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Voodoo/HP Blackbird
- Thread starter theDreamer
- Start date
I posted this at the Voodoo forums, but thought I'd share here too if anyone was interested.
Hey all, I got my Blackbird 002 Dedication Edition rig this past Friday. I thought it would be fun (and hopefully helpful) to have an impressions/review thread about it. Be warned, this is very long, so if you don't feel like reading it all, scroll to the bottom for a brief summary. Here goes...
Background
About a month ago, I start noticing a lot of games would soon be coming out that I'd like to play. I'd sort of stopped gaming on the PC altogether for a while because there just wasn't anything that interested me. I got rid of my desktop and bought a portable laptop just for basic work needs. But with Crysis, COD4, BioShock, UT3, and others right around the corner that I wanted to play, I decided it was time to look at a desktop again.
I knew I wanted a fairly high-end rig, so I started checking out the usual places to compare some prices. I also considered building myself, but I'm not too experienced with that, so I decided to go for something pre-built. One place I seriously considered was CyberPowerPC. Their reputation was in the tank a few years ago on Reseller Ratings, so I never considered buying from there despite their incredible prices. Now, it seems they've turned the corner, as their ratings have gone up quite a bit. I'd almost decided to order from there when my issue of PC Gamer comes in the mail, and I see that glowing review of the Blackbird.
I'd never heard of the Blackbird, so I started doing some research. I saw glowing reviews on CNet and a few other places, watched a few videos, etc. What really convinced me though was the article at Anandtech that broke down the cost of the components compared to buying everything separately. They actually concluded that the price was very fair for what you got. That's when I decided to go with the Blackbird.
Ordering / The Wait
I ordered the Blackbird Dedication Edition on Friday, November 9th. After placing the order online, I called to make sure everything went through okay. I was told everything was fine, and that my order would take at least two weeks (maybe longer) to ship. I was a bit disappointed with the wait time I was quoted since the site at the time said something like "Limited Quantities Still Available." I assumed this meant that they had them pre-built. I later saw a thread here that said they had a certain number pre-built, but all those were gone, so they were building them as they were ordered now.
That weekend, I was starting to have some buyer's remorse set in. This happens to me quite a bit with large purchases. On Sunday afternoon, I sent off an email to BB sales to cancel my order. Surprisingly, I got an email back from Chris within about 20 minutes saying that my order had been canceled, and asked why I decided to cancel. I replied saying that the long lead time combined with buyer's remorse were the reasons. He replied a few minutes later saying that they were wrapping up production on the DE units and hoped to have them all shipped by the following Friday. He also said that they were so sure that all buyer's remorse would fade away when the system comes that they're offering a 30-day money-back guarantee with no restocking fees. In the end, I was convinced to keep my order open.
Fast forward to the following Friday -- the day I was told most DE orders should ship. I send out an email to sales to check my status, and Chris replies saying my system is "on the bench" and should receive a tracking number later that day. This was obviously pretty exciting, but the day passed, and I hadn't received anything.
When Monday afternoon came around and I still hadn't heard anything, I sent off another email. No reply. Then, on Tuesday, I sent another email. No reply again, so I called. The lady on the phone was nice enough, but couldn't really tell me anything about my order. She said (in a blanket statement) that the orders should ship in the next two weeks. When I told her that I was told mine was on the bench on the previous Friday, she didn't really know what to say. I hung up a little frustrated.
Later that afternoon, I emailed iMax from these forums asking about an order status. He replied right away saying my system was being tested and should ship Wednesday. He said I should have it by Friday. About 15 minutes after receiving that email, I got an email from someone on the sales team apologizing for the lack of response to my emails, and that Chris had been out of the office. No problem, I had my update, and I anxiously waited for my tracking number. But alas, no tracking number came on Wednesday. I enjoyed Thanksgiving with my family at my parents' house, and came home in the evening. At about 8:00 PM, I get an email containing a tracking number. What kind of hours do these people work? First a sales email on a Sunday, and now a tracking number at 8:00 PM on Thanksgiving. I realize it wasn't Thanksgiving in Canada, but it was still pretty late. I excitedly copy and paste the tracking number into UPS' site and it comes back saying there was no record of the shipment. Not really surprising if it had just shipped, so I'm not too worried. On second thought though, that tracking number looks a little short. I search on Google, and sure enough, UPS tracking numbers should be 18 characters, not the 15 I got. I decide to email sales again on Thursday night, and the next morning, Chris sends me the correct tracking number. I punch it in and am pleasantly surprised to see that it's "Out for Delivery." It was sent Wednesday from Canada and was going to be delivered Friday in the US. The box weight was 80 lbs. according to UPS. I paid $65 for shipping, but was curious how much this would really cost. I went to UPS.com and got a price quote of between $300-$400 for a 2nd day delivery of an 80 lb. international package. I'm sure Voodoo gets a fairly hefty bulk shipping discount, but I certainly didn't feel cheated about the shipping cost.
