Photos: A tour of the HP Blackbird 002

Oh. My. Deity. We've just soiled ourselves playing with HP's new gaming desktop at a celebrity-spackled event in Manhattan, NY. Tennis suprema Serena Williams (and some other 'stars' only Americans would recognise) helped unveil the Blackbird 002, a pant-wettingly cool gaming PC that's set to take the high-end computing market by storm.

The Blackbird 002 is an HP-branded PC, that has what HP calls 'Voodoo DNA'. In other words it's inspired by the company's own high-end Voodoo brand, which is a direct competitor to the likes of Alienware.

But forget its rivals, at least for the moment. The Blackbird 002 is sexier and in some cases cleverer than any gaming desktop that has come before. The base unit sits on a hefty aluminium 'foot' and is subtly trapezoidal, tapering slightly from the rear to the front. It's massive, yes, but it's not something you'd want to hide away -- the turquoise lights on the front panel, vertical slot-loading optical drives and pretty panel artwork make it a feast for the eyes.

It's not just a pretty face, either. It's packed with an Intel Core 2 Extreme CPU, up to 4GB of RAM, multiple terabytes of hard disk space and twin-card graphics. The PC even comes overclocked and has a water cooling system to help prevent meltdown. It can be yours for between $2,500 and $7,100 (£1,250-£3,550, although UK prices weren't announced) depending on configuration.

We managed to tear ourselves away from Serena long enough to take a few snaps. Hit the 'Next Photo' link for a guided tour of what could ultimately become the desktop gaming PC of the year. -Rory Reid

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