Customer Reviews

HP Firebird with VoodooDNA 802 Desktop PC

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If your the kind of person who would prefer a hybrid Prius to a Corolla, then this machine may be for you. HP has basically crafted a "hybrid" PC that incorporates new liquid-colling technology and the energy-saving technology of a laptop with the power and versatility of a desktop. Many users will find the payback in electricity savings will makes the purchase price a lot more attractive (more on that later).

The Firebird is as close to "plug and play" as any Windows machine has ever been. It's very simple to set up set-up and is immediately compatible with the vast majority of devices out there. I purchased the 803, which is basically the 802 with a blue-ray burner. Here's what it took to set it up:

I plugged the HDMI output into a 42" LCD HDTV, connected the fiber optic audio cable to a surround receiver, plugged the power supply in, pulled the plastic film tabs out of the back of the keyboard and the mouse and connected it to the network. Then I booted it up and it was ready to go. The Bluetooth mouse and keyboard worked immediately. It took a couple of minutes to "set itself up" and after a few tweaks to the desktop it was ready to go.

In terms of performance, the machine more than adequately powers current games running at 1080 wide-screen mode and it does it efficiently. How efficient? Well the answer is: "Amazingly!"

Next, I plugged the computer into my Kill-a-Watt Meter ($25 from Amazon) and was amazed at how low the power consumption was. At idle the Firbird uses 67-72 watts. To test it at load, I loaded two instances of Stanford's "Folding at Home" (FaH) applications, both the CPU and GPU versions, and ran them simultaneously at "Average" process priority. At load the Firebird uses only 124-133 watts. The power drops by about 7-9 watts when the HDMI feed to the monitor goes into standby. I noted a similar draw rate when playing games. This amounts to about half the electricity cost of a typical desktop with similar performance benchmarks.

So, what's that amount to in electricity costs? Well, the average price of electricity in the US in November of 2008, according to the US Dept. of Energy was 11.5 cents per KW-Hr. If you're a hardcore geek like me, you leave your computer on all the time and it's probably doing something while it's sitting there.

At idle, the Firbird will cost the average consumer $70.33 in electricity over a year. If you run distributed apps, like I do, Firbird will raise your bill only by $130. A comparable desktop will consume more than twice that amount.

So, over two years, the Firbird can provide a payback of over $260 in energy costs. The liquid cooled system keeps the processors running at consistent temperatures and does it quietly.

The machine is also spouse-friendly. It is quiet and attractive enough to put in the living room right where everyone can see it and doesn't require all sorts of cables. The Firebird's internal LEDs can even be color-coordinated to match the decor. I can finally can sit in my lay-z-boy chair and check my e-mail and WoW auctions while the significant other knits or reads and doesn't mind. How much is that worth? Answer: Priceless.

Alas, the machine is not perfect. I'd sure like a front USB slot. It's hard to cram some of these new keychain card readers into the back of this computer when the outputs are all so close. The machine does have a front card reader slot, which is handy for reading cards from cameras and phones.

This computer is dead silent, with a self-contained maintenance-free liquid cooling system. It sips power compared to a similar standard machine. It has a slot-fed optical drive, six USB ports, two Nvidia 9800S graphics processors (in SLI), and two 250-GB hard disks (500GB total storage). It's stylish and cool, and it has a sweet price considering what you get.

The wireless slim-profile keyboard and wireless mouse are the best I've ever tried... they "just work."

The system has somewhat limited expansion capabilities as a result of its semi-proprietary hardware. The motherboard, for example, was designed exclusively for this machine, and the two graphics chips cannot be upgraded. The system uses standard DDR2 desktop memory, however, and standard 2.5-inch notebook hard disk drives. (The drives are hot-swappable, too, although that's not a terribly useful capability for this setup.)

This computer has no built-in wireless networking, so I use a ZONET ZEW2500P USB wireless adapter. (While I appreciate having the ExpressCard/54 slot on the back of the machine, wireless networking cards for the ExpressCard/54 slot basically suck and are way too expensive anyway.)

This system is perfect if you want a reliable, silent system for all-around use, including gaming, and you're not inclined to tinker. (I *do* like to tinker, however, even with this machine, and I just replaced the second hard disk drive with a 500GB model.) With the exception of this system, I've built my own systems since 1988. I just got tired of computers powerful enough to run my games sounding like jet engines.

For what it was designed for--people who want a capable gaming system without the hassle of a heavy, obnoxiously loud, hot, and power-sucking machine housed in a hulking garish case--this system earns five stars from me.

This is one Great PC with excellent performance, running Windows Vista Home Premium 64 Bit with SP-3. I have it connected to a Hanns-G 28" HD LCD Monitor, with an HDMI cable, which compliments the HP Firebirds performance and graphics capabilities. This system is a great video game machine as well as general desktop program use. If you enjoy PC video games or want a PC with exceptional graphics and speed as well as one that will do the everyday desktop functions, this HP Firebird cannot be beat for the price. I have been using this system since May 2009 and havn't had any problems.
The only negative thing, there isn't an eject button for the DVD player. I solved the problem by putting an Icon for the DVD player on the desktop. When I want to eject a disc I just "right click" on the Icon and choose "Eject", and that is all that is needed. It seems like a sloppy oversight by HP to have omitted the Eject button, but my fix has worked fine and it hasn't been a problem for me. I highly recommend this PC.

After running my FB802 for just a few days, I started getting lockups and BSOD... I was also not quite happy with disk and IO performance for the price. I ended up returning the system.