Anyway, about two hours later, I checked the tracking and noticed it was delivered (I had it sent to my box at a UPS Store near my house). So I head over there to pick it up. They tell me it's in the back and to pull my car around. I drive around and open the back door, and there it is. First impressions? This box is freakin' enormous! I'd guess it was around 48" x 36" x 30". I try to lift it myself, but it's a no go, it's just too bulky. A guy at the store helps me carry it out to the car, but it doesn't fit in the backseat. We end up lugging it back in and I have to un-box it. Inside the box are two smaller boxes. The box that holds the computer itself, and the accessories. I'm finally able to wrestle the larger of the two into my backseat (barely). The thing weighs a metric ton! I get home and just slide it down the stairs into the basement. I've carried a lot of computers in my day, and I don't think I've ever held one that's even half as heavy as this thing is!
First Impressions
I finally start un-boxing the beast, and I now see why they needed such a huge box. This machine is an absolute behemoth. I manage to raise it high enough to put it on top of my desk (I need to hit the weights, I know), and it towers over my 24" LCD, and sticks off the front edge of my desk. As much as it pains me, I realize I'm going to have to leave it on the floor.
I pop the hinge and open the door to have a look inside. Looks just like all the pictures I've seen -- as tidy as can be. The liquid cooling block with the Voodoo logo just exudes quality. The next order of business is to install my additional 2GB of RAM that I bought from Newegg for $99 after rebate. Installation is relatively painless, though some wiring and one of the video cards is really close to the memory slots so the clip at the bottom is hard to open all the way. I managed to get it in without too much effort though.
I close the door and lower it down to its permanent home on the floor next to my desk. It just looks out of place. Since the chassis is tapered, it's not flush, and looks like it's sitting at an angle. It's also so deep that it sticks past the edge of the desk. Ah well, it'll do for now. Next, I open the smaller box and find a bunch of documentation, a few cables and adapters, the Asus Striker manual along with Ghost Recon game and a few other CDs. Next up is the huge custom mouse pad (very nice), and the gorgeous Voodoo custom keyboard and mouse. There's also a nice box with documentation (which I haven't looked too closely at yet). I get everything hooked up and hold my breath as I hit the power button. A gentle whir of fans, a distinct post beep, and the Windows screen appears. Excellent! The first thing I notice is that it's much quieter than I anticipated, a very pleasant surprise.
After installing a few basic apps, I decide to run 3DMark06. It finishes up and reports a score of 15,136 -- about 1500 points less than others with the same system are reporting. I find this a little disconcerting, but I figured maybe it was affected by Steam, which was downloading Half-Life 2: Episode 2 in the background. I figured it was just downloading, but maybe it was installing at the same time? Anyway, I continue installing my apps: Office 2007, Adobe Creative Suite, a few games, etc. Everything goes off without a hitch.
While setting up the screen saver, I notice that the power options are set to "Balanced" instead of "High Performance." I switch it to "High Performance" and decide to run 3DMark06 again. The score comes back 16,586 this time. That's more like it. Why anyone would want a desktop set at a "Balanced" power configuration is beyond me.
At this point, I wanted to try a game out, so I downloaded Fraps and launched Half-Life 2: Episode 2, which I'd been playing at fairly high settings on my laptop. I copied over my save games, set the resolution to 1920x1200, and cranked up all the visuals to the highest levels. The game loaded noticeable faster and I was playing in no time. Wow, what a difference! Everything was silky smooth, with Fraps reporting the framerate at around 180 FPS. It just looked absolutely phenomenal! I play for about 10 minutes just taking everything in, then BAM, BSOD, and the system reboots. Uh oh...
I decide to download Everest so I can monitor the temps. After reboot, the CPU is at around 45C, with each video card at around 62C. I do a search on Google, and these temperatures seem about the same or lower than what others are reporting. I launch HL2:E2 again and this time, I play for about an hour. Then, a Windows message pops up that hl2.exe has stopped working and kicks me back to the desktop. I immediately check Everest, and the temps are all about the same! The CPU and GPUs don't seem to get any hotter under load, unless the information in Everest isn't right. This seems good, but the game still crashed. I launch again, and the game craps out in the same spot again. I do a little more research, and it turns out there are certain spots in the game that are crashing everyones' machines. The update they released yesterday fixes these problems, and I haven't had any issues since. The gameplay is fantastic.
