, which would be a problem if you were doing a lot of tinkering (Actually, I’ve learned that the case door pops right off, it just doesn’t look like it). I don’t think you’ll need to, though. The inside of the translucent portion of the case is mirrored, for extra vanity. It’s also got blue and violet lighting which I can’t decide whether I like or not.

Inside you’ll find a layout quite unlike your average “ATX in a box” computer. Most prominent is the liquid coolant piping and big silver coolant container stamped with the Voodoo logo. It should be mentioned that the Firebird has what HP calls “Voodoo DNA,” which isn’t so much a real thing but a remnant of the defunct Voodoo brand’s design philosophy and pride in fine PC construction.

There’s a slot-loading Blu-Ray drive, which worked excellently but has no indicator as to which side of the disc goes right or left. Not exactly a deal-breaker (and the manual eject button is tastefully hidden but right there), but could be confusing to a non-tech-oriented person.

Form beats down function
Now, take a look at the front of the Firebird. What do you see? Or rather, what don’t you see? That’s right, you don’t see any ports at all. I talked with HP about the design of the Firebird and asked about this specifically. They felt that they were designing an object that was trying to avoid the traditional PC form factor in many ways. For instance, the power supply is external, a rather rum thing that makes sense once you understand that it makes the PC smaller, quieter, and cooler. So with no ports on the front, they feel they’re encouraging use of wireless devices and alternatives to the usual tentacular spectacular that is the front of every other PC out there. I can’t fault them for that, but let’s be honest: there are ports on the front for a reason. Hide them if you must, but to shift them completely to the back is a nightmare for people who have to use thumbdrives a lot or plug and unplug headphones and microphones. There is a multi-card reader right on the top of the thing, hidden by a little sliding panel; why didn’t they just make that thing bigger?

Performance and specs
Using the Firebird was a joy. Before I go on, let’s just get the specs out of the way:
Processor: Core 2 Quad Q9550
Chipset: nForce 760S
RAM: 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2
PSU: 350W external (!)
Storage: 2×320GB 2.5″ 5200RPM HDDs
Video: 2xGeForce 9800S 512MB (SLI)
Sound: X-Fi Mini
Ports: 6xUSB2, 1xFirewire 400, 2xeSATA, 1xHDMI, 1xDVI-I, 1xExpressCard-54

So as you can see, it’s quite well-equipped, and only uses 350 watts of power — a paragon of economy.

Obviously it’s powerful enough to run just about anything, but it’s clear from the lack of current-generation hardware (no GeForce 285 or Intel Core i7s here) that it’s not a beast — nor is it meant to be. I had to adjust my expectations, knowing this was the son of Blackbird but also knowing it was what they called the “baby bird.” I’m not a big believer in artificial benchmarks, but let’s just get a couple in here:

>In 3dMark06, the Firebird scored 13089, a perfectly good score but by no means extraordinary. Real gameplay is what matters, after all.
>In Geekbench, it got a 4768, which is about average for a Q9550. Faster hard drives and probably DDR3 would bump this up.

Obviously, what really matters is real-life performance in stuff like games, so I fired up FRAPS and tried out the first few chapters of Project Origin and about half an hour of Far Cry 2.

>For Far Cry 2 my settings were 1920×1200, No AA, DirectX 10, all settings on high (some settings go up to ultra-high, but IQ change is questionable). During a nice little assault with plenty of bullets, fire, and running around, I got a minimum of 30fps, a maximum of 57, and an average of about 40. Lowering the resolution to 1680×1050 got me another 10 frames, but honestly it looked better at full res and ran acceptably.

>Project Origin ran more smoothly, averaging 50fps, with min and max about 10 below and 10 above that. Firefights obviously had a bit lower, but I never went below about 35. I found that for this game, 1680×1050 with 2x AA looked the best, with everything else set to maximum.

In normal system use and housekeeping (working with photos, unzipping big files, copying, installing, playing movies) it was beyond reproach, although I didn’t get to test out its video editing chops.

Firebird at home
Throughout my use of the Firebird, I noticed (or didn’t notice, rather) the noise. There isn’t much. Thanks to the external power supply and liquid cooling, it’s practically silent. There’s a light hum, but when you start it up and it does a quick fan check, you hear what the fan noise could have been.

The two 320GB hard drives, at 2.5″ and 5200RPM, aren’t going to set any retrieval time records, but copying 3.5GB from one to the other took about a minute, which is better than I can say for my own rig. I wouldn’t worry about the performance, but if you do, you can always swap out the drives for your own preferred ones; I confess I couldn’t make sense of the mechanism and didn’t want to dig out the manual, but it looks easy enough.

The rear panel is a little crowded in the USB area, especially if you’ve got external hard drives and stuff that always need to be plugged in, but otherwise it’s clean-looking and solid. HP hopes that because of its nice looks and quiet demeanor, the Firebird could be considered a really nice HTPC — thus, the featureless front and the HDMI-out, handy if you want to make this your media box.