Well after a week, the problem is definatly hardware. Started getting BIOME-1 (bios mem error) when running the BIOS diagnostics. So I called support and asked to return the system. It may have just been a lemmon but I did not request a replacement. The reason I did not get a replacement and asked for a return are these:

1 - I have had experices with other PCs (Apple Mini and an ABS) where the original issue was the MB. Then after a factory referb or replacement (you never really know) both failed a second time after only a few more months. So my experience is, unreliable = unreliable in terms of these type of errors. Its just to much hassle to get a replacement and hope for the best with memory/MB issues IMO.

2 - The error was intermittent. It would lock up after 10 minutes sometimes but 2 hours the next. And it was not a software issue. Once it started failing, you could use the BIOS diagnostics and see the failure.

3 - It was not just just a bad memory stick. I removed one, still found the error, removed the other, still found the error.

4 - Overall, I was not happy with the IO performace of the system. With 5400rpm drives it seemed slower than my 4 year old AMD system.

I will say that support was very good and it only took about 1/2 hour to get the return shipping set up and the RMA. HP support gets high marks from me. There tech support seemed good as well but I had told them that even if the tests passed I still planned on returning it because it was an internittent problem with hardware.

There are a number of things I really like about the FB802:

+ It was very quite and when in power-save mode it was silent which is great.

+ The cooling system seemed to do a great job.

+ The form factor is nice and small and looks great.

+ The leds were a nice touch (once you could admust them with the update)

A few odd things that I did no like:

- The LED on the keyboard/mouse USB transiever was WAY too bright. There is no way you need that. If I were to use it, I would have had to put tape on it to cover it up. There should be a way to turn it off (or at least down).

- The hot-swap drive mechanism was very nice but the drives are on a custom sled so if you buy another drive, you can't just drop it in because you need this special slead. So either the sled should be easy to remove/attach or it should come with an extra one.

- I did find the driver dowload page but for some reason it took me a while. Much like other sites, there are too many ways to get around and it hard to find what you are looking for.

Faster your seat belt for this gaming machine...because they baby is wicked fast.
The external power supply also means it is quiet! Styling of the case will get attention from your family and friends as you can tweak the LED lighting in the case. I have it glowing a soft magenta at the moment. Cool.

The system comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse and has no provision for a wired keyboard/mouse unless they are USB devices. So if your keyboard battery dies and you try to use your old keyboard from years ago, you are out of luck. The wireless keyboard is very flat and takes a bit of getting used to, as the key travel is short. Battery life on the keyboard is about 4 or 5 months (I used my PC daily, mainly to play games, but also web surf, so the keyboard gets a good workout.) Mouse battery life can be extended by switching the mouse off when not in use. Otherwise, you will get about a month of use before the non-rechargeable battery dies.

The machine is equipped with plenty of RAM and has about a Tera-byte of disk space. The multi-card slot accommodates a wide variety of memory cards too. One drawback is the absence of USB ports on the front panel. Having to reach behind to connect camera cables, etc. is inconvenient, so I added a USB hub on an extender.

The video card is a beast and runs all of my games (most demanding is Battlefield 2) without pauses or glitching. So no complaints about video.

If you get this machine with Windows 7 then you should be happy. I got mine with Vista and have experienced several software problems, blue screens of death, etc. Looking to upgrade even if it costs me $120. Vista has been a real disappointment and tarnishes the image of the PC. I have had only one problem with the PC and solved it myself. At random, the PC would switch off, not a shutdown, a complete switch off as if someone plugged the plug. It turned out to be an intermittent connection between the external power supply and the rear panel. I fixed that myself without tools. No problems since.

To round out your experience, I suggest getting Open Office. It's pretty good and the price is right.

This machine does exactly what I wanted it for, play WoW with out the super lag I had on my other system. If you wanna play games like Crysis at top FPS this aint the machine, but if you want steady FPS 60-200fps in WoW, this machine will do it. Even with 300latency im getting a steady 60-70fps in high population areas like Dal, Naxx etc. Its a great machine if your not a Gaming Machine fanatic, plus it looks good, its silent, and the power features are great.

This was purchased to be the primary machine for my wife.

When it first arrived, we both loved it.

She loved it because it was very quiet, and much faster than the machine I had previously built for her. I loved it because when she had a 'problem' I could said "did you look it up at HP, or contact them?" I thought I finally got out from under being her primary tech support.

WRONG!

Turns out HP manufactured a bunch of defective power supplies for this unit. (HP support boards are filled with customers complaining... here's an HP admin 'acknowledging' they found a problem: [...]

In fact, HP has a page up in their FAQ describing the power supply failure issue: [...]

Turns out, HP only has a 90 day warranty on a purchased power supply, so if they sold you a defective product, and it is outside of 90 days, you are not part of their 'replacement program'.


Interestingly enough, those support postings indicating they found a problem with the power supplies was only two weeks after I got mine. They never notified me.

Now I have a very expensive boat anchor on my wife's desk with a defective part from HP which they have acknowledge, but are not willing to replace. I also have a very unhappy wife. STAY AWAY FROM HP.

I do feel a little bad giving the computer itself a bad review, as it was really nice when it worked.

I have had my 802 for six months. Now the problems are showing up. I had a power supply failure. Now I have a CD/DVD failure. I can't insert disks. A replacement part arrived after I got the correct part. The first part I received had nothing to do with the Firebird. After much time on the phone and on line I was told that the machine had to go back to HP. After two weeks I am still waiting for the shipping box to arrive. I have owned three other HP computers. After this I will never own another one. I am glad I had my old lap top. Anyone considering buying an HP think hard and walk away. The quality isn't there. NEVER EVER AGAIN WILL I BUYT HP!