Hands On With HP's Firebird Desktop PC

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HP's newly announced Firebird high-performance desktop PC was on display at CES. We get our hands dirty with it.

The HP Firebird with Voodoo DNA is a high-end desktop PC designed for demanding applications, such as gaming and video editing.  The system is unlike traditional high-performance desktops as it is considerably slim in size and relatively quiet, yet unfortunately it lacks the same expansion capabilities. 

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Highlights of the system include a quad core Intel processor, a Nvidia-based MXM SLI graphics solution, a 30-decibel noise level and a factory sealed liquid cooling system that keeps the processor, chipset and graphics cards cooled.  Another neat feature that helps keeps the system slim and quiet is the use of an external 350-watt power supply brick, which surprisingly provides enough power to the system while remaining mostly unobtrusive in size.

The HP Firebird comes equipped with dual 2.5-inch 5400 RPM hard drives that can easily be removed from the system, 4 GB of DDR2 memory and the Nvidia nForce 760S chipset.  The provided dual Nvidia Geforce 9800S graphics solution is powerful enough to run modern games smoothly, as was demonstrated, and when such performance is unneeded, the system's on-board graphics can be enabled instead to conserve power.

The system comes with two PCIe x8 MXM slots and two PCIe x1 mini socket slots, although both the PCIe x8 MXM slots are occupied by the two graphics cards. There are no traditional PCIe or PCI slots available, so the system's upgradability seems a bit limited.

There are two configurations of the HP Firebird available: the Firebird with Voodoo DNA 803 PC and the the Firebird with Voodoo DNA 802 PC.  The Firebird 802 is priced at $1799, which comes equipped with an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66 GHz processor, a DVD drive and 500 GB of storage capacity.  For an extra $300, the Firebird 803 PC comes with a faster Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83 GHz processor, slightly more hard drive space, a transparent side panel with internal lighting, a Blu-ray drive and a Creative Labs X-Fi Mini PCI audio card. 

Steve Seguin
8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • captaincharisma
    this is crap if there is limited compatibility. once again HP shows how bad there systems are and keeps killing the voodoo name
    Reply
  • Greg_77
    This thing is way overpriced. If you are going to go pre-built, their are way better deals than this.
    Reply
  • anonymous x
    Greg_77This thing is way overpriced. If you are going to go pre-built, their are way better deals than this.are your "way better builds" this small and compact?
    Reply
  • VoodooDan
    VoodooDan from HP here.

    From a scalability standpoint Firebird is very modular. First, we wanted to make sure there’s enough expansion and features on the main system. So for example, the high end system comes with almost everything most of our customers ask for: quad core processor, 640 gigs storage, blue ray, creative labs x-fi, SLI, plus a hybrid GPU. We even went as far as to add wireless ethernet – all of this on a small square PCB.

    The added options come from things such as the Xpress Card slot, and there are options you can buy. There are multiple USB ports (6), and two ESATA ports, HDMI plus a dual link DVI. We aimed to build something that wasn’t lacking very much at all.

    Thanks for the feedback – and let me know if you have additional questions. I’m here to help.

    Reply
  • We find it surprising that 1TB is not a request that you got from "most of your customers". When can we expect increased storage capacity and support for i7? I am glad you there to help us.
    Reply
  • Help me understand this statement:
    "The system comes with two PCIe x8 MXM slots and two PCIe x1 mini socket slots, although both the PCIe x8 MXM slots are occupied by the two graphics cards. There are no traditional PCIe or PCI slots available, so the system's upgradability seems a bit limited."

    Later .. if I decide to get a new Graphics solution .. are you saying I Can't remove the two graphics cards and 'upgrade' them? Why not? How are the two (empty) PCIe x1 Mini sockets 'limited'?
    Reply
  • Why can't this system supports more than 8gb of Memory???
    The lights are extremely annoying and there is no way to turn them off other than unplugin them from the mother board. What about an BIOS update to fix tons of bug issues w/ this system???
    Reply
  • can the firebird 802 be upgraded to an external video card such as nvidia 9400GT?
    Reply