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 So when you're saying this is a performance system, are you telling me that it will measure up to performance from systems like Blackbird?
It will actually measure up to any high performance desktop PC with a same graphic cards in it. Instead of taking a smaller version of Blackbird and trying to crowbar a bunch of desktop components into it, we decided to create something new from scratch.
Everything inside is custom, we even created a new standard of motherboard that uses a combination of ultra-low voltage components and regular desktop components. Also, when you're looking at it from the outside, you'll see first of all it's very expandable via all the port in the back.
You'll see things like lots of data ports like USB, eSATA and Firewire. You will see that it has both HDMI and DVI video interfaces, able to drive two outputs/two monitors at once.
And the idea was to make sure that there is as much expandability as your average desktop.
That's an interesting departure from the Blackbird, where you didn't use any proprietary technology and it was all about the longevity of the system and encouraging gamers to upgrade or modify it as they needed to. Are you saying that your approach with Blackbird was wrong or is this for a different group of people.
This is for a much wider audience than Blackbird. The bottom-line is that we're of the curve in the performance industry with this product. The days of buying a PC with a 2 kilowatt power supply and a maxed out CPU and sucking the power of the wall are gone.
We created a product that is a combination of incredible innovation and thought leadership. We were able to combine high performance with more efficient power consumption and expandability and fit it all into a smaller package. You can carry it under one arm. And it's silent. I think you'll see that people are surprised by the actual performance it puts out.
Are you saying that gamers are becoming more concerned about the environment?
It's about efficiency. Having a PC that draws kilowatts to the wall and has great CPUs, which mostly sits idle all the time it's silly.
You are basically drawing way too much power to run average applications. And the beauty of this machine is it uses something called Hybrid SLI which allows the power to scale from extremely low to the highest level. It's actually amazing the maximum output is 250W.
I hear what you're saying, but I'm having a really difficult time comprehending how this small form performs on par with a Blackbird.
Let's start by looking inside the machine. You'll notice the very simple, yet sophisticated water cooling system inside the case. And you'll notice the desktop CPU with the Intel quad core processor is cooled by liquid as well as air.
You'll also notice that we put small form factor MXM GPUs inside, instead of desktop GPUs. These deliver just as much performance as their desktop counterparts. In fact the are so efficient, they not only draw less power, but they out perform their desktop counterparts because of the fact that they run cooler, they are running in a much more efficient, closer to the motherboard scenario.
You don't have to worry about cooling video memory, you don't have to worry about thermal overload; you don't have to worry about any of that stuff. People look at this machine and probably think it only has one graphic chip or GPU. It actually has two; I should say it actually has three. There's an integrated graphic chip for the hybrid card and then there are two discrete chips.
Hybrid technology allows us to have an integrated GPU that is active all the time. The minute you go into demanding applications, you'll draw from the discrete GPUs.
So not only do you get the performance of SLI, but you also get the benefits of new visual computing technology. On certain applications, it uses the GPU to accelerate programs like PhotoShop or Adobe, Premier.
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