On to Crysis... I've heard that Crytek was working on a patch that was supposed to be released within two weeks or so of the game's release that would dramatically improve SLI performance. Apparently, it isn't very well optimized for SLI, and I was going to wait until it was released to try it out. Well, my impatience got the better of me, so I downloaded the latest nVidia beta drivers (169.12), and fired it up. For fun, I set it to 1920x1200 and cranked everything up as high as it would go. It sure was a pretty slideshow! I settled for 4x AA, all settings very high, and 1680x1050 resolution. This only yields me about 15 FPS, but it is playable. I'm not really playing yet, I'm just running around and taking everything in. Wow, this game looks incredible.
All in all, I'm very happy with the machine so far. I wouldn't say that it would win any awards for beauty, but the excellent accessibility and design are much more important in my opinion. Aside from the one BSOD and a few hiccups with HL2:E2 (not hardware-related), the machine has run flawlessly and absolutely smoothly. On top of that, it's one of the quietest machines I've ever used!
Well, this is going to do it for initial impressions. I'm sorry this is so long! If you're just looking for a brief summary, here it is:
- I ordered on 11/9, and it arrived 11/23.
- Emails to sales while waiting were usually responded to quickly. Kudos to Chris and iMax for answering my flood of emails.
- The system arrived in two days from Canada to the US (even over Thanksgiving).
- The system is incredibly huge and heavy, but it's built like a tank. I wouldn't say it's gorgeous to look at, but this is all personal preference.
- The inside is very clean, and everything is really accessible.
- It's quiet. Much quieter than I expected as a matter of fact. Even the slot-loading DVD-RW drives seem silent. I've had slot-loading drives in the past and they're usually really loud.
- I've had one BSOD after pretty heavy use in five days. No other crashes or lock-ups related to hardware.
- Temperatures hover around 45C for CPU, and 62C for the GPUs. They don't seem to vary at all between idle and load.
- After setting power options to "High Performance" in the control panel, my 3DMark06 score was 16,586.
- I average about 180FPS with everything cranked in Half-Life 2: Episode 2, about 15FPS at 1680x1050, 4x AA, and everything at Very High in Crysis with the 169.12 nVidia beta Drivers.
That's it! I'll update this thread as I continue to play with it. Feel free to ask any questions.
Hey all, I got my Blackbird 002 Dedication Edition rig this past Friday. I thought it would be fun (and hopefully helpful) to have an impressions/review thread about it. Be warned, this is very long, so if you don't feel like reading it all, scroll to the bottom for a brief summary. Here goes...
Background
About a month ago, I start noticing a lot of games would soon be coming out that I'd like to play. I'd sort of stopped gaming on the PC altogether for a while because there just wasn't anything that interested me. I got rid of my desktop and bought a portable laptop just for basic work needs. But with Crysis, COD4, BioShock, UT3, and others right around the corner that I wanted to play, I decided it was time to look at a desktop again.
I knew I wanted a fairly high-end rig, so I started checking out the usual places to compare some prices. I also considered building myself, but I'm not too experienced with that, so I decided to go for something pre-built. One place I seriously considered was CyberPowerPC. Their reputation was in the tank a few years ago on Reseller Ratings, so I never considered buying from there despite their incredible prices. Now, it seems they've turned the corner, as their ratings have gone up quite a bit. I'd almost decided to order from there when my issue of PC Gamer comes in the mail, and I see that glowing review of the Blackbird.
I'd never heard of the Blackbird, so I started doing some research. I saw glowing reviews on CNet and a few other places, watched a few videos, etc. What really convinced me though was the article at Anandtech that broke down the cost of the components compared to buying everything separately. They actually concluded that the price was very fair for what you got. That's when I decided to go with the Blackbird.
Ordering / The Wait
I ordered the Blackbird Dedication Edition on Friday, November 9th. After placing the order online, I called to make sure everything went through okay. I was told everything was fine, and that my order would take at least two weeks (maybe longer) to ship. I was a bit disappointed with the wait time I was quoted since the site at the time said something like "Limited Quantities Still Available." I assumed this meant that they had them pre-built. I later saw a thread here that said they had a certain number pre-built, but all those were gone, so they were building them as they were ordered now.
