In today's E For All show, popular printer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard showed off its first extreme gaming PC called the Blackbird 002. This rig comes equipped with some of the best tools in the industry, which should make even the highest-end titles (e.g. Crysis) a piece of cake to run.

The brains of this extreme gaming PC is an Intel Core 2 Duo/Extreme/Extreme Quad-core (whichever you can afford) processor complemented by 4GB of DDR2 RAM and two Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics cards in SLI-mode. It packs a proprietary 1.1 kilowatt power supply, a proprietary 3x PCI-E n680i motherboard, on-board Creative Xi-Fi Extreme 7.1 audio (Fatal1ty or Xtreme Gaming), and like all hobbyist PCs, it will cost you your body, your mind and your soul to own one. The beast is currently housed at HP's E For All booth - number 2023.

If you were impressed with this monster from HP, there's more still to come. VoodooPC was recently acquired by HP, and some of the gaming PC maker's gear will be on display in later times during the inaugural E For All. We'll keep you posted for more PC gaming news.

If you have around US$ 2000 to burn and you plan to use laptops as tools to help you "show-off" (by that we mean a portable media center) instead of nice comfy small things that you can fit on your lap and type on, then the HP HDX "Dragon" 20.1 monitor laptop could be for you.

Yes, the price may be a bit steep, and the laptop may be huge, but HP does say that their targeted group of users are comprised of folks who don't have enough space for a tower desktop, and those who need to use high-end editing/audio-video applications on the go. HP also hints that there may be some gaming applications for this laptop. Here's what CTO for HP's Global Gaming Business, Rahul Sood had to say about the laptop:

The HP 20" HDX was originally conceived by the notebook design team before the gaming business units was even setup! So to be clear, the gaming business did not design this notebook, which is pretty wild considering this notebook is perfect for gaming (I should mention that the HP 20” HDX plays games better than 98% of the gaming notebooks on the planet (with MAX MAX MAX settings) and it seems to be priced to compete). Yes, the media speculated, but the bottom line is notebooks take much longer than 8 months to complete.

Well? Did he convince you? Or would you rather go with the Alienware gaming laptops? If Rahul Sood managed to at least get you curious, a dated yet informative video on the laptop should be below, and a data-sheet is also available at the Full Article.

Business and consumer computer solutions provider Hewlett-Packard, graphics industry contender NVIDIA, Microsoft's PC advocate Games for Windows initiative and even broadband game publisher Trion World Network released a whoosh of hostile air against the next-gen consoles.

They were probably outraged as many other hardcore PC fans were at the 2007 Game Developers Conference's "PC Gaming in an Age of Connected Consoles" panel discussion. Instead, the PC industry leaders formed their own panel, bringing in Microsoft's Games for Windows initiative's boss Rich Wickham and Trion World Network's founder Lars Butler, among other representatives of leading PC industry entities.

Lars was also quick to comment, "I believe the days of the console are numbered. There is one more generation of gaming consoles and that is it."

Backing Butler, NVIDIA's VP Roy Taylor upped the PC's ante by stating, "Our advantage as developers is we know what is coming. And what is coming is far ahead of the console. You will see a huge difference between what you can get on a PC and a console."

In line with this, Hewlett-Packard plans to enter the hardcore gaming market by rolling out a new line of gaming-related hardware, possibly even hobbyist PCs, within the year. It's even claimed that they plan to even provide a curved computer monitor for not only widescreen effect, but for full FPS immersion.

Whether or not the PC industry giants can deliver, we cannot tell, but with PC enthusiasts who know exactly how to make full use of their PC's power and console piracy looming over the horizon, consoles may never be able to say "the PC is dead" ever again.

Many have speculated that the Wii's advent to the gaming realm has sparked a revolution in gaming (pun unintended), as it has pushed developers to think of more innovative features to games (such as substituting a Wiimote for a baseball bat or something).

Sure, it has opened lots of possibilities for gamers, which is quite exciting really. Now, computer hardware company Hewlett-Packard is setting its sights on gaming as well, and it seems that they're upping the ante on gaming innovation further. HP VP Philip McKinney recently showed an intriguing video at a "major telco con in Hong Kong" that features kids playing a scavenger hunt using handhelds and "racing along alleyways and backstreets of the real world collecting clues posted on walls and other places to find the prize."

And it's all thanks to a nifty open-source platform called Mediascape, something that HP programmers have been working on. Whether we'll see this technology in the near future, we're not really sure. But it's exciting to know that devs are exploring new horizons in gaming.

The Hewlett-Packard Company just finished its acquisition of high-end gaming PC makers, VoodooPC. It was first announced just before September ended by former co-owner Rahul Sahud and now Chief Technologist for HP’s newly formed gaming division. The other owner of the company Ravi, his brother, was appointed director for Strategy and Marketing of the said unit.

Aside from the obvious reason that this is to boost HP's gaming prowess, no other details and reasons were divulged. Also, the tagprice of the Canada-based personal computer manufacturer was never disclosed. Regardless, it seems that HP management is very pleased with the move. "HP is delighted to welcome VoodooPC into our new gaming business unit," announces Exec. VP Todd Bradley.

The officer further declares they plan to keep VoodooPC's current business policies which include: brand name, distribution model, marketing, sales, support and development operations.