I swear to God this isn't an ad
Quaunaut
The longest seven days in history... Join Date: 2003-03-21 Member: 14759Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
The longest seven days in history... Join Date: 2003-03-21 Member: 14759Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">For the HP Blackbird 002 Gaming PC</div>Okay, so, I wanted an Alienware when I was younger. They looked awesome, were the best on the block and hard to compare with when it came to performance- even with similar parts, their cord management and changes to the base components to help them work together put it above the rest in terms of what you could do. Since then, they haven't been able to maintain that old air of "The Best", and dozens of competitors have sprung up.
But about the time Alienware lost dominance, I started building my own computers, and haven't looked back, until now, all of a sudden.
This week there was a huge media blitz on 3 of my favorite podcasts, and I've been seeing ads for this everywhere. And its not just a "Oh we have the best gaming PCs" ad...its an ad where they ask you what do YOU want out of a gaming PC. And a few of the features they already have are the things that made me sit up and take notice.
Water Cooled. Okay, nice, but it always is hell doing anything with a water cooled system.
BUT OH WAIT, they have a water cooling system that is factory sealed, made to never be opened, that doesn't get in the way.
6 Seperate heat chambers- they equally divided all the main heat areas of a PC, and put them in seperate chambers each with their own cooling methods.
Performance-based BIOS with factory-set performance settings, but otherwise left open for tons of extra variables to be tweaked.
6 PCI slots- this is for me, just 'cause I'm already running out and all I've got is a Sound card and a network card. 1 left <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />. Not to mention, 3 PCIe slots- I don't even know what 3 could be used for, but this can't be a bad thing, I don't think.
And the thing that made me take note in the first place: <b>Easy upgrading despite all of the cooling features.</b> I don't know what their method was to do this, but frankly, if I don't buy one of these outright, I'm certainly thinking about grabbing a chassis and seeing what my own parts could do in it, as it seems I couldn't keep my system from overheating even if I smothered it in dry ice(btw: GeForce 7900 GTs suck ass for heat management. Worst fans ever.).
Oh, and its purty too:
<img src="http://www.techgadgets.in/images/hp-blackbird.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Did anyone else take note of this thing's existence, and get the same impression as what I got about its supposedly really-easy-to-upgrade ness? And what do you guys think about a system designed like this?
I think that if the case and heat management ideas are significant enough, we may see a whole new type of PC case.
But about the time Alienware lost dominance, I started building my own computers, and haven't looked back, until now, all of a sudden.
This week there was a huge media blitz on 3 of my favorite podcasts, and I've been seeing ads for this everywhere. And its not just a "Oh we have the best gaming PCs" ad...its an ad where they ask you what do YOU want out of a gaming PC. And a few of the features they already have are the things that made me sit up and take notice.
Water Cooled. Okay, nice, but it always is hell doing anything with a water cooled system.
BUT OH WAIT, they have a water cooling system that is factory sealed, made to never be opened, that doesn't get in the way.
6 Seperate heat chambers- they equally divided all the main heat areas of a PC, and put them in seperate chambers each with their own cooling methods.
Performance-based BIOS with factory-set performance settings, but otherwise left open for tons of extra variables to be tweaked.
6 PCI slots- this is for me, just 'cause I'm already running out and all I've got is a Sound card and a network card. 1 left <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />. Not to mention, 3 PCIe slots- I don't even know what 3 could be used for, but this can't be a bad thing, I don't think.
And the thing that made me take note in the first place: <b>Easy upgrading despite all of the cooling features.</b> I don't know what their method was to do this, but frankly, if I don't buy one of these outright, I'm certainly thinking about grabbing a chassis and seeing what my own parts could do in it, as it seems I couldn't keep my system from overheating even if I smothered it in dry ice(btw: GeForce 7900 GTs suck ass for heat management. Worst fans ever.).
Oh, and its purty too:
<img src="http://www.techgadgets.in/images/hp-blackbird.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Did anyone else take note of this thing's existence, and get the same impression as what I got about its supposedly really-easy-to-upgrade ness? And what do you guys think about a system designed like this?
I think that if the case and heat management ideas are significant enough, we may see a whole new type of PC case.
Comments
From what you describe though it sounds pretty nice... and now that the site has loaded.. it's also not cheap once you get all the pretty add-ons. Whether you get bang for your buck I really can't say, I'm not too good at appraising these types of things. If it is fairly customizable as it seems, at least they have that over companies like dell, who can be rather annoying with their all or none principles.
I can't find out where I can try customizing my own machine though...is there something I'm missing?
