News?

[MPC7500]

As of today, sadly no news.
I think, I would pick a Talos-II lite if I want to buy a POWER9 mainboard.

[pocock]

Please have a good look at my comments comparing Blackbird with Talos II Lite

Basically, for anybody choosing between Blackbird and the Talos II Lite, I feel that Talos II Lite is the better choice.  It only costs a little bit more, maybe 10% extra but it gives you 4 memory channels and supports up to 22 core CPUs.

The new Radeon RX 6800 XT appears to be an optimal choice for multi-seat, multi-monitor or graphics-intensive workloads.  Unfortunately, it is wider than 2 slots.  If you put it in a Blackbird then it overhangs the 8x slot.  On a Talos II Lite, the 16x slot is on the other side so a large GPU doesn't overhang the 8x slot.

The Talos II Lite mainboard is in stock

The web site doesn't give a bundle price but you can email Raptor and ask them if they will offer a bundle.

[surf]

I still have not seen replies to emails or any updates on their web site.  However, they did answer the phone and I was told that they are currently expecting blackbird boards to be fabricated in February.

[surf]

Any updates?  I think I saw Talospace mention an IRC conversation...

[tle]

Please have a good look at my comments comparing Blackbird with Talos II Lite

Basically, for anybody choosing between Blackbird and the Talos II Lite, I feel that Talos II Lite is the better choice.  It only costs a little bit more, maybe 10% extra but it gives you 4 memory channels and supports up to 22 core CPUs.

The new Radeon RX 6800 XT appears to be an optimal choice for multi-seat, multi-monitor or graphics-intensive workloads.  Unfortunately, it is wider than 2 slots.  If you put it in a Blackbird then it overhangs the 8x slot.  On a Talos II Lite, the 16x slot is on the other side so a large GPU doesn't overhang the 8x slot.

The Talos II Lite mainboard is in stock

The web site doesn't give a bundle price but you can email Raptor and ask them if they will offer a bundle.

I believe the company is fully aware of those drawbacks and going to address them in the next revision of Blackbird.

[pocock]

When the new Blackbird is available I'll be happy to update my blog about it

I suspect each user has different priorities:

- for some users the GPU width is the biggest issue

- for other users the CPU core limit is the biggest issue

I suspect fewer people will be worried about the 2 memory channel issue but as part of the overall picture, it swayed me towards the bigger boards.

[MauryG5]

I am of the opinion that what the Power line lacks is an ATX form factor. I hope at this point that having already made the prototype of the Condor, Raptor will restart from that board to make a new motherboard with this form factor and I am sure that he will please everyone without distinction. The ATX format can guarantee multiple memory channels, multiple PCIe ports and everything you need for a single CPU sock, so the best of Talos but more compact and for a single microprocessor.

[surf]

Where are you guys getting your information?

I still have not seen any updates here or on their web page, so I emailed and called Raptor, and left a voice mail...  no response in any form so far.  Is Raptor still in business?

[MauryG5]

Hi, yes of course it is in business, only it has more difficulty managing communication due to the negative period caused by Covid. Have patience they will answer ...

[Corvidae]

Has anyone heard any news about when Blackbirds will be coming back in stock? I tried asking Raptor support and got not response. It's also been almost a year since I originally ordered, so I'm wondering if they will even come back at all at this point. I understand Covid probably doesn't help this situation, but I wish they kept us in the loop, even if the news isn't good

As an aside, I know the T2 Lite exists, but I was going to use this for a workstation with somewhat limited space, so having a micro ATX board is helpful. It's too late for that now anyway, since T2 Lites are backordered too...

[MPC7500]

To be honest, I would change the order to a Talos-II lite. I don't think they will have the Blackbird back in stock quickly.
Price-wise, it hardly makes a difference. But you need a bigger case, of course, unfortunately.

How about the Dune Pro?

If you can't reach anyone via support, I would try Twitter. If you don't have a Twitter account, you can give me your ticket number and I'll write to Raptor.

[Corvidae]

To be honest, I would change the order to a Talos-II lite. I don't think they will have the Blackbird back in stock quickly.
Price-wise, it hardly makes a difference. But you need a bigger case, of course, unfortunately.

I just double-checked the T2 lite specs and in addition to the case size, which is a bit annoying but probably workable with a case like you suggested, there were a couple of other Blackbird-specific features I wanted (mostly to reuse hardware I already have):

• On-board audio output
• SATA Ports

So assuming I also wanted to add a GPU, getting equivalent features would probably require 3 slots, but the T2 lite only has 2, so that is a bit of a problem.

If you can't reach anyone via support, I would try Twitter. If you don't have a Twitter account, you can give me your ticket number and I'll write to Raptor.

I don't have a Twitter account, but if you could have them look at ticket #337978 it would be much appreciated.

[MPC7500]

You're welcome.
https://twitter.com/mpc7500v2/status/1410334278186160136

Yes, Blackbird has audio, SATA and HDMI. But the number of PCIe slots are equal.

[MPC7500]

Here you will find a comparison of the different mainboards:
https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/RCS_Platform_Comparison

[Corvidae]

You're welcome.
https://twitter.com/mpc7500v2/status/1410334278186160136

Yes, Blackbird has audio, SATA and HDMI. But the number of PCIe slots are equal.

Thank you . And when I was referencing the slots, I meant that since the Blackbird has built-in audio and SATA, I wouldn't need cards for that, so I would have 1 spare PCIe slot instead of being 1 short. I probably should have been more clear about that. Not to mention the optional SAS/SATA addon has closed firmware according to the wiki, which while the disks themselves would all have closed firmware anyway, I'm trying to avoid as much as possible.

Here you will find a comparison of the different mainboards:
https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/RCS_Platform_Comparison

That's a handy little comparison chart. That kind of stuff is very helpful, not sure if that exact page is one I saw but the wiki was super helpful for me back when I placed my order. It's a shame though, if the T2 Lite had either of the Blackbird's integrated components, I could make some room and get that instead (if it wasn't backordered, that is).