The HP Blackbird 002 is back, is your gaming experience better for it?

The HP Blackbird 002 is back, is your gaming experience better for it?

The sequel to HPs gaming rig, the Blackbird, has a brand new Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 CPU and 4 GB of 16K DDR3 memory, and a slick pair of GeForce GTX 280 running the graphics show. It is a good gaming box, and you could have on big endless frag party using it. The case remains the same, and for good reason, there was nothing wrong with the old one. It has a superb ribbed design and is almost simplistic in its maintenance access, which is a very good thing indeed. 4 GB of memory is just about right for a quick gaming PC. I could ask for more, but I won't. All in all, the HP Blackbird 002 gaming PC is well build and based on a solid SLI architecture for speedy 3D results for around $6500. It is on these points that the Blackbird 002 has even won awards. But as we are not an award committee, and handing over $6k for a gaming PC is a lot of dough, we thought we would test things for ourselves. This is what we found.

The gaming system is a good choice for anyone who wants a solid, nice looking, well vented, upper mid level gaming machine, and wants to pay too much. At over $6500, I would at least expect it to be able to hold its own against similarly configured gaming rigs for around the same price, and as good of a frag box the Blackbird 002 is, it fails when held to this standard. While your girlfriend might admire the matte black decor that you call your killbox, you'll really wish you had the less expensive Velocity Micro Raptor with its 3 blue LED lit side fans whirring hidden under the pizza box behind the sofa. Other than a few lower score against its direct competitors, there is really nothing wrong with the BH002, and it does its predecessor justice, but in gaming, pedigree is nothing and scores are what really matters. When you go over $5000 as a list price, we have a tendency to rule on what really matters, sorry HP, competition is all that matters in a gaming PC.

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