Accessorize!
The Firebird comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse designed to complement its design. The keyboard is a great success, the mouse not so much. Of course, I’m predisposed towards plain keyboards and spoiled by better mice, but hey. The keyboard is very attractive and extremely flat, and I even found it very comfortable to type on. The sleep button is easy to hit on purpose but difficult to hit by accident, as it should be. There are volume control buttons, but play/pause/etc is built on top the F-keys, which is kind of puzzling on a keyboard designed to be used with a HTPC. Still, it’s a very nice keyboard. The mouse not so much. Not particularly comfortable, lacking extra buttons, and prone to skipping and unresponsiveness; avoid at all costs.

The bottom line
The Firebird we reviewed is the $1799 “803″ version, which HP tells me is actually getting a bit rare. Fortunately, there’s an “802″ version for $1299 which I would honestly recommend over this one, looking at its specs. It loses out on 120GB of hard drive space due to dual 250GB drives instead of 320GB, and its processor and L2 cache are reduced: the 803 has a Q7550/2.83GHz/12MB L2 and the 802 has a Q9400/2.66GHz/6MB L2. That’s definitely a step down, but $400 in savings is significant, and you’ve still got the same case, RAM, video cards, cooling, and everything.

I think that the 802 version of the Firebird (sight unseen, but I can imagine it) is the better deal here, and is actually a good deal, period. $1300 plus tax gets you an attractive, quiet, and reasonably powerful machine; you could certainly build your own with the components for less, but that’s beside the point because you couldn’t get this freaky case and it wouldn’t be so well constructed and wired. So what you’re missing out on in customization potential, you’re gaining back in quality. If you’re looking for a ready-made PC, this is a great setup for the price, and apart from the front USB issue it’s been nice to use (and invest in a hub and that’s no longer an issue). This would be a great rig for a kid going off to college, or just as an all-purpose PC around the house.

The 13.4-inch Adamo will be the first in the series and comes in a oh-so-sexy aluminum package. The whole thing weighs a pound more than the Apple MacBook Air, but manages to measure in at .65-inches. Sadly it seems that this guy doesn’t pack the goods where it counts to justify the $1999 price though.

Within the ultra thin body is a 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo U9300 with integrated Intel X4500 graphics, 2GB of memory, with a 128GB SSD and optional mobile broadband. This notebook might even pack a five hour battery life. Just like the Air and other ultra thin notebooks, the optical drive will be external but available in both the standard CD/DVD or Blu-ray flavor.

Those keeping track will note that while this notebook comes with a 128GB SSD, which Apple charges $500 for on top of the $1,799 base price, everything else within this Windows Vista machine is sub-standard for that pricepoint. Besides that SSD, the $1799 base price of the Air nets you a faster CPU, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics, and an OS that isn’t Windows Vista. Or, the Voodoo Envy which has similar specs and size, but is a tad less expensive.

Maybe the next incarnation of the Adamo will come packing the with something other than just good looks. And maybe some modern specs to justify the very high price. As it stand right now, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to purchase this notebook when it launches on March 26th over the equally sexy Voodoo Envy or OS X-running MacBook Air.

ROUND ROCK, Texas, March 17, 2009 – Style-minded people who place a premium on precision craftsmanship and design can now add Adamo to their list of must-have items for 2009. Dell today unveiled the world’s thinnest laptop as a kick off to the new Adamo by Dell brand.

Adamo, derived from the Latin word meaning “to fall in love,” will serve as a flagship in a line of products created to disrupt the personal computing space with the combination of new design, aesthetics, personalization choices and sought-after technologies.

The News:

Adamo is the pinnacle of craftsmanship and design and features:

· A chassis milled from a single piece of aluminum featuring precision detailing and a scalloped backlit keyboard

· Striking high definition edge-to-edge glass display

· Fully connected with WiFi, Bluetooth(tm) and optional integrated mobile broadband* and full complement of connectivity ports with no compromises

· Cool, quiet and robust solid state drives

· Available in Onyx and Pearl colors with a broad range of complementary accessories

· Price starting at $1999

Quotes:

“Great design needs to be timeless and evoke emotion in people”, said Alex Gruzen, senior vice president of Dell’s consumer products. “While a premium computing experience was assumed for Adamo, the intent was for people to see, touch and explore Adamo and be rewarded by the select materials and craftsmanship you would expect in a fine watch.”

“Dell continues to signal a commitment to design and personalization across its entire product line and has made significant strides forward in the past year,” said Rob Enderle, Principal Analyst, Enderle Group. “The Adamo laptop is a showcase for this commitment and a flagship product that will draw buyers to the brand.”

People who choose Adamo will be offered a unique color matched collection of Adamo by Dell branded peripherals and accessories including, in the U.S. an exclusive line of bags from TUMI. Choices will include:

· External storage option with 250GB** or 500GB** external hard drive.

