hp-firebird posts

The news on the HP Firebird gaming PC was leaked out last week but this week HP and its subsidary Voodoo PC made the news official this week. The slimmed down and powered down gaming PC product will be made available for purchase online later this week with the starting price of $1,799.

However, many people (including some of our comments at Big Download) have questions whether the new HP Firebird is indeed a bargain at its price with some saying they could make a PC using the same or better componants for less. On his official blog site, Voodoo PC owner Radul Sood says HP worked with Nvidia to create new video cards that are smaller but have comparible perfomance to their larger counterparts. Creative Labs was also asked to make a smaller version of its X-FI sound card for the system.

That and other changes make the Firebird unique, according to Sood. He states, "You're going to hear a lot about the HP Firebird with VoodooDNA, because I truly believe it breaks new ground for the performance PC industry. It's the first of its kind, not only for HP, but for all of our partners." He adds, "Sure there will be people who say things like 'I can build one for less' – but they simply cannot. You will not be able to build a PC that offers a balance of performance, silence, size, scalability, reliability, and efficiency for less."

Earlier this week we reported that VoodooPC and its parent company HP would officially launch their "cheaper" gaming-oriented PC at CES next week called the Firebird. However, both VoodooPC and HP have also been working on concepts for a gaming-oriented PC laptop. Now Laptop Magazines's web site has the exclusive first hands-on look at this concept laptop, the HP Firefly.

This massive laptop weight 13 pounds and that includes a one pound power brick. It has a 17.1 inch-screen, backlighting for the keyboard buttons and a multi-touch trackboard. It also has a 4.3 inch LCD screen below the main screen. It can act as a second screen for people who want to play World of Warcraft on the main screen but check an email or watch a YouTube video on the smaller display. It also has a night vision camera for people who want to game in the dark but still have a video chat with friends.

As VoodooPC head man Rahul Sood states in his blog entry about the HP Firefly this product is being shown at CES next week but is a concept model only and will not actually be sold to the public. However you can bet that some of the ideas in the Firefly will be put in future HP and VoodooPC laptops.

The gaming PC hardware industry has been reeling from Voodoo PC head Rahul Sood's recent remarks that declared the era of the super powerful and super expensive gaming PC is "dead". Next week Sood and Voodoo PC's owners HP plan to put their PCs where their mouths are with the launch of the HP Firebird.

Our sister site Engadget reports that the Firebird will be much smaller and more compact than the huge Blackbird gaming PC (the first product created after HP bought Voodoo PC in 2006). Inside the Firebird will have quad-core 2.83 Ghz Intel Core 2 processors, 4 GB of RAM, and dual Nvidia Geforce 9800S video cards. However the power supply for the PC is placed outside the case and only uses 350 watts of energy, far less than the typical high-powered gaming PC. The catch? The Firebird is not designed to be easily upgradable. PC World reports that the Firebird will go on sale online at voodoopc.com on Jan. 9 for $1,799.