That weekend, I was starting to have some buyer's remorse set in. This happens to me quite a bit with large purchases. On Sunday afternoon, I sent off an email to BB sales to cancel my order. Surprisingly, I got an email back from Chris within about 20 minutes saying that my order had been canceled, and asked why I decided to cancel. I replied saying that the long lead time combined with buyer's remorse were the reasons. He replied a few minutes later saying that they were wrapping up production on the DE units and hoped to have them all shipped by the following Friday. He also said that they were so sure that all buyer's remorse would fade away when the system comes that they're offering a 30-day money-back guarantee with no restocking fees. In the end, I was convinced to keep my order open.
Fast forward to the following Friday -- the day I was told most DE orders should ship. I send out an email to sales to check my status, and Chris replies saying my system is "on the bench" and should receive a tracking number later that day. This was obviously pretty exciting, but the day passed, and I hadn't received anything.
When Monday afternoon came around and I still hadn't heard anything, I sent off another email. No reply. Then, on Tuesday, I sent another email. No reply again, so I called. The lady on the phone was nice enough, but couldn't really tell me anything about my order. She said (in a blanket statement) that the orders should ship in the next two weeks. When I told her that I was told mine was on the bench on the previous Friday, she didn't really know what to say. I hung up a little frustrated.
Later that afternoon, I emailed iMax from these forums asking about an order status. He replied right away saying my system was being tested and should ship Wednesday. He said I should have it by Friday. About 15 minutes after receiving that email, I got an email from someone on the sales team apologizing for the lack of response to my emails, and that Chris had been out of the office. No problem, I had my update, and I anxiously waited for my tracking number. But alas, no tracking number came on Wednesday. I enjoyed Thanksgiving with my family at my parents' house, and came home in the evening. At about 8:00 PM, I get an email containing a tracking number. What kind of hours do these people work? First a sales email on a Sunday, and now a tracking number at 8:00 PM on Thanksgiving. I realize it wasn't Thanksgiving in Canada, but it was still pretty late. I excitedly copy and paste the tracking number into UPS' site and it comes back saying there was no record of the shipment. Not really surprising if it had just shipped, so I'm not too worried. On second thought though, that tracking number looks a little short. I search on Google, and sure enough, UPS tracking numbers should be 18 characters, not the 15 I got. I decide to email sales again on Thursday night, and the next morning, Chris sends me the correct tracking number. I punch it in and am pleasantly surprised to see that it's "Out for Delivery." It was sent Wednesday from Canada and was going to be delivered Friday in the US. The box weight was 80 lbs. according to UPS. I paid $65 for shipping, but was curious how much this would really cost. I went to UPS.com and got a price quote of between $300-$400 for a 2nd day delivery of an 80 lb. international package. I'm sure Voodoo gets a fairly hefty bulk shipping discount, but I certainly didn't feel cheated about the shipping cost.
Anyway, about two hours later, I checked the tracking and noticed it was delivered (I had it sent to my box at a UPS Store near my house). So I head over there to pick it up. They tell me it's in the back and to pull my car around. I drive around and open the back door, and there it is. First impressions? This box is freakin' enormous! I'd guess it was around 48" x 36" x 30". I try to lift it myself, but it's a no go, it's just too bulky. A guy at the store helps me carry it out to the car, but it doesn't fit in the backseat. We end up lugging it back in and I have to un-box it. Inside the box are two smaller boxes. The box that holds the computer itself, and the accessories. I'm finally able to wrestle the larger of the two into my backseat (barely). The thing weighs a metric ton! I get home and just slide it down the stairs into the basement. I've carried a lot of computers in my day, and I don't think I've ever held one that's even half as heavy as this thing is!
First Impressions
I finally start un-boxing the beast, and I now see why they needed such a huge box. This machine is an absolute behemoth. I manage to raise it high enough to put it on top of my desk (I need to hit the weights, I know), and it towers over my 24" LCD, and sticks off the front edge of my desk. As much as it pains me, I realize I'm going to have to leave it on the floor.
I pop the hinge and open the door to have a look inside. Looks just like all the pictures I've seen -- as tidy as can be. The liquid cooling block with the Voodoo logo just exudes quality. The next order of business is to install my additional 2GB of RAM that I bought from Newegg for $99 after rebate. Installation is relatively painless, though some wiring and one of the video cards is really close to the memory slots so the clip at the bottom is hard to open all the way. I managed to get it in without too much effort though.
