HP Firebird 803 Wonder

By admin | Mar 12, 2009

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When I think of HP, I think functional. Maybe that’s because I am used to their corporate lineup. HP has managed to pull together a real svelty gamer quality desktop in their Firebird 803. This liquid cooled beauty has a lot going for it, but it’s lack of graphics upgradeability will kill the deal for most.

The Firebird relies on using laptop and mobile class components to deliver outstanding power consumption and size. We’re talking a very small footprint with half the power consumption of similar desktop gaming rigs. What you sacrifice is performance. This gaming desktop will not satisfy hardcore gamers. The lack of graphics upgrade (because of the antiquated MXM graphics line) will put a bad taste in the mouth of serious gamers. But for graphics workers who want a PC with a super small footprint, super silent operation (because of liquid cooling), and excellent power consumption – this would be a good choice.

You only get 2 DIMM slots, but you do get a mini PCI express slot available to you. The unit also utilizes laptop sized hard drives and comes with 5400rpm drives. Can you say ugh! I would be swapping those out for dual SSD drives with super fast access times. And the power brick looks like a cinder block. Plan on putting that on a bookshelf to hide it.

This desktop will fit a niche with some users. You can tell they are aiming for that. And I think they hit the mark, if you are willing to sacrifice on some things. Are they the right things though? Cost is around $2k for the specs below.

Specs:

	Operating system		Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit edition with Service Pack 1

	Processor		Intel Core 2 Quad 9550 (2.83GHz, 12MB L2 Cache, 1333MHz FSB)

	Memory		4GB

	Memory speed		PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM memory (2 x 2408MB for ultimate performance)

	Total memory slots		2 DIMM (240-pin, DDR2) (occupied)

	Maximum memory expansion		N/A

	Graphics card		Dual SLI Nvidia GeForce 9800S MXM 3.0 graphics cards with 512MB DDR3 memory on each card

	TV & entertainment experience		Blu-ray optical drive and HDMI port

	PCI expansion		2 PCI-E x8 slot (MXM) (occupied) \|2 PCI-E x1 mini socket slots (one available) \|1 Mni-PCI socket for HP custom Audio card expansion (occupied)

	Hard drive		640GB (2 x 320GB) 5400RPM Serial ATA hard drive

	Primary CD/DVD drive		Slot-load Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner: Read: 8x DVD+/-R, 6x DVD+/-RW, 6x DVD+/-R DL, 5x DVD-RAM, 2x BD-ROM, 8x DVD-ROM, 6x DVD-ROM DL, 24x CDR, 24x CDRW, 24x CD-ROM Write: 8x DVD+/-R, 4x DVD+/-RW, 4x DVD+/-R DL, 5x DVD-RAM, 16x CDR, 10x CDRW

	Secondary CD/DVD drive		N/A

	Networking		10/100/1000Base-T network interface \|802.11 b/g/n WLAN & Integrated Bluetooth

	Sound card		Creative Labs X-Fi Mini PCI audio card

	Speakers		N/A

	Front-side bus (processor dependent)		1333MHz

	Power supply		350W external power supply

	I/O ports		Top 5-in-1 memory card reader: supports xD, MultiMedia Card (MMC), Secure Digital (SD), Mini Secure Digital, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro Duo \|6 USB 2.0 ports (Back) \|1 FireWire (IEEE 1394) port; Headphone; Microphone; Optical Audio Out; (Back) \|2 eSATA (Back) \|HDMI out; DVI-I out (Back) \|ExpressCard-54 (Back) DC in (Back)

	Software, full versions		Cyberlink DVD Suite Deluxe with: Cyberlink PowerDirector ; CyberLink Power2Go ; CyberLink DVD Play

	Software, introductory versions		Grisoft AVG Professional anti-virus (1 year subscription)

	Trial Internet service		N/A

	Dimensions		Unpackaged: 6.20″ (W) x 17.80″ (L/D) x 18.90″ (H) approx. Packaged: 23.31″ (W) x 10.20″ (L/D) x 24.92″ (H) approx.

	Basic warranty		Hardware: One year parts and labor from date of purchase \|Software: 1 year technical toll-free phone assistance