HP Blackbird 002 Gets Quad Core

Looks like hardcore have just gotten quad core – as with the case of HP’s Blackbird 002 alpha gaming rig. HP will be throwing in the new 45nm Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 quad-core processor that aims to redefine the gaming experience, although the use of dual ATI Radeon X2900 video cards might not be in the best interest of gamers since NVIDIA has remained ahead of the game for quite some time already. Still, who can argue with 2GB RAM, a 160GB hard drive, a 16× combo drive and a 16× DVD±RW drive, an Ageia PhysX 100 Series PCI-E accelerator card, a factory-sealed liquid-cooled CPU, and a 15-in-1 memory card? Just make sure you can dig deep enough to cough up the $5,499 asking price.