Their worth the $200-250 you'll pay (thats +parts and the coolant, cases run about 150 with a whole setup, all you gotta do is get the heatsinks for the coolant for the parts you want, which run about $20 a piece, but all you should need is cpu and videocard mounts). Their also safe, using di-electric coolant means if it explodes, it wont harm your computer if it leaks, which i've had mine for about 3-4 years and both the pumps are still working and i've never had a leak. Changing parts is easy, all you do is remove 2 thumb screws and pull the mount off, remove the fan off the new video card, and mount the liquid coolant heat sink where the old one use to be.
Though if you get one, i highly suggest getting a swifer duster mop sheet packs, they make great filters to keep out the dust/hair out of your radiator which will be a complete pain in the ass later on down the road.
Only stupid rich people or very stupid normal people (or people without arms or friends, who are therefore unable to assemble their own PC) buy stuff like this.
I could say the same thing about people buying PS3's, but I won't lie to myself.
The computer looks damn sleek, I'd hit it.
The computer looks damn sleek, I'd hit it.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The PS3 is actually a very cheap Blu-Ray player. The whole "it has games!" thing is like, frosting on top.
If you have the disposable income it doesn't make you stupid to buy a very nicely put together PC. To some people saving $1000 or so isn't worth the hassle of buying agreeable parts and then putting them together, not to mention they don't have the time or know-how to do it anyway. The concise executive summary would be: not everyone is a computer geek. I would seriously consider something like this personally. The compartmentalized design isn't something you can replicate easily and I don't think I'd be comfortable working with water cooling as a novice to PC building (read: I've never tried)
Than that's one ######ty cake.
It's cake with frosting on top, only without the frosting? For that matter, a very cheap Blu-Ray player? A cheap Blu-Ray player is still a very expensive DVD-player.
The case's vertical grille style design looks pretty good to my eye, but the foot upon which it sits makes it look silly. I like having a plan front that looks massive, intimidating, and militaristic, so the design looks pretty good. But again, it's that foot that ruins it for me.
Regardless, I'm more of a fan of building my own PC: while I appreciate the design of this PC, I'd like to believe I could do it better - or at least, a similar build for cheaper - myself.
You have to remember when buying a prebuilt "Gaming" computer that they are marking up ridiculous amounts of money just for the name they put on it and unless you have stupid amounts of income you are better off building your own computer.
"even with similar parts, their cord management and changes to the base components to help them work together put it above the rest in terms of what you could do."
Yeah... no. Computer made of the same pieces will run the same, there is no mysterious magical touch these companies have that make their computers better.
Yeah... no. Computer made of the same pieces will run the same, there is no mysterious magical touch these companies have that make their computers better.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Great job quoting out of context. Back in the day you couldn't match Alienware's speeds purely because of changes to base components. But they don't get that anymore, so yeah, you're pretty much correct.
And as for price, all I've seen anywhere thus far is $2500 to $5400 on the PC Magazine site.
Also, the "magic touch" that higher end manufacturers add comes in the flavour of: better cooling, shorter traces, better contacts, longer lasting capacitors and higher quality traces.
Also, the "magic touch" that higher end manufacturers add comes in the flavour of: better cooling, shorter traces, better contacts, longer lasting capacitors and higher quality traces.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Im fairly sure that alienware or anybody else prints their own circuit boards, they are using the same things you would otherwise be using if you built it yourself. In some cases they came pre-tweaked or overclocked but again those are things you can do yourself.
So you're saying that there's no difference between an Alienware, Dell or Compaq and an ASUS, DFI or Abit motherboard? You, to use the vernacular, fail.
Try 5,400 <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
<a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2179613,00.asp" target="_blank">http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2179613,00.asp</a>
Edit: HOLY MOTHER OF GOBLINS, it's got an incredible TWO gigabytes of RAM! TWICE as much as my four year old computer does! WOW!
Edit2: It's aptly named though. Like its namesake it's very powerful and ludicrously expensive.
Case looks nice though, but that's about it.
Alienware prints their own motherboards?
Edit: Ill continue to say, the way I view things is that owning something expensive that you bought is no more respectable then what you did to get the money. If you buy a 3000 $ computer with money you made from flipping cheeseburgers at mcdonalds, owning that thing is no more respectable then working at mcdonalds. Until you do something to really earn what you paid for (modify it, build it yourself) you don't truly own it. Just thought I'd put this out there, I hate people that are like "YO dude check out my pimped out ride!" and it's nice, sure. All they did though was pay some guy to modify it, and that's no respectable at all.
Opened up an alienware notebook and found their alien head logo on the PCB, I'd assume they made it.
Actually, I made it. All circuit boards made by lolfighter are crafted from the finest substrate and copper, gnawed into shape my lolfighter himself, then lacquered with - well, you don't want to know what the lacquer is.