This blog is supposed to be about PowerPC Apple hardware, but I figured that I could quickly say this while writing the post about the iMac G5 I'm using to try to help the reputation of the Blackbird, a motherboard I really think doesn't get the credit it deserves even from POWER people.
Blackbird, for those who don't know (maybe you got here from a Google search?), is a Micro ATX motherboard manufactured by Raptor Computing Systems in Texas that uses IBM POWER9 CPUs. It's sort of marketed as being in between a normal desktop computer and a workstation, and you could maybe also use it as a server if you were just wanting to do something small.
It's also the cheapest computer in RCS' range, compared to the Talos II actual server/crazy-powerful workstation computer and the Talos II Lite normal workstation computer. Most comparisons tend to downplay this, saying it's maybe 10% more expensive, but that's only for the motherboard itself. TIIL is about $2000 for the motherboard alone, compared to $1700 for the Blackbird -- and other E-ATX components don't come cheap. I just bought a Rosewill Line-M case for my Blackbird build and it cost me $34, with several other Micro ATX cases in that price range. On the other hand, I had a look on Newegg and the cheapest E-ATX cases I could find were over $100, besides the one case that was on sale for $99. Just combining those two parts -- the other parts are compatible between each other, the price difference comes out to $317.40 -- that's before taxes, which scale to the price of the items. A quick and dirty estimate brings that up to $342.79. That's enough to get you a GPU, RAM, and an SSD if you get them second-hand.
TIIL's main feature that is generally brought up as the tipping factor is its ability to use 18- and 22-core CPUs. It's true that Blackbird can only handle 4- and 8-core processors due to its less powerful component power supply electronics, but 4- and 8-core processors are perfectly usable -- 4-cores without any multithreading at all are usable too, see the Intel i5-6600K. An 18-core processor is $2,069 (nice), which is the price of a whole new Blackbird. $4,353 nets you 22 cores. Comparing a 4- or 8-core Blackbird to a 18- or 22-core Talos II Lite gets the number even more ridiculous; without RAM, a GPU, or anything else that makes it a functional computer, the 4-core to 18-core price difference is $1,972.67 -- the 8-core to 22-core difference is $4,089.80. Enough to build several more computers, or outfit your Blackbird with 64 gigabytes of RAM and a high-end RX card, or pay your student loans.
They're also a lot physically smaller. Thinner, lighter, and shorter by square inches, they are much more portable -- especially in a case like the Cooler Master Q300P, a case I think is really appropriate for the computer as it provides a very Power Macintosh-like form factor. Holding my Line-M up to my Sawtooth, Micro ATX is pretty much the exact same size as the main case without the handles. I also have right next to it an E-ATX case my sister gave me, and it dwarfs it. I could probably put the MATX case inside of the other one. They're bulky and heavy and really inconvenient, and you don't really even get the advantages of a full Talos II computer besides the $2,069 18-core processor and more RAM slots (as if the 256 GB that the Blackbird supplies is insufficient for typical tasks) that for many just isn't a justifiable purchase.
I ran the numbers on a hypothetical full build, by the way, which with a Radeon HD 6990 GPU for optional big-endian capability, is $800 apart. $2,600 for the Blackbird, $3,400 for the Talos II Lite with an 8-core CPU.
I just can't see the normal person justifying that amount of money. For 90% of people, the Blackbird is going to be your best bet. It's on par or better than a Core i7, when most people use a Core i5. Don't get me wrong, TIIL definitely has a spot to fill, and there are definitely people for whom it's worth it. But those people already know why they need it, and aren't looking at "Which RCS mainboard should I go with?" articles.