I close the door and lower it down to its permanent home on the floor next to my desk. It just looks out of place. Since the chassis is tapered, it's not flush, and looks like it's sitting at an angle. It's also so deep that it sticks past the edge of the desk. Ah well, it'll do for now. Next, I open the smaller box and find a bunch of documentation, a few cables and adapters, the Asus Striker manual along with Ghost Recon game and a few other CDs. Next up is the huge custom mouse pad (very nice), and the gorgeous Voodoo custom keyboard and mouse. There's also a nice box with documentation (which I haven't looked too closely at yet). I get everything hooked up and hold my breath as I hit the power button. A gentle whir of fans, a distinct post beep, and the Windows screen appears. Excellent! The first thing I notice is that it's much quieter than I anticipated, a very pleasant surprise.
After installing a few basic apps, I decide to run 3DMark06. It finishes up and reports a score of 15,136 -- about 1500 points less than others with the same system are reporting. I find this a little disconcerting, but I figured maybe it was affected by Steam, which was downloading Half-Life 2: Episode 2 in the background. I figured it was just downloading, but maybe it was installing at the same time? Anyway, I continue installing my apps: Office 2007, Adobe Creative Suite, a few games, etc. Everything goes off without a hitch.
While setting up the screen saver, I notice that the power options are set to "Balanced" instead of "High Performance." I switch it to "High Performance" and decide to run 3DMark06 again. The score comes back 16,586 this time. That's more like it. Why anyone would want a desktop set at a "Balanced" power configuration is beyond me.
At this point, I wanted to try a game out, so I downloaded Fraps and launched Half-Life 2: Episode 2, which I'd been playing at fairly high settings on my laptop. I copied over my save games, set the resolution to 1920x1200, and cranked up all the visuals to the highest levels. The game loaded noticeable faster and I was playing in no time. Wow, what a difference! Everything was silky smooth, with Fraps reporting the framerate at around 180 FPS. It just looked absolutely phenomenal! I play for about 10 minutes just taking everything in, then BAM, BSOD, and the system reboots. Uh oh...
I decide to download Everest so I can monitor the temps. After reboot, the CPU is at around 45C, with each video card at around 62C. I do a search on Google, and these temperatures seem about the same or lower than what others are reporting. I launch HL2:E2 again and this time, I play for about an hour. Then, a Windows message pops up that hl2.exe has stopped working and kicks me back to the desktop. I immediately check Everest, and the temps are all about the same! The CPU and GPUs don't seem to get any hotter under load, unless the information in Everest isn't right. This seems good, but the game still crashed. I launch again, and the game craps out in the same spot again. I do a little more research, and it turns out there are certain spots in the game that are crashing everyones' machines. The update they released yesterday fixes these problems, and I haven't had any issues since. The gameplay is fantastic.
On to Crysis... I've heard that Crytek was working on a patch that was supposed to be released within two weeks or so of the game's release that would dramatically improve SLI performance. Apparently, it isn't very well optimized for SLI, and I was going to wait until it was released to try it out. Well, my impatience got the better of me, so I downloaded the latest nVidia beta drivers (169.12), and fired it up. For fun, I set it to 1920x1200 and cranked everything up as high as it would go. It sure was a pretty slideshow! I settled for 4x AA, all settings very high, and 1680x1050 resolution. This only yields me about 15 FPS, but it is playable. I'm not really playing yet, I'm just running around and taking everything in. Wow, this game looks incredible.
All in all, I'm very happy with the machine so far. I wouldn't say that it would win any awards for beauty, but the excellent accessibility and design are much more important in my opinion. Aside from the one BSOD and a few hiccups with HL2:E2 (not hardware-related), the machine has run flawlessly and absolutely smoothly. On top of that, it's one of the quietest machines I've ever used!
Well, this is going to do it for initial impressions. I'm sorry this is so long! If you're just looking for a brief summary, here it is:
- I ordered on 11/9, and it arrived 11/23.
- Emails to sales while waiting were usually responded to quickly. Kudos to Chris and iMax for answering my flood of emails.
- The system arrived in two days from Canada to the US (even over Thanksgiving).
- The system is incredibly huge and heavy, but it's built like a tank. I wouldn't say it's gorgeous to look at, but this is all personal preference.
- The inside is very clean, and everything is really accessible.
- It's quiet. Much quieter than I expected as a matter of fact. Even the slot-loading DVD-RW drives seem silent. I've had slot-loading drives in the past and they're usually really loud.
- I've had one BSOD after pretty heavy use in five days. No other crashes or lock-ups related to hardware.
