HP's Blackbird gets highest PC review rating vere from CNET...9.3
I don't know if the Blackbird is really this good or if someone is getting paid to sing HP's praises...

CNET editors' review

Reviewed by: Rich Brown
Reviewed on 9/5/07 Release date: 10/1/07

HP's Blackbird 002 is the first product from the collaborative design and production minds of HP and its year-old boutique acquisition, Voodoo PC. The result is a system that makes an unexpectedly large dent in what we expect from high-end gaming PCs. In addition to its unique appearance and a Mac Pro-quality interior design, HP and Voodoo have done for $5,600 what would cost significantly more from other vendors. They've also managed a technical innovation with this system that expands your graphics upgrade options, and that could also benefit DIY upgraders in general. The Blackbird 002 will satisfy any well-off gamer looking for a unique, expensive showpiece desktop. For the rest of us, let's hope that future, more affordable products from the HP/Voodoo team-up show so much polish and creativity.

The angled lines of Dell's XPS 700 series systems tweaked the idea of the typical desktop case. HP's Blackbird 002 takes that reinvention even further, with its design that looks like an accordion floating on a cantilevered base. Two slot-loading DVD burners and a spare 5.25-inch bay hide between the ridges that run down the front of the Blackbird, and a row of ports and a media card reader pop up from a cleverly concealed, spring-loaded mechanism on the top.

Aesthetically, the Blackbird 002 probably lacks universal appeal. It's imposing, a quality that doesn't always work in, say, the living room. On the other hand, fat-walleted gamers willing to pay a lot of money for high frame rates might appreciate what HP and Voodoo have going on here. We like it mostly for technical reasons; by pushing air through the bottom-side vents made possible by its elevated case, the Blackbird 002 gains more cooling and airflow.

As unique as we find the exterior, the inside is where the Blackbird 002 truly separates itself, starting with the latch. Rather than requiring you to turn the massive case around to remove its side panel screws, HP and Voodoo installed a latch on the side panel's front side edge. You simply pull the latch and the side panel swings open on a set of hinges. Once you get a look inside the case, the Voodoo influence becomes instantly apparent--and not just because of the "Voodoo DNA" label.

The first thing that becomes apparent about the inside of the Blackbird 002 is how clean it is. The graphics cards, power supply, hard drives, and their attendant cables are for the most part concealed behind a series of removable plastic walls (the graphics cards sit behind their own secondary hinged door). This segmenting, which we've seen before from Voodoo systems, benefits overall heat management, and because the internal partitions are removable--including the graphics card door--you can clear the way when you want to add more memory or another expansion card.

Read all about it here, courtesy of CNET.com

Eric