The quad-core project - Looks like I made some good parts choices

When I looked over the spec of HPs new Blackbird 002 PC, I was surprised how similar some of the spec was to the quad-core systems I built.

The first thing that struck me was that HP had gone with the Asus Striker Extreme motherboard for the Intel based Blackbirds.  I'm convinced that I made the right choice going with this board, and the fact that HP chose it for the Blackbird reinforces this.  It's a fantastic board right out of the box and the BIOS will be heaven to those that like tweaking every tiny aspect of their rig. 

Other similarities on offer for the Blackbird:

• 10,000 RPM drives
• Corsair RAM
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card
• Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer soundcard (this is going into Kathie's system, I'm sticking with the default audio system)

Of course, the HP Blackbird 002 goes much further than the systems I built.  The case is custom, the 1.1KW PSU requires you to have your own little nuclear reactor, it uses a liquid cooling system, PhysX card ... the list goes on.  All this comes at a premium price - between $2500 and $7100, depending on the configuration.

A feature that the Blackbird has that I like and might add to out systems is the gooseneck LED light ... sounds useful.

Anyone in the market for a Blackbird 002?