· External DVD+/-RW or Blu-ray disc drive.

· 8GB** USB drive.

· Connectors and cables including DisplayPort to HDMI, DVI, and VGA.

· Adamo Premium Service (US Only):

o 24/7 access to Dell’s best trained technicians

o Consistent communication with a dedicated personal team

The Adamo by Dell brand is being supported by innovative and new approaches to marketing and promotion for Dell. Designed to challenge people’s perceptions of what a computer is, the Adamo by Dell brand was inspired by fashion, luxury brands and timeless design.

Dell has looked beyond traditional approaches to reaching computer shoppers and launched a provocative campaign featuring:

· A stylish worldwide print campaign shot by acclaimed British-based photographer Nadav Kandar and featuring high-fashion models that reinforces the “fall in love” positioning. Kander, whose work is celebrated in galleries worldwide, also shot the moving portfolio, “Obama’s People,” which appeared in The New York Times Magazine earlier this year.

· AdamoByDell.com , the centerpiece of the campaign and a highly stylized site where viewers can learn about Adamo, register for updates and, beginning today, place orders. Since its launch last month, AdamoByDell.com has attracted nearly 800,000 unique visitors from around the world and more than 1 million page views.

· Artful packaging in which the product arrives “floating” in a clear box with minimal clutter – a beautiful experience for a sophisticated product.

Product Specifications:

· Intel® Core 2 Duo processors with Intel® Centrino ® technology

· DDR3 system memory

· 13.4-inch 16:9 HD display

· Draft-Wireless N

· High-performance solid state drives standard

· Bluetooth 2.1

· Mobile Broadband* option

· Up to 5+ hours of battery life (preliminary)***

· 2 USB ports, 1 USB/eSATA combo port, Display Port, RJ-45 port

· Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-bit

Available for pre-order today at www.adamobydell.com and shipping worldwide starting March 26, 2009, Adamo will be available online for purchase in 24 countries including U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, U.K. France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, ANZ, China, Honk Kong, India, Korea, Malaysia/Singapore, Japan, and Indonesia.

The Blackbird 002 that launched last year may be impressive, but the design is nothing special and the price range isn’t very attractive at $1,799-$4,999. Now, HP with VoodooDNA has given us something to look at. The HP Firebird 803 gaming tower flips the disc drive and most other components on their sides to allow for this sleek looking design. The Firebird doesn’t leave much room for modification or expandability, but the standard features sure do give me chills inside:

• NVIDIA nForce 760i SLI chipset
• Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz processor
• 4GB of RAM
• Dual NVIDIA GeForce 9800S cards
• Two 320GB SATA drives
• Blu-ray
• 5-in-1 card reader
• 6 USB, 1 FireWire, 2 eSATA, 1 S/PDIF and 1 DVA dual-link
• Bluetooth
• 802.11n WiFi

The Firebird unusually uses an external power supply to save on space and heat. It also comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse. Hopefully we’ll see this at CES next month and get some pricing and availability info.

via Engadget

The integration of Voodoo into the HP fold is all done, so HP has gone ahead and discounted two of its more pricey offerings. The Voodoo Envy 133’s starting price has dropped $200 from $2,099 to $1,899 and ships with a free secondary battery if you order before November 30th. The Blackbird 002’s price has dropped to $1,799.

HP’s Blackbird 02 gaming computer recently got refreshed, but no one saw this coming. Configurate here.
[via UberGizmo]

As usual with these systems, you’re not getting your money’s worth, but if you have the cash, this is a beautiful and well-put-together machine ready to handle everything from Crysis to 1080p video. I like how they’re starting to call PSUs “power plants“, and measuring their capabilities in kilowatts.

You’ll have to forgive John and his meanderings about last night’s HP announcement. He was busy ordering his iPhone. The Ipaq line was already old news by the time the CG crew hit the event. However, the Blackbird 002 was quite special. I think. I was too busy chasing Shaun White and crew from Orange County Choppers and making fun of the dude dressed up as Master Chief. Who doesn’t want a 64-bit AMD X2 Dual Core PC? I sure as heck don’t considering it costs about $7,000 when it’s all said and done. But in case you need more details then check out Computer Shopper’s review. Video after the jump.

HP Blackbird 002 with Voodoo DNA Desktop [Computer Shopper]

Ummm…. yeah so HP launched some stuff. Like the Blackbird 002. And like some other stuff like a phone with in iPod wheel and like some laptops… what’s that? iPod Touch. Yeah. Not now. Ummm… so it has a touchscreen? Wow. Ummm… some laptops and the Blackbird which is like a $2500 gaming PC. And… what? Vortex? No, I don’t need another nano, thanks. Umm… video? Oh wow. Video. Guys… there’s a gallery after the jump. I have to take this call.

For reals, though. They released a GPS unit. And a few phones. WTF? We’ll have some pictures of the event later but it was pretty barren.