- Temperatures hover around 45C for CPU, and 62C for the GPUs. They don't seem to vary at all between idle and load.
- After setting power options to "High Performance" in the control panel, my 3DMark06 score was 16,586.
- I average about 180FPS with everything cranked in Half-Life 2: Episode 2, about 15FPS at 1680x1050, 4x AA, and everything at Very High in Crysis with the 169.12 nVidia beta Drivers.
That's it! I'll update this thread as I continue to play with it. Feel free to ask any questions.
I have a question about the billing to anyone who ordered DE BBird in US.
How do they charge? Canadian or US dollars?
They charged me with Canadian and it was converted more than $5560 US on my credit card statement. ($140.00+)
I feel little upset…..kinda~
I did not expect currency exchange thing and they never informed me when I ordered.
I emailed to HP about this.
I will update when I have answer form them.
How do they charge? Canadian or US dollars?
They charged me with Canadian and it was converted more than $5560 US on my credit card statement. ($140.00+)
I feel little upset…..kinda~
I did not expect currency exchange thing and they never informed me when I ordered.
I emailed to HP about this.
I will update when I have answer form them.
theDreamer
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2006
- Messages
- 2,513
I have a question about the billing to anyone who ordered DE BBird in US.
How do they charge? Canadian or US dollars?
They charged me with Canadian and it was converted more than $5560 US on my credit card statement. ($140.00+)
I feel little upset ..kinda~
I did not expect currency exchange thing and they never informed me when I ordered.
I emailed to HP about this.
I will update when I have answer form them.
When I bought my Voodoo laptop I was also billed in Canadian (I live in the US). It is not Voodoo or HP who converts it, but your credit card company and they use whatever rate they want or what they felt the exchange rate is. I paid about 50 dollars more than what I thought I was going to pay because the exchange rate the credit card company used was from two days before, can I fight them on this maybe but it is not worth my time.
I got an email from HP regarding billing.
They said I should talked to my credit card company, but what can I do? and agree that it is waste of time with credit card company.
It is just unexpected (I thought they shipped out in US because of HP mark on the machine until I made the order).
Anyway, I am really satified with Bbird.
They said I should talked to my credit card company, but what can I do? and agree that it is waste of time with credit card company.
It is just unexpected (I thought they shipped out in US because of HP mark on the machine until I made the order).
Anyway, I am really satified with Bbird.
theDreamer
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2006
- Messages
- 2,513
I got an email from HP regarding billing.
They said I should talked to my credit card company, but what can I do? and agree that it is waste of time with credit card company.
It is just unexpected (I thought they shipped out in US because of HP mark on the machine until I made the order).
Anyway, I am really satified with Bbird.
Correct, the Blackbird is built and shipped from VoodooPC, which is in Canada.
The only thing you could really do (or have done) is ask what exchange rate they used and then verify what exchange they used was the most current. If not, and disputing will save you money, you could attempt to get money back, but this will take much time and effort for how much though?
hi all blackbird owners,
can someone please make a backup of the hp blackbird bios (asus striker extreme, backup with bootable dos disk and awdflash.exe) and make it available online so everyone who has a striker extreme board is able to check the crossfire config on sli-system, please?
can someone please make a backup of the hp blackbird bios (asus striker extreme, backup with bootable dos disk and awdflash.exe) and make it available online so everyone who has a striker extreme board is able to check the crossfire config on sli-system, please?
theDreamer
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2006
- Messages
- 2,513
Really? Overall for a boutique system I rate them very fair. Though it all depends on how you also rank certain "other" features, such as the case (how much is it really worth), the water cooling system (which is custom made), etc.
Exactly. With 5300 USD, you can build two whopping systems that'll keep you gaming till 2010.
Yeah, they're cool, loading and unloading is much easier.
I did a quick search on the egg and came up with this
I'm really interested in those drives as well... Unless I misread something, aren't they Lightscribe capable? If so, then it's not the Pioneer's you linked on Newegg, as I already have a pair of them. Would you mind investigating a little further?
If anyone is interested in a new black bird please look here !
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1031762335#post1031762335
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1031762335#post1031762335
theDreamer
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2006
- Messages
- 2,513
The reason I think they say it will not work probably has to do with the drivers that are used for both dual SLi/Crossfire setup. They use OEM parts just like most any other company so you should be able to; for more information I would contact them about this exact question on what to do.
jdbrown_82
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- May 24, 2007
- Messages
- 322
hey there dreamer. just thought i would let you know i go here too. just dont post alot here.