It’s been nearly 20 years since HP bought the boutique laptop maker VoodooPC, bolstering each its gaming and design choices. And in 2009, that buy bore fruit: The corporate’s “Blackbird” design was refined right into a super-powered, super-modular microtower referred to as the Firebird 803. On the most recent PCWorld YouTube video, we’re joined by VoodooPC founder Rahul Sood (at the moment CEO of Irreverent Labs) for a private tour of this extremely distinctive desktop design.
Regardless of being extremely compact and that includes a number of elements designed for laptops, the Firebird is designed to be modular in each means, with simple person entry to all elements. That features the twin cell graphics playing cards, a pair of Nvidia GeForce 9800S GPUs in SLI. Each MXM playing cards had been slotted into the motherboard beneath large watercooling blocks, nearly like outsized RAM DIMMs, user-accessible with no soldering.
The distinctive case deserves some consideration. Regardless of visually resembling the Blackbird, it’s an entire customized design integrating a laptop computer energy provide for a comparatively tiny inside quantity, although immediately the slot-loading Blu-ray drive appears a bit of dated. Round again you’ll be able to see relics like Firewire and eSATA ports.
Sood had hoped that the Firebird could be the primary in a sequence of designs centered on modularity and person customization, together with a attainable collaboration with LEGO on a full DIY build-a-PC package. Alas, HP went in a distinct course, switching to extra standard desktops and modern laptops for the Voodoo sub-brand. At this time, the Firebird’s reliance on MXM cell graphics playing cards and a customized liquid cooling setup means your improve choices are restricted, even in case you can monitor one down in working order.
However arguably, the Firebird’s very existence impressed a brand new era of small kind issue PCs that refused to compromise on gaming efficiency. For extra deep dives on the historical past of laptop design, subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube.
